{"id":5292,"date":"2012-07-12T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/?p=5292"},"modified":"2012-03-10T21:08:47","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T03:08:47","slug":"the-incredible-shrinking-american-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2012\/07\/the-incredible-shrinking-american-vacation.html","title":{"rendered":"The Incredible Shrinking American Vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Vacations are theoretical concepts that exist today only on paper. That\u2019s according to Joe Robinson, work-life balance speaker, trainer, and author of \u201cDon\u2019t Miss Your Life.\u201d<\/a> His statistics are dire:<\/p>\n

Some 25 percent of Americans and 31 percent of low-wage earners get no vacation at all anymore, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. This is because, unlike in 138 other countries around the world, you’re not entitled to a vacation longer than the current news cycle. You happen to live in a country that, along with the esteemed likes of Myanmar, the Guyanas and North Korea, has no minimum paid leave law to make vacations statutorily legit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now maybe it\u2019s because I have been self-employed for most of my working life — and the few jobs I have held, I didn\u2019t accrue enough time for a validated vacation — but for every day I have taken off, I have had to make up those hours either before I left or after I returned [Ed. – Me too!<\/em>]. Which creates added stress either on the front end or the back end of this so-called “relaxing.” I have no recollection of a vacation in which I left everything on my desk as is, only to pick up after my return. <\/p>\n

Does anybody really do that?<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Jones, US employer would be wise to enforce vacations. These days off don\u2019t subtract from the bottom line. They add to it. Especially what used to be the standard two weeks off. Writes Robinson in his Huffington Post blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Performance increases after a vacation, with reaction times going up 40 percent. Vacations cure burnout, the last stage of chronic stress and something very difficult to shake. Burned-out employees are a major liability to effective performance. They may be at the office physically, but output is next to nothing when cognitive, physical and emotional resources have been depleted. Vacations regather crashed resources and restore productive capacity. But it takes two weeks for the recuperative process to occur. Only 14 percent of Americans take more than one week of vacation at a time these days, according to a Harris poll\u2026.Performance increases with recharging and refueling, all the studies show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Plenty of psychological studies attest to the benefits of vacation. Robinson mentions the one by Princeton\u2019s Alan Krueger and Nobel-prize-winning researcher Daniel Kahneman that found that, of all<\/strong> the things on the planet (ants, elephants, and maybe plants?) human beings derive the most<\/strong> enjoyment from leisure and are happiest when they are involved in engaging leisure experiences. <\/p>\n

Vacations are stress busters, too, of course. In fact, annual vacations cut the risk of heart attacks in men by 30 percent and by 50 percent in women. Leisure and rest build resiliency, and, as my doctor has told me plenty of times, it\u2019s much easier to keep a person well, with less medication, than it is to improve a depressive state.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s true that most of us don\u2019t get any assistance or incentive from our employers to take days off. However, I believe that, on some level, we are also afraid to change our environments and unplug for a bit. Because, as Richard Moss explains in his new book, Inside-Out Healing,<\/em><\/a> allowing some down time in our lives isn\u2019t always easy, even if we have accrued months of legitimate vacation time. He writes:<\/p>\n

Taking a vacation can be notorious for stirring up the dark, as if something inside knows that the familiar daily busyness has been keeping you too distracted in ego-driven activity to attend to your soul\u2019s calling. For the sake of essential regeneration and rebirth, you must go down into the abyss for awhile. <\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why few people, especially in the US, ever allow themselves a real time of letting go. Instead they have a \u201cvacation\u201d (often restricted to a week) with a tight, demanding travel schedule where they have to see all the sights, try out all the best restaurants, and shop until they drop. Unstructured open time is too dangerous: the \u201cmonsters\u201d from the deep that have been held at bay by compulsive or near compulsive activity might rear their ugly heads. The tragic truth of modern life is that it hardly leaves room for the necessary descent into the underworld that opens the heart, enriches humanity, and often rejuvenates the body.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I must confess. I totally get that. I think that\u2019s one reason I haven\u2019t attempted a retreat since college. They sort of scare me. I\u2019m afraid I\u2019m going to discover a really bad character defect that I\u2019ll need to change, or another inner demon that I must add to the list. I\u2019m uncomfortable with stillness. <\/p>\n

I think most people are.<\/p>\n

And yet, it\u2019s in the stillness\u2014in the quiet, unstructured space\u2014that we are healed and made resilient to handle the bustling of our daily lives. <\/p>\n

So if I can conjure up the courage, I just may try it this summer.<\/p>\n

Originally posted on Psych Central.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and click here to follow Therese on Twitter<\/b><\/a> and click here to join Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacations are theoretical concepts that exist today only on paper. That\u2019s according to Joe Robinson, work-life balance speaker, trainer, and author of \u201cDon\u2019t Miss Your Life.\u201d His statistics are dire: Some 25 percent of Americans and 31 percent of low-wage earners get no vacation at all anymore, according to the Center for Economic and Policy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Incredible Shrinking American Vacation - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2012\/07\/the-incredible-shrinking-american-vacation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Incredible Shrinking American Vacation - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vacations are theoretical concepts that exist today only on paper. 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