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Published: August 24th 2023
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CNN asks:
Perhaps you have spent the past few days on a cloud over your forthcoming, well-deserved vacation, and will go back to daydreaming about them as soon as you finish this article. And the truth is that the benefits of a good vacation can be felt even before the trip begins.
Scientific studies show that merely looking forward to a future reward can be
even more rewarding than the reward itself. This is so thanks to
a small molecule called dopamine, which we will talk about later.
But, before we continue, let’s think about a few questions. Are vacations really necessary? Why do we need them? And, above all, what are the benefits of a few idle days?
The main thing that a good vacation can do for our mental health is precisely to reduce chronic stress levels. When we are idle, our brain is able to reverse – at least temporarily – the negative effects of being under stress. And here comes the key: for vacations to be truly effective, we have to ensure that they really free us from the stress of our work. That is, we must avoid continuing with pending tasks, answering emails, and so on.
On the other hand, it is essential to prevent our vacations from creating new stressful situations for us.
Another key is to enjoy the wait. Why is it that the mere act of waiting for our vacations makes us happy? We mentioned
dopamine a few paragraphs ago, which is produced in the neurons of two brain regions known as the
substantia nigra (because of its dark color under the microscope) and
the
ventral tegmental area (located in the center of our brain, more or less behind the ears).
This article gets a bit tedious with the scientific side of this question. Go ahead and read it if you like. I prefer to just accept, intuitively, that vacations and travel are good for us (me).
Planning has become more stressful, since the cost of flights and hotels have increased, post covid, and with inflation. I enjoy both the planning and the research.
But as I said when I was still working, vacation is sure better than work or root canal.
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