What Is It About Holidays?

Holidays are a pause along the way in everyday life. Longer for some than for others, at different times of year, spent in different ways… but almost all of them are a break from, at the very least, the daily grind of work and, in many cases, from day-to-day life in general. Under normal circumstances they’re a breath of fresh air, a chance to recharge our batteries. They help reduce stress and improve our mood and self-esteem, and it seems they also improve the quality of our sleep. What’s more, some studies have found that people who take holidays regularly have a lower risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease (Eaker, Pinsky & Castelli, 1992; Gump & Matthews, 2000), although these are observational studies: they show an association, not that holidays are the cause.

Psychologically speaking, for most of us (there are always exceptions) holidays are a powerful positive reinforcer. And why is that? What benefits make them so necessary? To begin with…

• Holidays break the routine. A certain amount of routine is good, because it gives human beings stability, security and a sense of control. Some people need routine more than others, but we all need it to some degree. Even so, for all the security and stability it gives us, it also leads to a certain amount of autopilot, lack of motivation and boredom. It’s healthy, even necessary, to break it from time to time, and holidays (whether they last a week, several weeks or two months; whether you travel to the other side of the world or read a book on the beach) do just that.

• Holidays give us time for the things we enjoy: reading, sunbathing, travelling, doing some woodwork, gardening, taking a course, spending more time with family or friends, getting out into the countryside, doing sport… Whatever you enjoy that everyday life doesn’t leave room for (or does, but you can’t find the time because you feel obliged to prioritise “more important things”). In short: more time for yourself. Although everyone’s circumstances are very different, it’s usually easier to find time for yourself on holiday.

• Holidays help us switch off. Switch off from the boss, from colleagues, from the computer, the phone, emails, from worries in general… Switching off from some things in order to connect with others. Every year I see for myself how visits to these articles drop significantly during the holiday periods and then pick up again afterwards. As I said: we disconnect from many of our daily activities in order to connect with others.

• Summer holidays (which, although not the only ones, tend to be the longest for most people and also mark the start of the new academic year) are a time to think about what we want for the coming months: possible new personal and/or professional projects, new goals and things to look forward to. Thinking about what we want from the new year ahead and how we can achieve it. For many of us (myself included), 1 September is the equivalent of 1 January.

• Summer holidays are like a break between the old year and the new one. That’s why they sometimes help us think back over the past months: what we’ve done and what we haven’t, what has happened to us, the changes each of us has gone through, the good, the not so good… Depending on how introspective you are, this “review of the year” can be very rich. And we can learn a lot from it.

• Holidays help us gain perspective on specific issues going on in our lives right now. Sometimes the momentum of everyday life doesn’t let us think clearly about certain things. Taking time out, when our routine and our surroundings change, helps us see some matters more clearly.

• For some people, holidays mean time with people they can’t see as often as they’d like during the rest of the year, for one reason or another. Time with loved ones.

The result of a holiday is a return to everyday life with more energy and more drive (although that depends on the person, because some people find “coming back down to earth” very hard). And if you come back with more drive and more strength, you benefit directly, and so, indirectly, do the people around you, both at home and at work. It works like a ripple effect. How long the ripple lasts is another matter, but it’s better than nothing.

For now, let’s welcome a new September.

References

• Eaker, E. D., Pinsky, J. & Castelli, W. P. (1992). Myocardial infarction and coronary death among women: Psychosocial predictors from a 20-year follow-up of women in the Framingham Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 135(8), 854-864. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116381
• Gump, B. B. & Matthews, K. A. (2000). Are vacations good for your health? The 9-year mortality experience after the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62(5), 608-612. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-200009000-00003