Time Off and the Benefits of Travel

I’m writing this sitting in a dimly lit living room of an Airbnb sipping a cup of coffee while the rest of the house is asleep.  While I am working on this trip, it is not the usual work I do save for a few clients I will meet with.  Travel is not something I did often growing up or hell even into my adult life.  There were financial constraints as well as time and energy.  Like we often talk about though, this was just not something I knew nor something that had been modeled for me.  My idea of taking a trip was to get in the car and go see relatives in another state.  I did not realize this was about the lowest cost way to “get away” until I was older, but that meant I was severely limited in my knowledge about travel or the benefits of it.  While I am not a globetrotter by any means, I have started to seek new experiences and destinations where I can.  This serves as a way to experience things I can’t at home but also to reset.  I can go to another city in the U.S and find a whole different culture and energy and can appreciate things that I likely take for granted in my own backyard.  Hell, I am excited to be up and working while other people sleep while I am in another city.  While I do appreciate the still and quiet of an early morning, I seldom would do so while writing and having coffee. 

Let’s start with time off.  In our society we have normalized the idea of hustle and grind culture, where people brag about how little sleep they get and talk about how hard they work.  While there is genuinely a segment of the population who has no choice but to work 80+ hours a week just to make ends meet, working a ton has become this thing we idolize.  We see people who followed this mindset and were able to reach their goals and we think that is the model we should be following.  As a business owner, I recognize the struggle of taking time off, and the fact that if you are not working, you are not earning money.  There are certainly some jobs that can be automated so the more the business is up and running the easier it could become, but not everyone falls into a line of work that is a passive income dream…like I can’t automate therapy.  A huge part of why therapy can be successful is the human interactions, the bond created by literally showing up and being present.  However, rest is a crucial part of being human.  Taking time away from work is something we used to normalize.  However, as business became the primary driver of our society, we got accustomed to places being open later and seven days a week, we got used to having an immediate response for a customer service issue and I think at this point all of us are bummed when a package takes more than two days to show up on our doorstep.  That mentality has meant that we feel we should be working more and doing more.  Whether that is to make it in an entrepreneurial sense or if that is to prove our value to our companies, we work ourselves to the point of burnout.  Taking time off with regularity is an important way to take care of ourselves.  While we all suffer the financial constraints to some degree, whether a limited amount of or even no paid time off, not having resources to travel, or simply not being able to miss a paycheck, we must find the time to rest, recharge and recover.  This can be planning a staycation and doing things in your own backyard (literally or figuratively) but should be time where “productivity” is not the aim nor the goal.

Personally, travel has become a much-needed part of my time off.  As someone who works from home and owns their own business, being at home makes it far too easy to compromise and allow myself to work “just a little bit”.  That means I am not getting the full effect of taking time off and I am not sufficiently recharged.  So, I will travel.  It does not have to be far and it to this point has all been domestic trips more or less.  The importance is getting away and breaking away from my routine and my schedule I normally adhere to.  As a therapist, I can mark the day of the week often based on who I am meeting with, so I know on Wednesday I would be seeing this person, and if I don’t see them or another regular, I may be slightly lost on the day of the week.  To me, that is a good thing.  I am not watching a clock nor am I tracking the day, in fact most of my travel is an exercise in mindfulness, as I am in the moment and not beholden to a schedule nor specific plans save for maybe a show or a reservation here or there.  This means when I am in a new place, I can go and try new food or a new restaurant, and I will only go to a local coffee shop once I leave an airport in a new place. In the new city I can see different construction for houses, I can see the way the city is laid out and planned and get a different perspective than my home city.  Most of us will not roam too far and wide in our home city because we know our spots and we have no interest in tourism, because we live there.  But that means we also miss out on history and some of the flavor that we could experience normally. 

Travel can be intimidating though. There is certainly an element of planning. You have to pack, which means preparing for weather and situations, and you need to decide what things are important to bring and what can remain at home. Historically speaking, I was always an over-packer. I would take a checked bag and a personal item like a backpack and would have enough clothes for basically several outfits a day. The more I travel the more streamlined I have tried to become. I moved from that earlier setup to one where I was bringing on a carry-on and a personal item and have made the move from there to trying to bring a travel backpack almost exclusively with maybe a sling bag. I will go the route of a carry-on and a personal item if I have to get dressed up or will be bringing home a bunch of souvenirs but minimizing what I bring has made me be more conscious of the choices I make when it comes to packing. This means I have chosen to leave a number of things at home and have sought clothing items and travel items that are built to stand up and function in a variety of scenarios. In some ways, limiting my options and choices means I have to become choosy at times, but it also means that there is a sense of freedom for me, and it means I am building relationships with brands that meet my needs and trying different things. That becomes almost a game for me and adds another element of enjoyment to my travel. Ultimately, you get to decide what works for you through trial and error, however I will implore you to both take some time off, and travel. Experience the different cultures and energies that so many places have to offer but make sure you do something to relax, recharge and take time away from working.