Those long-awaited holidays and vacations! The year has barely started and we've already looked at how many holidays we'll have. And of course: we are already on vacation or soon we will be. But what does this have to do with our mind?
Those who work like me in the health area are used to seeing that many people get sick right at the beginning of the holidays, so much so that this has even resulted in studies. It is not an exclusive phenomenon of the season (summer or winter), but it even happens on long holidays and even on some days off that can end up being hampered by unpleasant symptoms.
The problem seems to be so common that it even has a name: Syndrome or leisure illness.
The first to study this topic was the Dutch psychologist Ad Vingerhoets, from the University of Tilburg, in 2001, when he observed that some people, particularly those who worked under pressure, fell ill as soon as they took a break. The study surveyed nearly 2.000 Dutch men and women and found that 3% of people were worse off on vacation than on normal working days.
The most frequently mentioned symptoms were headache and stomachache, fatigue, muscle pain and nausea, flu, migraine, depression and anxiety. Other researchers clarified that the disease would appear as a consequence of an accelerated immune system.
You may also like
- Learn how to relieve your mind of stress
- Know the importance of rest for the heart
- How to keep the body and mind healthy? Find out here!
We know that depression and anxiety have effects on the immune system, as we often read in articles, even for laymen. Our body would release adrenaline and cortisol, two hormones closely related to suppressing the immune system.
According to a study carried out by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information, caloric burn is more linked to the total time "thinking" than to the difficulty of reasoning, thinking uses up glucose, the young brain uses more calories than the old one. Spend more energy who is more focused on the task. A person who consumes an average of 1.300 calories a day can spend 260 calories thinking.
But what could we really do to make our leisure days better and in everyday life we could rest our mind so that we didn't have to go through this?
Small breaks throughout the day, or when we get home, or on weekend breaks or days off are appropriate for rest. Resting is not filling the mind with demands, with thoughts jumping and jumping like monkeys, nor to read what was late, updates, enter the computer and the most present villain: staying on the cell phone. Nor to plan an agenda or set up meetings for the following week.
These thoughts keep you from relaxing! You need to believe that you're not being irresponsible, or start blaming yourself for thinking or doing anything.
Having vacations or holidays is not in itself restorative. You are fooling yourself if you think that just getting up later and filling your mind with stimuli is rest.
Small breaks or vacations are spaces for relaxation. Resting is not exercising the same functions that made you stressed. It's breathing, relaxing, resting, not straining mentally for a period. Don't force yourself to anything. Do not list obligations.
Maybe you want to meditate, relax, not open emails, pick up your cell phone only a few times, sunbathe, take a long bath, spend time taking care of your body, play with your pet, sunbathe or walk in the green, in short… create the form that brings you more rest, without instigating the mind to the vices that led you to get sick. No guilt, no fuss!
