Face the fear of vacation, go ahead and take time
Practice freedom of listening to your inner voice and letting insecurities bubble up, move on and then allow the chance to do absolutely nothing
It’s summertime and the living is easy. At least according to that old Gershwin song. But many of us lost the “livin’ easy” part of summer years ago. And now, it seems, we’re afraid to take it back.
Oh, we say we want it, “I need a break; a real vacation.” Especially after years of Zoom and remote living. But we don’t go for it. Why is that?
Two weeks of paid vacation has been a protected benefit for most Americans since the 1940s. But it’s also true that most of us work more hours each year and don’t take time off. We could blame corporate culture but, it’s not them, it’s us. W e don’t take our vacation.
A study of Fortune 500 companies found that while most offer two to four weeks of vacation, nearly 50 percent of employees don’t use the time they have accrued. The U.S. Travel Association says that more than half of Americans leave at least 30 percent of their paid time off on the table.
One explanation is that working remotely blurs the line between work and leisure so we have more flexibility. While this may be a factor, I think we are less confused than afraid. We keep saying we need a break but we keep deferring that trip, or waiting for some special adventure. The concept of being on vacation has been replaced with doing vacation.
This is also part of why we insist that our children’s summer vacations be productive. Another paradox. The romance that adults have with summertime is the memory of idleness when we were kids. Yet with our own children we schedule every minute and enroll them in classes and camps. When we fill up children’s vacations is it because of what we want for them or because of something we fear in ourselves?
We have to look way back. It turns out that engaging in leisure is, philosophically, a crucial element in being human. The ancient Greeks considered leisure — truly doing nothing — essential to gaining wisdom.
In writing about World War II, social psychologist Erich Fromm addressed the question of freedom and leisure. He theorized that we lack the psychological resources to cope with too much freedom and so we use work to escape it. Fromm said that we are so afraid of freedom that we will follow fads, accept dictators,and even permit fascism.
Fear of freedom sounds crazy, doesn’t it? What are we afraid of ? I ask myself this. Does freedom scare me? Is this why we won’t allow ourselves to do absolutely nothing? And is it why I make a to-do list even on vacation?
We fear two things in the nothingness of leisure. First of all, what if there’s nothing in our nothingness? What if other people have revelations and insights and deep thoughts when they relax but maybe I’ll have nothing? On the other hand, maybe what really scares us are the “somethings” that can come up in true leisure.
When we live without a to-do list we start to hear our inner voice and we are more aware of the insecurities that haunt us. Those worries are mostly shorthand for our big fear: Death. Yep, that would make staying at work a lot more comfortable
But, as most philosophers will tell us, what hides in our fear is our true freedom.
The Greek origin of the word school is “place of leisure,” which means “to be permitted.” We can begin practicing freedom by permitting our to-do list to fall to the floor.
Take your vacation. Face the fear. It’s just nothing.