By Akosua Frempong
Everyone wants to de-stress! With a surge in mental health challenges due to COVID-19, many people are looking for an outlet. For this reason, let’s discuss the importance of taking a vacation. Even if it is a ‘staycation,’ a holiday you take within your home country, as per the British, it is still utterly beneficial. In the United States, a ‘staycation’ can involve a family staying home but taking day trips for leisure activities that do not require a hotel stay. Perhaps, they head for the mountains, the beach, or nearby attractions. Sometimes, we want and even need a break from work and the familiar. We may wish to visit a different country to experience a different culture. For those who have another place they call home, this much-needed break can positively impact your perspective, health, work, and life. That is the power of taking a holiday.
Taking a holiday, undoubtedly then, has several benefits. These are only five of those key advantages:
Revival
When you take a holiday, you feel revived. It is almost like a new ‘fire,’ new energy, a new passion for what you do and how to live. When you feel rejuvenated, you feel like you can do anything! You feel relaxed emotionally. Taking a holiday provides this great advantage that everyone can benefit from.
Recharging
Taking a holiday means you get to relax and recharge. Recharging means having a renewed sense of purpose, the feeling that you are living for a reason. A reason that is bigger than you, and for that purpose, you need all the energy and focus that will help you fulfill it.
Fresh Perspective
Sometimes, a holiday gives you a new perspective. You begin to see things in a different light. You start to have clarity. You begin to realize what it is that you need to do to achieve all your goals. You begin to see things with a fresh pair of eyes and realize that the solution was there all along; I just needed a holiday to find clarity and see it for what it is. A vacation allows you to see how you can live. It is possible thanks to the power of a fresh perspective from taking a holiday.
Reconnection with Family and Friends
Suppose you have close family and friends outside of the country. Taking a vacation to that country now and again can help you reconnect with those family members and friends intimately. Of course, you must also consider the right time to go on these trips. Still, going there will ultimately allow you and your family and friends to connect substantially. Usually, meeting face-to-face, talking one-on-one, visiting, and hugging your loved ones make a difference in the emotional connection. Suppose your love language is physical touch (from Dr. Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages books). In that case, you could benefit from physically going on vacation rather than only reconnecting with family and friends virtually. Going on vacation affords you the great benefit of reconnection with those you love and care about the most!
Staying in Touch with what is Going on Elsewhere
When you have been away from a country you call home and where you currently live, sometimes visiting that home allows you to stay in touch with what is happening there. It will enable you to see the developments and the changes that have occurred. And seeing those changes can help you not to lose your connection with the place in the future. Waiting to take that long-awaited vacation could mean that you are losing touch with that other place you call home.
So, why not take that break? Take that vacation and come back feeling revived, recharged, and having a new perspective on life. After reconnecting with loved ones and staying in touch with what is going on, you will realize you feel much healthier, more focused, and more purposeful.
Whether you opt for a staycation or travel overseas, make time for Jesus. Stay in the Word and pray daily; experience the Lord’s blessings as you visit family and friends and explore new places. The Bible mentions rest, relief, and peace, and our Father is the ultimate provider. He also rested on the seventh day and told us to rest on the Sabbath.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
Genesis 20:8-10
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Please feel free to take that vacation; give yourself that essential treat!
Scriptures quoted from the New King James Version.
Photos by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com, Kampus Production on Pexels.com, and by ChurchArt Online on Pexels.com
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