The sterling blue ocean was right outside the hotel window. I could almost reach out and touch it given how close our hotel room was on the beach. I had been picturing and imagining being on vacation here for what seemed like forever, and it was finally happening. But the thing I remember most from this vacation is the hotel shower.
With all the scenic natural beauty around, you’re probably wondering exactly why the hotel shower stood out to me. Let me explain.
At this initial point in my family vacation, I was still entering the vacation phase I like to call “happy to be on the way but not yet mentally relaxed with a vacation mindset”. You know, the HTBOTWBNYMRWAVM phase.
We had arrived to our beachside destination after a full dose of traffic and a half dose of other delays. I absorbed these common travel stressors pretty well overall, but certainly wasn’t in full-blown vacation mindset.
What I needed was something to startle me out of that lingering semi-stressed attitude, and I found it in the hotel shower.
It was actually quite a shock to experience that shower for the first time. It was a traditional shower with tub base and shower curtain. The curtains themselves possessed a colorful brilliance that was immediately pleasing. Every color of the rainbow was equally represented, and from inside the shower most of the colors were backlit by the bathroom light. However, that wasn’t the impressive part.
I turned on the water to allow the warm water to start coming through, and didn’t notice anything particularly special at that point. It took an average amount of time to get the warm water flowing…still nothing special yet.
It was only upon stepping into the shower that my vacation changed.
“It was only upon stepping into the shower that my vacation changed.”
– Psychology of Travel
The water pressure from the extra-wide shower head was the most powerful I’ve ever experienced in my entire life! It wasn’t a pointed laser-stream that sometimes can even hurt, it was a broad but powerful soaking of epic proportions.
I can’t even guess how much water per minute was going through that shower head. Others at the hotel may have overheard an audible “wow!”.
Now, water conservation aside for one moment (conservation is important, and something I would recommend as consistently as possible!), ALL of my attention went right to the deluging experience. Gone were the stressors of travel life, like navigating that tricky final stretch to arrive at the hotel.
Alone in my thoughts stood the warmth and steam. It felt like a series of gentle water cannons were following my every movement. Blissful.
“Where typically the ocean water might have this vacation-inducing emotional benefit, in this case it was the municipal water cascading over the surface of all of me that melted my cares away.”
-Psychology of Travel
Where typically the ocean water might have this vacation-inducing emotional benefit, in this case it was the municipal water cascading over the surface of all of me that melted my cares away. Not only the physical relaxation from the warm water, but emotional relaxation from the thoughts the experience evoked.
Part of those thoughts was obviously enjoyment of the moment, though a piece of the thoughts also include genuine surprise.
I was NOT expecting that water pressure, and within the surprise I found delight.
When the shower finally ended, I found myself disappointed. I didn’t want it to be over. So, I headed back out to the beach to get adequately sandy all over again…Shower time!
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Happy Travels,
Dr. L
Founder, PsychologyOfTravel.com
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