Not taking vacations is like not sleeping. Eating healthy, exercising,
and taking vitamins we know are good for us, but what we often for get
about, or don’t have time for, is rest. Our immune systems and
our psyches depend on it. When we are in short supply of it we get stressed,
and that lowers our resistance to all diseases including Cancer, heart
disease, strokes and other debilitating and potentially life threatening
conditions. From a psychological perspective, we become short tempered,
irritable, sometimes angry, and often depressed. Not much fun to be around.
Vacations, even short ones, give us a chance for rest
because they break up our high paced, deadline oriented, multi-tasking
lives. Studies have shown that we actually live longer if we take vacations.
And we tend to have better relationships with our family members and
significant others. We maximize the benefits of a vacation when we can
turn off cell phones, pagers, and do not even think about taking laptops!
Vacations are meant to be relaxing and should slow our pace down, not
be so jam packed that we need a vacation after our vacation.
Perhaps the most significant benefit though is on the overall quality
of life we can enrich by stopping our routines long enough for some self-
reflection, some real human interaction and something called fun. We
underestimate the value of fun and play, but it regenerates us. It recharges
our batteries, so that gives us more energy to go on achieving our goals,
completing our tasks, and meeting all the demands in our daily lives
Susanne Slay-Westbrook, LPC, LMFT is a licensed professional counselor
and a licensed marriage and family therapist and author. Visit her Web
site at: A World of Respect.
You may mail
correspondence to: P.
O. Box 204042 • Austin, Texas 78720
