It’s easy to overlook taking a vacation. Life is busy and we become so focused on work, family and friends that many of us neglect to take time out for ourselves. For instance, the Harvard Business Review reports that the average number of vacation days for Americans has dwindled from 20 per and Aussies have 185 million days worth of accrued annual leave left to use according to Roy Morgan Research. This figure is a whopping 22-23-days of leave per each working Australian. Plus, some 63% of Japanese workers don’t take leave because they feel guilty according to an annual Expedia.com survey. With all this lack of vacation leave, it’s no wonder we feel burned out. So, let’s look at 5 Vacation Health Hacks to get you inspired to take a break and start looking after you.
5 Vacation Health Hacks #1 Reward Yourself With A Vacation
It’s important to reward yourself for hard work, especially after you complete a large project. This approach is like patting yourself on the back, it makes you appreciate you, your efforts, will power and drive to achieve. Plus, rewarding yourself elevates your feel good hormones empowering your mind and body.
One of the best rewards after working extremely hard is to take a vacation. This break recharges your mind and body, and you begin to associate hard work with a pleasurable outcome–a vacation. By repeatedly rewarding yourself for your hard work with a vacation, your brain starts to associate pleasure with completing a task or reaching a goal. Rewarding yourself this way often enough will establish a health habit that lets you balance your work and personal life, so you maintain optimal mental and physical health driving you to achieve more.Â
HOT TIP – Vacation rewards can be weekends away, a day outing or a week of relaxation. Choose what’s right for you at the time, just make it regular so that your mind begins to associate hard work with reward.
5 Vacation Health Hacks #2 Embrace Vacation Therapy
When you work long hours day-in-and-day-out you start to feel exhausted. You may even wonder why you’re even slaving away or question if your workplace or boss even appreciate your efforts. When we start to think like this we erode our positive mindset. Doubts start to creep in and we begin to question everything we do, and if it’s even worth it.
When we feel this disgruntled with life we are often on the verge of burnout. Taking a vacation at this time is an ideal way to restore your mind, and body by relaxing and unwinding. After all, there’s nothing better than laying on a beach watching the waves roll in and the water birds dart over the ocean or looking at the flames of a fire lick the outer edge of a bon-fire in the middle of the Australian outback as you lay on a rug nearby looking up at the stars.
HOT TIP – Take a vacation where you do nothing but reconnect with yourself as this is the ideal form of therapy when you feel burnt out and exhausted.
5 Vacation Health Hacks #3 Deadline Incentive
You don’t have to wait until you’ve accomplished your goals to book your vacation. Instead, you can set the start of your vacation as your deadline for completing your work. Travelling then becomes your incentive to get your tasks done before you go.Â
To encourage you to work harder before your vacation, put images of the place you’re visiting around your work area. For instance, if you’ve booked a vacation in Washington DC and you’re working and getting tired the image of the Marriott Marquis Washington DC you’ve put will encourage you to push on. This principle applies to any vacation you’ve booked, the sandy beach in a remote location, or a theme park you’re excited to visit, use the images of the place to keep up your momentum so you’re moving forward.
HOT TIP – If you cannot find an image of the specific areas you’re visiting, then opt for the image of a visual concept instead. For example, n image of a beach on a tropical island, if you’re visiting a beach resort, or even an image of an island and a person that represents you staring out across the water.
5 Vacation Health Hacks #4 Discover More About Yourself
Leaving your comfort zone can be a little nerve-wracking. But by venturing out of the comfort on vacation, you discover new aspects about yourself. For instance, your likes and dislikes, what inspires you to do more, how you think and feel, and what challenges you’re ready to tackle.
You also become more aware of others and the wonders of the world when you travel. Plus, you get to be involved in different cultural expereinces. Travelling also gives your the opportunity to concentrate on and evaluate the positive and negative aspects of your character. As such, it is possible for this to be a productive time for self-discovery, which, with any luck, will result in a few important realisations.Â
HOT TIP – Use vacation time to move passed confusion and clarify what you want in life.
5 Vacation Health Hacks #5 Unleash Your Motivation
While you’re on vacation your mind has the opportunity to wander. This situation occurs as you’re not bombarded with a million tasks to do. Often this gives you time for reflection, making it one of your most creative. As such, you’ll get to look at your past, and present and ponder your future. Vacations are a break that leads to greatness with you able to devise plans, set goals and consider what you truly want out of life.
Then when you return from your vacation to reality–your every day life–allow memories of your vacation elevate your spirits. This type of vibe then motivates you to reach the goals that you’ve considered while on leave. Also, this motivation is a positive reinforcement that you can achieve any task that you set yourself.
HOT TIP – Utilise the power of motivation after a vacation to achieve goals that you may otherwise felt were out of your reach.
5 Vacation Health Hacks Key Takeaways
Taking a vacation has many more health benefits than most us realise. Resting our mind and body rejuventates our zest for life and enthusiasm to take on bigger, better challenges. Plus, it puts us in touch with ourselves so that we have a happier outlook and disposition, and a go-getter attitude.
To recap, 5 vacation health hack for you are:
- Reward yourself with a vacation.
- Embrace Vacation Therapy.
- Push yourself to meet deadlines.
- Discover more about yourself.
- Unleash your motivation.
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