Complete Mental Health: 08/01/08

Research clearly demonstrates that an annual vacation significantly cuts risks of most diseases by 20-30 percent. The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial of 12,000 American men revealed that during a 5-year study period those who took the most vacations had 20 percent less risk of dying from any cause than those who took the fewest vacations. A 1999 Dutch study found that overcommittment to work without an annual vacation increased physical and emotional illnesses.

A study by the World Tourism Organization study showed that vacation time for Americans lags well behind other industrialized countries. The WTO listed the average annual vacation days by country as follows: Italy (42), France (37), Germany (35), Brazil (34), Britain (28), Canada (26), South Korea (25), Japan (25), the United States (13). More than one third of Americans fail to use their full vacation times. Of those who do take full time away from their regular jobs much of their vacation time is spent on activities other than rest and relaxation:

Ø 19 percent spend their vacation time on family or personal responsibilities, including illness, funerals, caring for sick children or parents

Ø Another 13 percent spend vacation time going to school, working at another job, or participating in reserve military service.

Ø One in five vacationers are contacted about work matters during non-work times

Ø 23 percent of employed adults in the United States report checking work email or voicemail while vacationing

Causes of THE VACATION VOID

A vacation-less life may be caused, in part, by cultural factors. Emotional conflicts that contribute to the overwork syndrome may be associated with the following:

Ø Compensation for feelings of inferiority or insecurity

Ø Identification with a demanding parental expectations

Ø Recompense for physical limitations such as poor health or aging

Ø A solution for problems of aggression and guilt

Ø A need for approval

Ø Excessive competitive drive

Ø An attempt to enhance self-esteem

Ø The desire to improve social status

Ø The need for excessive financial gain

Ø A fascination with the accumulation of material objects

Ø The inability to refuse the requests of others

Ø Self-imposed demands for perfection

PROBLEMS ENGENDERED BY LACK OF VACATION TIME

A self-induced increased workload causes deterioration in marriage and family life, undermining the main source of non-work related support. Likewise, avoiding vacation time leads to a decline in efficiency and initiative resulting in an increasing spiral of mistakes and complaints from associates and customers. Paradoxically, those people who overwork rather than earning praise for their dedication eventually receive criticism from family, colleagues, and employers.

Usually those who fail to take regular vacations become unproductive, cynical, negative, rigid, and inflexible. Accompanying poor work performance is the inability to have fun. The harder one works the more difficult it is to relax.

FINDING BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND VACATION TIME

There are individual differences for the need for vacation time. Some people become bored when they are away from the office too long. Others begin to lose a sense of worth when on extended vacations. Balance is the key to the successful use of vacations. Here are some ideas both for benefiting from vacation time:

Ø Schedule vacations and keep them.

Ø Quit work early or take time off when fatigue builds. Sustained effort toward a goal is best balanced with laughter and play.

Ø Plan an occasional long weekend away from work.

Ø Returning to work tired after a vacation or time off indicates the wrong approach to leisure time.

Ø Have you ever noticed how people on the tennis court or the golf course shout and act as if they are fighting alligators in a swamp? If they aren't having a terrible time, they're certainly making life miserable for everybody around them. Those who enjoy life, play for the fun of playing. Paradoxically, when they're playing for the fun, they play better. Play—-free and spontaneous activity—-emphasizes enjoyment not achievement.

o Emotion, not effort, enhances play. Attitude, not activity, determines whether we work or play.

o Leisure activity should be fun, not a drain on the emotions.

o Sports and games should bring more laughs than frowns.

Ø Every day ask yourself, "Am I having fun yet?"

o Surround yourself with people who fill you with joy and laughter.

o Be an inverse paranoid-think the world is out to do you good. Decide to be hopeful and fun loving.

o Don't take yourself so seriously. Those people who have a cosmic view of life cultivate a lifestyle that allows them to tolerate outrageous fortune. They laugh at themselves and their situations. They develop a "hang-loose" philosophy of life.

o Read or listen to humor regularly.

o Keep a humor scrapbook.

o Marry someone who thinks everything you say is funny.

o When a situation becomes stressful, pretend it's all a Candid Camera episode.

o Practice LOL—it's internal jogging.

o Remember: He who laughs, lasts. A sense of humor - that goes beyond joke telling embraces laughing at oneself and life's absurdities. When we learn to "think funny" our life becomes enriched with friends and fellowship.

o Play golf. Golf is just like life: Difficult and unfair. Par is 18 laughs a round.

Ø Cultivate creativity. Creative people see connections between things when others see separation. Creativity requires knowledge, for many creative ideas come from old concepts rearranged in a new way.

o Break the rules by questioning the reasoning behind them. Alexander untied the Gordian knot by chopping it in half while others had failed for centuries because they followed the rule and tried to untie it.

o Ask "what if' questions. Einstein conceived the theory of relativity by asking, "What if I could ride a light beam?"

A DAY-BY-DAY VACATION: PREVENTING OVERWORK

Vacation, a time of rest and freedom from work, can be experienced each and everyday. Duke University psychiatrist, John Rhoads, MD, studied successful, effective, and healthy executives who worked at least sixty hours weekly and compared these individuals with executives who developed burnout from working over sixty hours weekly. The following table summarizes those findings.

THOSE WHO EXPERENCE WORK SUCCESS	THOSE WHO EXPERIENCE work burnout
Postpone thinking about problems	Ruminate about work problems
Take time off when productivity begins to diminish	Take their computer and cell phone on their vacations to keep-up with work activities
Use exercise, hobbies, and sports to deal with work stress	Use drugs or alcohol to deal with work stress
Enjoy scheduled vacations	Tend to postpone vacations
Cultivate a stable family life	Spend very little time with their family
Maintain friendships	Have a difficult time cultivating friendships
Exercise regularly	Watch television regularly
Have varied interest outside of work	Feel uncomfortable away from work
Can laugh at themselves	Take life and themselves too seriously

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO HAVE FUN?

	LITTLE OF THE TIME 1-pt/each √	SOME OF THE TIME 2-pt/each √	A LOT OF THE TIME 3-pt/each √	MOST OF THE TIME 4-pt/each √
I enjoy hobbies without feeling guilty about not working.
I am optimistic and cheerful.
I surround my self with happy, positive, and fun-loving people.
I correct my mistakes and blunders, but don’t continue to worry about them
I take a long weekend away from work when I begin to feel burned out and tired.
Leisure activity helps me feel rested.
Sports and games bring me more laughs than frowns because I play to have fun not necessarily to win.
I enjoy creative play—dancing, painting, party games, playing a musical instrument, etc.
I laugh at least once a day.
I take vacations without worrying about the job.
Multiply √ by the value given in each column