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out, Carlstrom recommends formulating a vacation plan that
works around your work habits.
“There is nothing wrong with
someone who wants to sprint
toward a deadline at work, but
the same person needs to realize that, just like a run, sprinting requires recovery,” she says.
“Recovery might mean taking
time off or it might mean slowing
down your pace for a little while.
Making sure you prioritize selfcare [should be] a standard.”
THEY UNPLUG.
Zen people know the value of
being out-of-touch for a little
while. With the constant alerts,
texts and emails, taking some
time to disconnect from devices and reconnect with the real
world is vital in maintaining
stress. A study conducted at the
University of California, Irvine,
found that taking an email vacation can significantly reduce a
worker’s stress and allow them
to focus better in the long-run.
Taking a moment to ditch your
phone and pay attention to the
world around you can actually be
an eye-opening experience. According to HopeLab President and
CEO Pat Christen, you may dis-
cover what you’ve been missing
out on when you’ve been staring
at your screen. “I realized several years ago that I had stopped
looking in my children’s eyes,”
Christen said at the 2013 AdWeek
Huffington Post panel. “And it was
shocking to me.”
Despite all the literature on
why it’s healthy to unplug, many
Americans still rarely take a
break from their work — even
when they’re on vacation. “It’s
our culture to be twenty-fourseven,” Carlstrom says. “People
have to give themselves permission to put down their smartphone, tablet and laptop
and do something else.”
HUFFINGTON
01.26.14