Even though I have been following Seattle enlightened man John de Graff of Take Back Your Time Day fame for a while, I completely forgot his related campaign for a Right 2 Vacation act as I was writing about our need for vacations and lack of it in the US.

In March 2008, he shared his thoughts on the topic for Experience Life Magazine with powerful pointers such as Take a Break or Be Broken, More than Fond Memories and A Month of Sundays under the banner of health and wellness.

Funny coincidence as I noted in my previous No Vacation Nation piece that vacations should be included in Health Benefits.

Under Take a Break — or Be Broken , John de Graff quotes the author of Work to Live (Perigree, 2003), Joe Robinson, a former Los Angeles Times outdoor writer who is now a life-balance trainer stating that:

“Men reduce their risk of a heart attack by 30 percent and women by 50,” he adds, citing data from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study and a State University of New York at Oswego study. “There seems to be no positive effect when you just take a day off here and there. It may help you de-stress a little mentally, but it doesn’t reduce your risk of heart failure. You need a block of time to do that.”









Many of us know from personal experience that it often takes a week to decompress and another week to get meaningful rest at a snail pace (hence the illustration above, a 'grapesnail' from Wikipedia)

As Slow Planet puts it "Slow is not about doing everything at a snail's pace; it's about working, playing and living better by doing everything at the right speed."

Have a relaxing moment (or two) if not a relaxing day!

Related: In No Vacation Nation, She Wants 6 Weeks Summer Vacation, These Americans Settle for 3