Get a life, take that long delayed holiday

The other day, a friend mentioned that he was unexpectedly shocked to realise that he had developed what he termed a “tolerance” for tragedies. It was because there was absolutely nothing that he could do to un-do an event or make a tangible difference, he learned the art of “superficial caring” in place of the “visceral caring” that had always been his previous response. Professional helpers call it “compassion fatigue,” but it’s that same feeling that you feel you just don’t have the capacity to respond the way you once could.

This is not an anomaly anymore. Each of us has only so much energy to invest into any given activity, whether it’s physical, emotional, or mental energy, so we have to make decisions on where to direct our actions. However, it is also true that if we don’t make time to re-charge our resources, we will have even left to give to the significant others in our lives or to ourselves. Therefore, it is advised that we all find some way to take a vacation from the daily grind of work, bad news, and despair. Some of the benefits for the body are:

Cardiovascular health: According to the large-scale, longitudinal Framingham Heart Study, people that forego vacation time away from the workplace are facing significantly increased risks for heart trouble and early death. If a woman allows six or more years to pass between vacations, she is eight times more likely to develop heart disease. Comparatively, men have a 32 per cent greater risk of dying of heart attack. Sleep time: Sleep patterns improve during vacation times because you’re more able to let your natural circadian rhythms rule your bedtime and wake time. We sleep better on vacation and this effect lasts for weeks after we return.

Even a four-night vacation is enough to lower stress and increase well-being that endures weeks after your return to the job.

Reaction times: Reaction times improve when you take time for a vacation. Stress overworks the brain and when you’re constantly overloading and dividing your limited attention span between computer screens, cellphones, conversations, and worries about what you should be doing that you don’t have the time to do, you lose the ability to pay attention.

Work productivity: You’ll be more productive if you get out of the office for some R&R, too. For every 10 hours of vacation time taken, productivity improves 8 per cent.

When you take time away from the job, you are also taking time out for yourself that allows your mind to find some freedom. When you let go of over-worry about work issues, your brain gets to go off-the-clock and attend to matters of personal significance . . . or not. Letting your mind wander is one of the healthiest things you can allow it to do — there’s a whole list of amazing discoveries and innovations that popped up when the creators were “on vacation.” Almost everyone has had the experience of having a brilliant inspiration during a mundane task — and it turns out that when you’re not trying to think of something, your brain has more freedom to creatively explore solutions to problems or imagine new ways of doing something.

And simply the process of creative expression is more important to our emotional well-being than the product itself that we create.

When we are freeing our minds from the daily yoke of work, we will also experience freedom from the worry-induced aches and pains that are generated on the job. Your body turns mental and emotional stress into physiological experiences like headaches, backaches, and muscle tension. By letting go of the stressors for a week, your body is able to unclench and return to its healthier, more relaxed state and this is definitely good for the soul.

Even a four-night vacation is enough to lower stress and increase well-being that endures weeks after your return to the job. If all you can manage is a long weekend, it’s worth the effort to unplug and disconnect from daily life. Worry ages a person and vacations — whether around the globe or around the backyard fire pit — allow you to turn off the worry and allow your mind to shift into neutral. —Psychology Today Suzanne Degges-White is a professor

at Northern Illinois University