As con­sumers return to work after the hol­i­days, thoughts imme­di­ate­ly turn to the next vaca­tion. While the actu­al trip may be months away for most peo­ple, it’s nev­er to ear­ly to start plan­ning and book­ing. In 2014, Vir­gin Hol­i­days says their web­site traf­fic increased 32 per­cent on the first day of work after Christ­mas as Brits go in search of a get­away – peak­ing around 12:43 p.m. This year the trav­el brand has teamed with a celebri­ty hyp­no­tist to make shop­pers feel like they expe­ri­enced a two-week hol­i­day in just 20 min­utes.

It can be hard to head back to work after a hol­i­day break or vaca­tion. One UK brand, Vir­gin Hol­i­days, tried to ease the tran­si­tion back to the work­ing world this week.

Vir­gin Hol­i­days teamed up with British hyp­no­tist and author Paul McKen­na, promis­ing that con­sumers who took part in a 20-minute ses­sion in one of their “hyp­no-pods” would feel like they’re refreshed and revi­tal­ized as if after a two-week hol­i­day. The ses­sions, which involved medi­a­tion and hyp­no­tism tech­niques, took place at at Blue­wa­ter Shop­ping Cen­tre in Kent.

McKen­na said the Hol­i­day Hyp­no­sis ser­vice was intend­ed to sim­u­late the feel­ing you get when the brain releas­es endor­phins, the nat­ur­al feel-good hor­mones often asso­ci­at­ed with a hol­i­day.

No doubt, Vir­gin is hop­ing the next time peo­ple search on Google for “cheap exot­ic hol­i­days” that they’ll remem­ber their expe­ri­ence with the brand and buy from them.

Jour­nal­ists from the Irish Exam­in­er, Mir­ror, and Telep­graph tried it out and shared their expe­ri­ences. While the hyp­no­sis clear­ly was­n’t a sub­sti­tute for two weeks in a trop­i­cal par­adise, they did all report emerg­ing a bit more relaxed than when they start­ed.

“This expe­ri­ence could not come at a bet­ter time for the great British pub­lic,” said Mark Ander­son, man­ag­ing direc­tor at Vir­gin Hol­i­days. “Noth­ing beats the feel­ing of an amaz­ing hol­i­day, and we think they have the right to flaunt it even in the dark depths of Jan­u­ary before they get the real thing lat­er in the year.”

Hol­i­day Hyp­no­sis is part of the brand’s new inte­grat­ed #Flaun­tIt mar­ket­ing cam­paign, designed to make con­sumers aware of its all-impor­tant Jan­u­ary sales.

Aside from hyp­no­tiz­ing cus­tomers, the brand intro­duced Google Card­board vir­tu­al real­i­ty tech­nol­o­gy in its retail stores last month to let cus­tomers “test dri­ve” their hol­i­days before pur­chas­ing.

Vir­gin will also intro­duce a “Try on a Hol­i­day” booth that will trav­el to Lon­don, Man­ches­ter, and Birm­ing­ham and let cus­tomers vir­tu­al­ly expe­ri­ence Can­cun, Bar­ba­dos, and Walt Dis­ney World (sim­i­lar to Mar­riott Hotel’s vir­tu­al real­i­ty 4D expe­ri­ence in the U.S.).