Vacations, Don't You Want One?

I have been absent on my blog and I apologize. If it makes you feel any better, I was also absent from my house. I have spent the last couple of weeks in Florida with my family. My husband and I went to do the Goofy (the Walt Disney World half marathon and full marathon back-to-back), my kids went to run in Disney kid races (including the Mickey Mile), and we all went to have fun in the sun and at amusement parks. It was fun living in another world for a while.

It was also good to come home. It is nice to be in my own house again and it is even nice to be back in a routine. I didn't stop writing Book 2 while I was in Florida, but I definitely didn't do any technical writing while I was gone. This was also a breath of fresh air.

I've mentioned my husband and I like to dress up :)

We all need vacations, whether grand excursions or just small breaks from the norm. According to WebMD, if you don't take a vacation every now and then, you could "experience burnout, reduced productivity, diminished creativity, failed relationships, stress, or stress-related ailments such as depression, heart disease, or stomach ulcers" (http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/help-for-the-vacation-deprived). So you can all see why I took a vacation. I was really just trying to stay healthy. :)

Interesting fact that I also discovered on WebMD: Americans receive an average of 14 vacation days, Australians get 17, Canadians take 19 days, Brits get 24 days, Germans have 27 days, and the French receive 39 vacation days. Anyone else moving to France?

So here are five reasons for the rest of you to take a vacation (taken from Health Magazine):

1. Help you bust the stress rut (and maybe your stress gut): Just having a weekend getaway can help reduce stress hormones and even lower your blood pressure. Plus stress helps pack on the pounds, so take a vacation to get rid of the stress and who knows how the scale may react?
2. Give your heart a break: A study showed that women who take at least two vacations a year are eight times less likely to have coronary heart disease. And another study showed that men who didn't take an annual vacation were 32% more likely to die from a heart attack than the vacationers. 32%!!!
3. Help you get closer to your family: Vacations help families connect. Those new, shared experiences promote a closeness and positive ties that last far after the vacation ends.
4. Make you smarter at work: Vacations can be the pause that refreshes you-especially if you spend it disconnected from electronic devices and catching up on sleep. You may even be better at your job. (Now I'll know why those chapters I wrote on vacation are so much better than other chapters.)
5. Make you happier: A study showed lower levels of tension and depression among women who took vacations frequently (once or twice a year) versus those who vacationed less often. In fact, it turns out that even anticipating a vacation is a mood booster. (So if you aren't currently on a vacation, you can make yourself happier right now by just thinking about taking one. Is anyone else suddenly on a beautiful sandy beach with the waves gently roaring in the background?)

So now that I have less stress, a healthier heart, am closer to my family, am smarter, and happier, I'm ready to get back to work. Well, sort of.

You can read the whole article in Health Magazine at: http://news.health.com/2013/07/11/5-healthy-reasons-to-plan-your-vacation-right-now/.