Summertime in the south is undoubtedly one of God’s greatest gifts.  I can remember how I looked forward to summer when I was a child.  I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house, and the way their back yard’s St. Augustine grass felt under my bare feet is a feeling I am trying to re-create at my own house.  There was always an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, time for canning and making jellies, and time for family vacations.  While we did not have an abundance of money, we did make time to go somewhere even if it was just for a day.  The act of getting everyone out of their respective routines and onto the same page for vacation time was something I craved then and still do now.  I don’t know how important the simple pleasures of southern living are to people in today’s fast world, but setting aside time for vacations is essential to sanity in the rush.

It is common for Europeans to take 4 to 6 weeks per year of vacation time.  Most European families would not dream of forgoing vacation time away from home, but many Americans do.  If you stay in your same surroundings all the time without ever going away to see things from a different perspective, it is easy to allow your body to absorb stress.  The proverbial rut is easy to fall into in this situation, and people who do not take at least some vacation time to decompress find that they are not only often bored and unhappy but also are more often ill than people who do make downtime a priority.

There is a suggestion from a recent study that vacations might even extend your life span.  The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) included 12000 middle-aged men who were at high risk for coronary heart disease.  One aspect of the study was vacation frequency.  During the nine year follow-up period of the study, those who took frequent vacations were 32 percent less likely to die from coronary heart disease and 17 percent less likely to die from other causes than those who rarely took time off.  According to the Framingham Heart Study, frequent vacations decreased the risk of death due to heart disease by as much as 50 percent in women aged 45to 64.  The reason for the extended life spans of the vacationing participants is linked to the fact that vacations reduce stress.  Stress, as many of us know, has been blamed for a plethora of maladies, including heart disease, hypertension, depression, and even cancer.

Scheduling time off to spend with family and friends, go hiking in the mountains, walking on the beach, playing golf or any leisure activity that appeals to you is not just a luxury that only the elite get to enjoy.  It is a necessity for all of us to put at the top of our list of priorities.  In fact, Joe Robinson, of Santa Monica, California, is rallying Congress to get the Fair Labor Standards Act changed.  He suggests that every American needs 3 to 4 weeks of paid leave every year.  Mr. Robinson has written a book entitled “Work to Live,” in which he outlines his campaign to get Congress to prescribe a cure for what he calls vacation deficit disorder.  According to Robinson, U.S. employees have the fewest number of vacation days in the industrialized world, yet studies show they have trouble taking even those days off.  American employees get an average of 13 paid days off per year according to the World Tourism Organization, but 1 in 6 workers are too busy to take all the days off they have earned.  Our obsession with work, drive for success, and undying efforts to compete in the world marketplace has left many of us with an empty “time for me” bank.

In my own busy practice it is challenging to schedule time off, but we have to in order to be able to give 100 percent to our patients when we are there.  Long weekends count in the vacation game as much as longer stretches of time do.  If long weekends are what you have to take in order to get the time off you deserve, make sure you take more of them.  More and more resorts offer packages that cater to long weekenders.  Body treatments while on vacation are exceptional ways to accelerate the stress-reducing effects of days off.  A nice massage on a long weekend can give lasting stress relief benefits.  You can get really creative with ways to spend the necessary time away from the phone, doorbell, PlayStation, and computer.  Poll the family.  Find out what it is that everyone likes to do and make a plan to get some of that in for the whole family.

Vacations are a must.  If you don’t take them you suffer for it.  Judith Sachs, author of “20 Minute Vacations,” says that you can experience the soothing benefits of lowered stress and deep relaxation in 20 minute intervals right in your own chair.  The book outlines methods of having tidbits of the vacation experience more often.  Envision palm trees, ocean sounds, warm tropical breezes, or even the feeling of St. Augustine grass under your bare feet while you are biting a piece of sweet Georgia watermelon…Treat your body and your spirit well.