Supporting a Mentally Healthy Kelowna
Canadians miss out on an average of three earned vacation days every year.[1] While you may feel that’s a small sacrifice to make to get the job done, the consequences may be bigger than you think.
Canadians spend about a third of their lives in the workplace.[2] Even though it might seem productive to keep our noses to the grindstone, when we fail to disconnect, our job performance can actually decrease.[3] Plus, without work-life balance, we put our minds and our bodies at risk.
Travel offers a host of health benefits for your mind, body, and soul. It relieves stress, boosts happiness, strengthens mental resilience and increases cognitive flexibility. Vacations break the cycle of stress which permeates our daily lives, allowing us some time out from usual routines and allows us to gain a new perspective on our problems. After a successful trip we feel energized and refreshed and ready to take on the world again.
Travel can also lead to an improved connection to ourselves and others. Research shows that when we go beyond our social comfort zone and immerse ourselves into different cultures, we strengthen our personal identity and increase our confidence. Vacations also promote “shared experience” with others by fostering growing and enduring connections. Shared memories and time spent together, outside of usual mundane routines, help to promote these positive ties with family and friends.
All that said, when leaving your usual routine and surroundings, challenges might come up. One challenge is that traveling may cause symptoms of a mental health condition to flare. Regardless of whatever idyllic and peaceful location you are headed to, most people experience some level of stress both before and/or during any trip.
In our culture, we are mostly silent about suicide. But when celebrities die by suicide – as Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain did last week, the issue becomes front-page news. Anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide can attest to its utter devastation. This devastation becomes widespread when famous people die, as evidenced by the waves of social media posts and tributes to Spade and Bourdain. We try to make sense of celebrity suicides and we turn to the media for details. Robin Williams’ death in 2014 was widely publicized, and when Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, her death was glamorized in the media, including details of the method. The deaths of these two famous people led to an increase in suicides. That’s because sensational reporting can create “contagion,” where the suicide becomes the tipping point for people who are already at-risk.
CMHA Kelowna Charitable #: 10686 3392 RR0001
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The Standards Program Trustmark is a mark of Imagine Canada used under licence by Canadian Mental Health Association - Kelowna Branch.