Vacations are good for well-being

I shook my head sadly. But now, as I prepare to take a week away from the office, I feel the dilemma — and the appeal — acutely.

You keep up with your never-ending emails so you aren’t overburdened when you return.

You nibble on projects that are due soon.

The idea sounds counterintuitive, but taking your work with you on vacation seems almost, well, relaxing.

So what’s the harm of waking up your computer over morning coffee with woods and a lake as a backdrop?

An email you open might introduce an idea you then chew on all day. That project hits obstacles that raise your blood pressure.

Escaping all that is precisely why we travel. And for good reason. Vacations are good for our health — mind and body.

Nine out of 10 Americans claim their happiest memories were made on vacation, according to Take Back Your Time, a nonprofit organization that “seeks to challenge the epidemic of overwork, overscheduling and time famine in the United States and Canada.”

Consider your own happy memories. If you’re like me, you’re thinking of a mountain hike, an encounter with sea turtles or a water park with your child.

The well-regarded, long-term Framingham Heart Study showed that men who skip vacations are 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack; nonvacationing women are 50 percent more likely.

Good reasons for all of us to leave our computers behind.