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In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Jens Pruessner, an associate professor in the departments of psychology, psychiatry, neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University in Montreal stated “A vacation is not a luxury, It’s an investment in your health.”

Alan Feldstein in Hammock

Alan Feldstein in Hammock

According to the article a vacation is a chance to get away from many of the stresses you can’t get away from in your everyday life (your boss, your commute, the chaos that is your home). It also means taking vacations that truly let you get away and not substitute one stress for another (like taking a camping trip with your in-laws if they make you nutsy). Making your vacation as stress-free as possible pays off, according to a 2010 study in the Netherlands. When researchers looked at how happy people were after taking vacations, only those who felt very relaxed while they were away were happier than people who hadn’t taken a trip at all.

The same study also found that people who were busy planning a vacation were happier than those who had no vacation to plan – so even when a vacation turned out to be a dud, the time spent planning it may have made it all worthwhile.

While all of this may seem obvious (did you really have to study that?) how many of us say “I can’t leave for a vacation. I have too much to do.” Yet how many of us also hear that no one is going to be remembered at there death for how much time they spent at their desk. “Someday is now” or as we say at IKA – “Memories are made of the things you do – not the things you wish you had done.” Start planning that vacation and make it a memorable one.