Vacations are good for you

Remember that the vacation idea is to break away from your everyday life and do something different. Otherwise your time away from your regular routine is not really a vacation or time off. It becomes nothing more than a stressful extension of your regular life. You are not benefiting from your vacation at all.

I truly believe that a break from your normal surroundings and everyday activities is good for the body, mind and soul. This belief is based on my personal experiences and observations plus review of the literature and research concerning the benefits of vacations.

Vacations are a getaway from the norm. In no specific order here is my short list on some of the benefits of a vacation.

A good vacation can help us to reconnect with ourselves allowing us to look outside the box (our daily grind) and improve/increase our thinking and problem solving skills while enhancing our creativity.

A good vacation helps prevent us from burning out. According to researchers workers who take regular time off to relax are less likely to experience burnout. This time away keeps us fresh more creative and productive than our overworked, under-rested counterparts.

A good vacation or taking time from the daily grind allows you to ‘recharge your batteries’, thereby lowering and/or keeping stress levels down which can keep you healthier.

Spending time enjoying life with loved ones can keep relationships strong, helping you enjoy the good times more and helping you through the stress of the hard times. In fact studies have found that women who took vacations were more satisfied with their marriages.

Studies also suggest that the psychological benefits that come with more frequent vacations lead to increased quality of life, and that can lead to increased quality of work on the job.

The bottom line is that taking a good amount of time away from the stresses of daily life can give us the break we need so that we can return to our lives refreshed and better equipped to handle whatever comes.

While not everyone is able to take a vacation the benefits for those who can take several days, a week or two off for a trip are immeasurable. To paraphrase a TV commercial the value of a vacation is priceless.

To read more about the benefits of vacations read Alina Tugend article “Vacations Are Good for You, Medically Speaking” in the June 7th edition of The New York Times (nytimes.com) and The Travel Industry of America’s news release at http://www.tia.org/pressmedia/Benefits/index.html.

Got travel questions? Email the Travel Professor at thetravelprofessor@gmail.com.