Week of February 21

This week I am feeling refreshed from a recent vacation. Taking some time off from work and my daily demands, allowed me to recharge. In light of this personal positive experience, I will be talking about vacation this week.
 
Vacation can be an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travel. Essentially, it is the act of taking time away from your usual day to day demands. As we know, work life balance is extremely important to maintaining our health, and avoiding so called “burn out”. So how can we practice taking vacations more often?
 
In DBT we teach a concept called brief vacation. This skill teaches us how to take breaks, or mini vacations, in order to take a step back from stress and overwhelm. For example, you might schedule a 15 min break in between meetings to sip your favorite smoothie and look out the window on a sunny day. Or perhaps you set aside a whole hour to soak in a bubble bath while listening to relaxing music. The trick is to fully participate while taking your mini vacation. Fully participating allows us to relax and unwind. When we return to our normal routine, we often feel less tense and more balanced.
 
If you are able to take an actual vacation, go for it! Soaking up the sun on an island is my ideal idea of a vacation. I can’t do that all of the time, so I come up with smaller breaks that I can do from my house. What would be your dream vacation? If you can’t travel, what else can you do from wherever you are now? We would love to hear how you plan to practice taking vacation!
 

WORDS OF WISDOM

 

MEME OF THE WEEK

 

CONTRIBUTE