For me a true vacation is a complete get-away - leaving behind all my professional cares and responsibilities to such an extent that if suddenly asked what I did for a living, I should have to think a bit before being able to answer. Such a shift releases aspects of myself - particularly creative, artistic, care-free aspects - that are normally locked away in long-term storage.
I think that it's essential to revisit and revive our youthful subpersonalities on a regular basis, lest we risk losing them - and ourselves - completely. Retirement is around the corner for ALL of us - let's not get stuck with work as our sole identity!
Even taking off on an airplane releases me from normal work-related as well as most other daily concerns. All sorts of creative ideas float to the top. I even thoroughly enjoy having tomato juice on flights - not the wildest indulgence, but it does suggest an interesting shift.
When I take 3 weeks in a row for holidays (AND spend none of it working) I get a bit of the sense of those childhood "endless summers" when I truly felt like the summer went on forever ... and actually looked forward to going back to school for a change. Don't we all need to feel THAT revitalized? |
| Bradford Naugler at the Annual Lunenburg Folk Festival - Aug 5, 2012 - http://www.folkharbour.com/ |
The key to the true vacation might be your comment about not working at all - even a little bit - ie putting the Blackberry and e-mail aside.
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