Right, some context.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from the APA, the American Psychiatric Association. It linked to an article about how you’re supposed to take your holidays. Honestly, these seasonal emails get on my nerves. I don’t know about you, but being told what to do and how to do it really pisses me off.
Especially when a brand or company is obviously following the same content calendar all year, sending reminders that now it’s Christmas, now it’s summer, now it’s spring break, now you should be doing this, now you should be doing that.
A pain in the arse, right?
Anyway, because it was about holidays, I thought I’d give it a read and see if there was anything useful in it.
Nobody should be telling you how to spend your holidays. Still, I wouldn’t go so far as to tell you not to take them. I’m not quite that extreme.
Whether you like it or not, both your mind and your body need a break every now and then.
The real question is what kind of break will actually work for you and your life. That means shutting out all the noise about what you should be doing, how you should do things, how you should live your life and how you should spend your holidays, and asking yourself what you genuinely need.
Or do you really need a complete stranger, your neighbour, the latest influencer or the APA to tell you how to switch off?
That said, some cultures worship hustle culture to the point that taking time off is looked down on.
Do you know that meme of a woman standing in the sea with her laptop working?
That’s what I mean.
But the fact is, as long as you’re alive, you’ve got a body to live in, and that body needs looking after. Some TLC. You have to be careful not to run it into the ground and accept that, every so often, you need to stop and rest.
And a calendar won’t necessarily tell you when. But you still need to make space for it in your own calendar, or in one you share with your family.
One thing I always warn people about is turning their holidays into yet another project.
Years ago, I met a woman who proudly showed me the itinerary she’d made for a week in Paris. Every last minute of every day was scheduled and packed with activities.
Honestly, the whole thing sounded awful.
I also remember a famous podcaster saying that she and her partner had gone to enormous lengths to carve out four days (just four days!) when they could both take time off. They’d then spent ages trying to find flights from the United States to Barcelona that fitted those dates. When the day finally came, work commitments made them late for their flights, so they had to catch later ones. Once you factored in all the travelling, they had only a day and a half left to enjoy the city. I imagine she did exactly what that other woman I knew had done and crammed as many activities as possible into the little time they had there.
You can’t live like that. That’s pushing yourself too hard.
You need rest, you need time to do things purely for pleasure, and you need artistic or intellectual stimulation, depending on what works for you. But don’t put your body through yet another project in the name of having a holiday.
Plan things in whatever way makes sense for you. Just don’t turn your holidays into torture.
Some people think they’re being incredibly productive by working through their holidays. I just think: what’s the point of taking time off, then? You may as well keep working.
Your brain benefits far more from switching off completely. When you return to work, you’ll perform much better. There’s plenty of research to back this up, if you want I’ll tell you more about it in future newsletters.
It all comes down to understanding how your body works, whether you want maximum enjoyment, rest or productivity.
Love,
Noemi
PS. click here for the meme.
PS2. don’t click here for the meme.
PS3. Oh! I forgot to tell you what the email from the American Psychiatric Association actually said. It was something about… I’d better save that for another email.
