Our Central Florida community is probably one of the most vacation oriented places in America. How often do you take a family vacation? If it isn’t enough you may actually be missing out on important benefits for your personal mental health, couple relationship, and family bonds. This is not just opinion, but research based fact.
Most people aren’t in need of a pep talk about going on vacation, but based on a lot of what I hear from patients people do sometimes struggle with choosing what to do, where to go, and actually pulling the trigger to make it happen. The net result of this inaction is a slow building tension that can increase stress, decrease fulfillment, alter your perception of home from a sanctuary to a prison, and even go as far as depression. Don’t worry, this is not a pitch to run out and buy a time share. An obligatory week long stay in a two bedroom apartment with a bill that comes every year even if you can’t use it is not something I recommend. However, making time to relax on family vacation is a priority is worth considering.
One thing I have learned over the years is that Americans on the whole are terrible at prioritizing time to take a break. Other cultures tend to take longer breaks each day, and/or longer blocks of vacation time each year. Is this because they are wealthy? Not at all. I won’t give specific figures here because they are always shifting slightly, but a quick internet search will show that people around the world who have less wealth still manage to prioritize time away from work. Are they better off? Would you like to do another quick internet search, or can you already guess where America rates versus other countries in terms of percentage of adults with depression, anxiety, obesity, and addictions?
So how do we get stuck in this pattern of work, eat, sleep, repeat? If you have the financial ability to vacation regularly, then we are likely talking about one of two things. Either a simple priority imbalance of career over wellness, or a more drastic issue of career taking the place of identity. I recently spoke to someone who just got back from a two week vacation they thoroughly enjoyed, and they told me it was tough easing back into “the real world”. This paradigm sounded very normal to me because it is a fairly common statement. I also think it is part of the problem. I love my career, enjoy the relationships I build with the people I serve, and am always looking forward to returning to the office after a vacation. This doesn’t make my office the real world. Instead of a therapist, I view myself as a person, a husband, a father, and much more. The real world for me is experienced at work, as well as everywhere else I go.
Time, like money, is a tool to be spent, and neither can be taken with you in the end. I doubt these few paragraphs will cause anyone to completely rearrange the money : time, or work : relaxation equations they currently live by. If it opens minds to considering the options though, that is a positive step towards achieving wellness.
What if your career, schedule, house full of family, or limited finances keep you from scheduling a month long stay on the French Riviera? Don’t worry, vacations from work are scalable. If you live within driving distance of my office, you also live within driving distance of theme parks, State parks, natural springs, beaches, and more hotels and resorts than you could visit in an entire year of weekends.
Your employer may not allow you to take the three plus hour afternoon break common in some European and Central American cultures, but you still have options on your days off. I don’t know anyone with a career that precludes them from the simplest vacation of spending a couple hours per week outside reading a book, or listening to music. Thanks to our location this opportunity is available year round. Next time the choice of staying or going presents itself, I hope you choose to set work aside and prioritize wellness and enjoy a family vacation!
