By Samantha Copeland
The Post Newspaper Fitness Writer
Vacations can have a profound effect on your mental and physical health. The American Psychological Association concluded that vacations work to reduce stress by removing people from the activities and environments that they associate with stress and anxiety. Studies from the State University of New York at Oswego and the CDC also found that vacationing every year reduced the overall risk of heart-related deaths by 30 percent and those who vacation yearly are eight times less likely to suffer from a heart attack.
Regular breaks from your daily routine provides a buffer against stress, which fuels the chronic inflammation behind heart disease as well as diabetes and other chronic illnesses. From the mental aspect, taking a break allows the brain to gain insight and fresh ideas to come up with new answers from unsolved problems. Psychologists call this phenomenon the “incubation effect,” wherein temporarily walking away from an unsolved problem can lead to new solutions or insights.
Taking vacation time away from the home and office allows for a complete mental break to be able to embrace the incubation effect. Oftentimes when people are away from work, they easily find themselves managing stresses of the household and vice versa. A national study showed that 47% of Americans didn’t take vacation and 21% left more than five days of unused paid vacation time earning us the title of the “No Vacation Nation.”
Health is achieved in many forms, and taking time away to decompress is one of them. You can even take a “staycation,” which is close to home and a more affordable option for many. When you find yourself using the excuse “I don’t have the time” or “I don’t have finances,” it is usually the perfect time for you to start planning and budgeting a getaway.
Samantha Copeland is the owner of Texas City’s Yoga on 6th With Sam. She has an extensive background as a licensed therapist, fitness coach, personal trainer and yoga instructor. Ms. Copeland follows a simple and holistic approach of staying in balance mentally, physically, and spiritually.
