Against all clichés, we Italians are the workaholics of Europe: with 33 hours worked per week on average, we are with Greece and Estonia above the average of 30 hours per week and a good 7 hours more than Germany, the locomotive of Europe. I say so OECD data and ours says it too psychophysical state, exhausted even by a year and a half of the pandemic, lockdown, DAD, smart-working and various and assorted limitations. That would be enough to say that yes, we really do need a vacation right now. But regardless of how hard you work and how much you’ve suffered from the pandemic, there are deeper reasons to “unplug” and go on vacation.
Because you really need a vacation right now
like theGallup welfare index (according to which those who carve out time for a vacation reach a score of 68.4 against 51.4 for those who never take a break) or these other 12.
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1. Improve physical health
Stress is the worst disease of modernity, and is the antechamber of heart disease and hypertension. Taking a break for a vacation breaks the spiral of stress and inflammation, reduces the risk of coronary and cardiovascular disease and resets the situation.
2. Improve mental health
Stress can also permanently alter the structure of the brain, as well as cause anxiety and depression. Which are the antechamber of burnout syndrome. Changing locations, not thinking about work, changing rhythms and doing something else relieves stress and triggers well-being hormones, which reduce inflammation and improve mental well-being.
3. Increase motivation
It happens like this: that for the first 2 days more or less the head is empty and heavy, as if it needs to release tension. Then he resumes imagining, thinking, planning and towards the end of the holiday you are full of motivation and good intentions for when you return. It’s a natural recharge of the desire to do, which you then carry around for weeks if not months.
4. Improve family relationships
We live compressed lives, calibrated to the second, with little quality time to spend with our loved ones. Whether it’s your partner, children, parents or a broader idea of family, there’s nothing better to strengthen those bonds than spending quality time together, away from worries and stress.
5. Remove the prospect of burnout
Burnout syndrome is a systemic syndrome, which depends not only on how much you work but also on how you work and how you live the rest (little) of your free time. For all that has already been said in the first points, and for what we will say in the next ones, going on vacation removes the prospect of falling into the spiral of burnout.
6. Improve mood
In a word: happiness. Having the opportunity, even for just a few days, to do whatever you like, from cosmic nothingness to sporting activities or cultural or gastronomic visits, has a simple consequence: it improves your mood and makes you happy.
7. It is inspiring
Travelling, seeing new places, meeting different people, doing new things inspires, from every point of view. These are the so-called good intentions, with which we all return from vacation: to start keeping fit, to fix up the house, to finally dedicate ourselves to a hobby, to save some money. Whatever the good purpose, a vacation is always a source of inspiration.
8. It is already a perspective towards the future
The holiday begins when you book it, or perhaps already when you start desiring and planning it. It is an investment in the future, a perspective that creates anticipation, that sets a goal and that somehow traces a path. And it’s a way forward.
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9. Lets learn something new
There’s never time to do anything, let alone learn something new. And it is precisely on vacation that we find it, with a very important consequence: when we learn something new, whether it’s cooking a dish or going SUP, our mind creates new brain bonds, and it’s a bit like making the brain rejuvenate, which is not really a muscle but like muscles it tends to atrophy if not adequately stimulated.
10. Life is short
Really, and the pandemic with its tragedies has reminded us once again: life is short, and time flies by, so don’t put off that trip you want to take until who knows when. Organize, save, plan it, but do it. You will not regret.
11. You can treat yourself to treats
And also some exceptions to the rule: staying in bed late, or awake late, indulging in some gluttony, treating yourself to an extra aperitif, or a slice of cake for breakfast: a holiday means just that, a period of emptiness to fill as you like, even breaking the (right) rules that we set ourselves for the rest of the year.
12. Get to know new flavors (the original ones)
Yes, it’s true that by now there are restaurants of all kinds everywhere and you can switch from Vietnamese to Peruvian cuisine just by turning a street corner. But the Pachino tomato, eaten in Pachino, has a completely different flavour, and so the Guinness drunk in Dublin, the ramen eaten in Shanghai or Hokkaido and even a hamburger are completely different things in any corner of America.
Photo on Darren Lawrence and Pexels
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