benefits of a vacation from work
By denying our brains a vacation, we diminish our ability to think creatively and strategically. In an article Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D. reasons that when you’re under chronic stress, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol.
High levels of cortisol damage the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory. So reducing stress is the key to maximising your brain’s performance. And what better way to do that than take a vacation Daniel J. Levitin, the director of the Laboratory for Music, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in the US and the author of “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload,” told the New York Times that giving our brains time to wind down and think about nothing at all can provide the brain with fresh moments of great creativity and insight and this is one of the big benefits of a vacation.
Disconnect to reconnect
We need to power down from the technology that surrounds us to reconnect with our family and loved ones… An afternoon on the beach or a trek up a hill with your kids is a reconnection of the ultimate kind. Remember your kids will not remain kids forever, so spend as much time as you can – watch them grow, create memories of joy and togetherness …pictures that will make you nostalgic 20 years from now.
From routine to relaxation
Holidays provide us with a welcome opportunity to truly relax. Let go of office and home, leave behind our daily routines. They give us a break from rush hour traffic and, paying bills and dropping the kids to school or the girlfriend to the office. A vacation is the opportunity to leave the alarm clock and organiser behind and sleep till you wake and not get woken up. Rest in itself repairs our bodies, and that is one of the big benifits of a vacation.
Get to know your world
Go on holiday to a place you have never been before. Swap your regular holiday destination with one that’s out-of-the-ordinary, exotic or exhilarating and expose your senses to new territory and adventures. A study by Nobel-prize-winning researcher Daniel Kahneman found that human beings are happiest when they are involved in engaging new adventurous leisure experience.
New cultures give you new ideas
it is time to think of your vacation as a very relaxing way to get some more work done. A recent study published in the US National Library of Medicine concludes that multicultural experiences help foster creativity and help generate ideas. that means that the new experiences and new environment you are in could very well give you new ideas to implement at your workplace when you return from your vacation
More short vacations up productivity
The good news is that you need not take one long month long vacation that you boss may just disallow. Instead, take a series of well-spaced short holidays during the year. A survey by Erasmus University in Rotterdam on 1,500 Dutch office goers 974 of them took a vacation. Those who went on, vacation showed signs of increased happiness and greater productivity for two weeks after they returned from their holiday on of the big benefits of a vacation. So, the trick is to take two or more short breaks spread out in the year rather than one massive vacation. Spread out that happiness!
Bring on the fun
Ask yourself when was the last time you really had FUN? A holiday delivers just that, loads and loads of fun … Time to take a professional decision GO on a holiday and reap the benefits of a vacation
