It is cliché that money cannot buy happiness. Well, it cannot in some conditions, but if you pay for someone’s vacation expenses and do not deduct their monthly salary, you will see how you can buy happiness! From the moment you decide to take some days off from work and start planning for a trip you have meant to take with your loved ones or friends, you can experience those resting frowns going away.
Researchers have been very curious about studying how vacations impact people’s attitudes, stress levels, creativity, and social and interpersonal communication. If you come home upset with no apparent reason and become more stressed and agitated at work, you got to look back and see how long it has been since you last took off from work. Relaxing away from home and work hassles in a carefree environment doing things you have planned for long, like skiing or camping, is a real mood booster.
Why People Waive off their Paid Leaves?
Despite the given benefits of taking vacations, most people are seldom seen as utilizing their paid leaves and going on vacation. According to research statistics by the US Travel Association, an average American worker gets about 24 days of annual paid leaves. However, only 17 of such paid leaves are mostly used. These figures do not imply that people are not traveling because they cannot (well, last year has been an exception); rather, they imply that workers are worried sick about losing their jobs if they use up all their paid leaves.
Duration of the Vacations
Though experts assert that only four days away from work and related problems are enough for recharging your mind and body, these vacations should be taken periodically to break the monotony. Eight to ten days away from home in a relaxing place are better at reducing stress levels and boosting creativity. If you have been procrastinating your vacations due to work stress, then know that procrastinating is only increasing your stress and mental unrest.
You should better be taking those days off and go hiking, climbing, nature retreat, shopping, or whatever soothes you.
Why Is It Important to Take Vacations?
If you are still not convinced and doubtful about how taking vacations can help, then the following reasons are just for you.
1. Taking Vacations Help Increase Your Mindfulness
Have you noticed how aware you are of your surroundings when you travel? You explore things and soak in the surroundings. You become more prone to observing things around and appreciating them instinctively. This is no drug talking; rather, it is the relaxed and unconfused state of your mind making you look around and see more.
Traveling helps take off your mind from everyday worries. It puts your mind in the slow gear so that it does not race as much as it does back at home and amid all the office routine. Once we are out of all that monotony and routine, we have more mental space to welcome the surroundings. This is very helpful in recharging our minds and taking things gradually as they come when we return home.
2. Vacations Keep the Heart Healthy
Yes, you read it right! There is a connection between the prospects of a good working heart and taking annual vacations. An old but promising research study involving women participants declared that women who took fewer vacations annually were more at risk of developing a coronary heart problem, such as heart failure, than those who availed their leaves and took vacations. Another study in men also proved the same.
So, if you have been working hard without any due breaks for a more relaxed and comfortable retirement, you should have another thought coming as there are fewer chances of a healthy retirement if you stress yourself out.
3. Vacations Take the Stress off Your Mind and Body
We all know and are aware of how stress can take a toll on our mental and physical health. Stress does not let you eat or sleep properly. It rips you off of your happy moments and completely takes the whole mindfulness thing away. Though it might sound very obvious, it is still important to point out that taking vacations is very effective for reducing stress.
Vacations put you in the slow-mode: you do not have to worry about reaching on time and making it to the meetings while you try and drink a cup of your morning coffee. Vacations have proved to increase people’s diet and the ability to sleep peacefully.
4. Vacations Help in Boosting Mental Performance
It is a widely known truth that vacations and traveling help increase your creativity. Many neuroscience data asserts that most people have more ideas popping up in their heads when they are relaxed. Do you notice how a quick nice bath or shower can become the next big idea time for you? This is all because a hot shower or a nice bath helps you relax and put your worries away.
Moreover, traveling for vacations opens new doors of observation and learning. Exposure can teach you more than just books and courses. Creativity is all about thinking out of the box – which you cannot do whistle running errands and juggling work and personal life.
5. Vacation is an Effective Mood Booster
A scientific investigation into the use of antidepressants by Swedish experts revealed that people had less need for antidepressants when they were off to vacation. This finding is overtly related to how taking time off for vacations help take your stress off. Once you are out of the work-mode, you can pay attention to yourself. You can work upon your look, update your wardrobe, go jumping off the cliffs, speed boating, or even sightseeing – all of which are great antidepressants.
6. Vacations Bring Back the Happy You
As we said before, if you have been grumpy lately without an apparent reason, your vacation is calling you. Being stuck in a vicious cycle of working and coming home fully exhausted and in no mood to reenergize yourself takes a toll on your happiness. Therefore, you also feel less excited about the routine things going on around you. However, a Dutch study revealed that the excitement of planning, booking tickets and hotels, and shopping is a significant source of happiness.
So, Taking Vacations is a Big Yes!
Well, you must agree that taking vacations and utilizing your paid work leaves would not harm you. It is advised to be a bit selfish twice or thrice every year and think of yourself and your health. If an old saying asserts that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy, do not let it prove right. Take a break from work and let others manage without you. It is much-needed for your mental recharge and stability.