Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to take a daily virtual vacation. This
Speaker 1: is a great way to see the world during times
Speaker 1: of social distancing, but it's also a nice habit to
Speaker 1: keep once life goes back to normal. Throughout the day,
Speaker 1: we all have small bits of time that are hard
Speaker 1: to use. Well, you're waiting for a phone call to start,
Speaker 1: you finish one assignment, and you have stuff to do,
Speaker 1: but you need some mental transition time. You're waiting for
Speaker 1: the pasta to boil as you're cooking dinner. I know
Speaker 1: what we all do with what author Bridget Shalty calls
Speaker 1: time confetti. We pick up our phones and start scrolling
Speaker 1: through social media or these days reading panic inducing headlines.
Speaker 1: It's understandable, but as our worlds have been shrunk down,
Speaker 1: in many cases to the size of our homes or apartments,
Speaker 1: we can use some of this time confetti for dreaming
Speaker 1: bigger dreams. A great way to do that take a
Speaker 1: daily virtual vacation. Start keeping a list of places you'd
Speaker 1: like to visit. Maybe you created a list of a
Speaker 1: hundred dreams that really long bucket list we talked about
Speaker 1: in a previous episode, or you can get a book
Speaker 1: such as National Geographics, Journeys of a Lifetime, or one
Speaker 1: Thousand Places to See Before you Die. Start working through
Speaker 1: these lists. Search for photos online of the places you
Speaker 1: want to see. There are plenty of great photo sites,
Speaker 1: but even just searching on Instagram with the hashtag Eiffel
Speaker 1: Tower will give you all sorts of angles on the place.
Speaker 1: Read through luxury hotel descriptions and reviews with a virtual vacation,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you can't actually afford at it.
Speaker 1: Look at photos of those first class cabins for international flights.
Speaker 1: Pretty swanky and a great diversion from headlines. As you
Speaker 1: get into the habit of taking daily virtual vacations, you'll
Speaker 1: start seeing new ways to engage in these journeys. Lots
Speaker 1: of art museums have photos of their major works online.
Speaker 1: You could visit the Prodo virtually and study a new
Speaker 1: painting each day. Major zoos and aquariums are posting videos
Speaker 1: of animal feedings and the like. You can sort through
Speaker 1: photos and videos of national parks. Reading through travel blogs
Speaker 1: or travel narratives can be fun as well. When you
Speaker 1: do these daily virtual vacations. Take notes on what looks
Speaker 1: really cool, because some of these trips will be doable
Speaker 1: when life goes back to normal. Spend two weeks taking
Speaker 1: a daily virtual vacation to different sites in Yosemite National Park,
Speaker 1: for instance, and you'll figure out an itinerary it will
Speaker 1: work when you do visit in another year or two.
Speaker 1: You'll be ahead of the game on travel planning, and
Speaker 1: you'll also build some anticipation into your life. And that's
Speaker 1: a good thing because one of the hard parts of
Speaker 1: all this social distancing has been seeing fun trips canceled
Speaker 1: and not knowing when we'll be able to plan fun
Speaker 1: stuff in the future. This uncertainty makes it hard to
Speaker 1: anticipate the fun to come, and honestly, anticipating good stuff
Speaker 1: is a big chunk of what keeps humans going. But
Speaker 1: nothing lasts forever, and you can certainly dream up a
Speaker 1: vacation plan and as you look at those soaring mountain vistas,
Speaker 1: this just might make another day cooped up in your
Speaker 1: house feel a little better. In the meantime, this is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. M h Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.