WHEN a relaxing vacation seems further away than Timbuktu, here’s how to make the best of the little time you have. Your most important carry-on item? The mind-set you bring to the trip.
However happy this may make our employers, we pay a stiff price for the lack of quality downtime. In a nine-year study, Brooks Gump, an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York, Oswego, found that men who skipped vacation for five consecutive years were 30 percent more likely to suffer heart attacks than those who took at least one week’s annual leave. Even skipping one year’s vacation was associated with an elevated risk of heart disease.
Researchers aren’t sure why people who take more vacations are less likely to die of heart attacks, but they have three theories: the time with family and friends; the escape from everyday worries; and the simple anticipation of a few stress-free days.
I once spent an entire day sitting in a meadow at the base of a tall volcanic spire. I didn’t speak, didn’t read – didn’t do much but watch the shadows change. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was using my vacation to practise holiday mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the opposite of multitasking. It is being fully present to yourself, your travel companions and your environment. It’s a way of both simplifying your vacation and recharging your mental batteries to better cope with day-to-day stress.
Like any art, it requires practice, but it can provide benefits much as meditation does. Vacations slow down our perception of time, taking the edge off the feeling that everything is always coming at us in rapid-fire sequence. Deliberately mindful vacations can help this process along.
One way to cultivate mindfulness is to do “unpacking” of our mental baggage before leaving home. Too often we treat vacations as we treat our jobs. “We have a big to-do list, and if we don’t do everything on it, we’re miserable …. Leave that ‘production’ yardstick at home.”
The vacation process starts several weeks before you leave. Begin by getting enough sleep and some exercise. Then start taking seven-minute mini-sabbaticals in the middle of the day—outdoors or somewhere relaxing such as a flower shop or art gallery. You can also try one-day outings. And of course, it always helps to remember that the upcoming vacation is your time, not your employer’s, and hone your skills at saying no to overwork.