The Importance of Vacations, for Stress Relief, Productivity and Health

Chanced upon these two wonderful articles, signifying the benefits and importance of vacations. Reproducing them for benefit of the wider audience.

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Vacations Are Important For More Than Just Fun...

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., 

Many people don’t take vacations often enough. In fact, according to a poll on this site, around half of readers don't take annual vacations; in fact, many readers never take them! And now with increasing frequency, when we do take vacations, we often bring work along with us, keeping ourselves essentially still in the work mindset we’re trying to escape. This is unfortunate for several reasons: 

• Vacations Promote Creativity: A good vacation can help us to reconnect with ourselves, operating as a vehicle for self-discovery and helping us get back to feeling our best.
• Vacations Stave Off Burnout: Workers who take regular time to relax are less likely to experience burnout, making them more creative and productive than their overworked, under-rested counterparts.
• Vacations Can Keep Us Healthy: Taking regular time off to ‘recharge your batteries’, thereby keeping stress levels lower, can keep you healthier.
• Vacations Promote Overall Wellbeing: One study found that three days after vacation, subjects' physical complaints, their quality of sleep and mood had improved as compared to before vacation. These gains were still present five weeks later, especially in those who had more personal time and overall satisfaction during their vacations.
• Vacations Can Strengthen Bonds: Spending time enjoying life with loved ones can keep relationships strong, helping you enjoy the good times more and helping you through the stress of the hard times. In fact, a study by the Arizona Department of Health and Human Services found that women who took vacations were more satisfied with their marriages.
• Vacations Can Help With Your Job Performance: As the authors of the above study suggest, the psychological benefits that come with more frequent vacations lead to increased quality of life, and that can lead to increased quality of work on the job.
• Vacations Relieve Stress in Lasting Ways: It should come as no surprise that vacations that include plenty of free time bring stress relief, but research shows that a good vacation can lead to the experience of fewer stressful days at least five weeks later! That means that vacations are the gift to yourself that keep on giving.

The bottom line is that taking a good amount of time away from the stresses of daily life can give us the break we need so that we can return to our lives refreshed and better equipped to handle whatever comes.

While not everyone is able to take a vacation, for those who can take several days or a few weeks off for a trip, I’ve compiled the following resources from some of About.com’s travel sites. These can help you plan the best type of trip for yourself so you can come back feeling ready for anything. (For those of you who can’t take off enough time for a traditional vacation trip, keep reading; I’ll have resources for you, too.)

  

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Take a Vacation – You and Your Brain Might Need It!

By Karen Merzenich  

I love to travel, and I somehow manage to squeeze in a lot more trips than most people I know. So when I see hard and fast research supporting the health benefits of vacation, it really piques my interest.

I recently read a somewhat unscientific article that talked about why vacation is good for your brain, and it mentioned the work of Adam Galinsky and William Maddux. Digging into Galinsky and Maddux’s research further, I found there is a fascinating body of work about how traveling affects creative thinking. Maddux et al have published research findings showing that multicultural learning experiences enhance creativity, and that living abroad improves creativity measures of insight, association, and generation. Jonah Lehrer reports that research conducted by Lile Jia shows that merely thinking about faraway lands increases output in a creative task.

Further research shows that vacation can have recuperative health benefits. A study in middle-aged men at high risk for heart disease showed that those who took annual vacations had a significantly lower mortality rate (over a 9 year period) than a non-vacationing cohort. In a Japanese study of white-collar workers, Tarumi et al concluded that leisurely vacations could be beneficial in maintaining health and controlling fatigue in workers. A follow-up study showed that the white-collar workers who took vacations were also less likely to be depressed and less likely to miss work.

All of this has me thinking that I had better plan another vacation so I can be even healthier and more creative! Of course, I should take into account the work of Strauss-Blasche et al., who found that how you organize your vacation can affect the health outcomes. For example, participants in that study who experienced enjoyable free time, warmer locations, exercise, good sleep, and meeting new people on vacation reported feeling better afterwards, while people who experienced vacation stressors like health issues, colder climates, and bigger time differences were more exhausted when they came home.

And finally, there’s neuroscientist David Eagleman’s view about why it’s important to travel to new and different places instead of the same place over and over again. He has reported that our  perception of time quickens with age, and says “travel[ing] to novel places… essentially puts you — neurally — in the same position as when you were a child.” That makes sense to me, as I’m always looking to visit a new and exciting place.

Rememberable Stay at Pheonix Park Inn, Goa.....Through QVI Club

In continuation of my previous blog, which can be seen here, I found myself somewhat bound to write a little about the place of our stay and the places which we could explore from that particular location.

My experience in this regard from the booking stage till return, along with stay at the Phoenix Park Inn Resort in between, has been one which our complete family will remember for years to come. Having completed my reservation formalities well in advance with the resort through Vanamala India and QVI, I finally called them up a week before scheduled date of departure to reconfirm. A very pleasant female voice confirmed the details most courteously.

So, we landed there as scheduled and had no problems in checking in and without any wastage of time

The Resort is very conveniently located in North Goa and just walking distance from Candolim Beach. It provides easy access to all the popular and most frequented beaches of Goa, especially in the North. Even the not so frequented and usually quiet ones up North are also easily reachable. The few but popular beaches of the South Goa though can be visited with little effort and advance planning.

The accommodation was cosy and inviting and adequately furnished and equipped. After a hectic outing for the complete day, it provided very homely atmosphere to cool down and chill out. The markets from where we could fetch our items of daily use were all in close proximity, and the number of eating joints was just amazing. We therefore did not waste the opportunity to try and relish the extremely popular sea food and that too prepared in true Goan style.

With well laid out beautiful surroundings and amenities, the resort can pride itself in providing opportunity to the inmates to just relax and forget their worries by either just lazing around or utilising the facilities available within it's boundary walls. It was very encouraging to see smiling and happy faces all around, and not surprisingly many of these happened to be of foreigners as well.

The various beaches and the other places which we were able to visit, and indulge in the fun and adventure activities available at these places, have been marked on the Google maps below. It was the start of the tourist season and there was colour and vibrancy all around, and the general mood was completely celebratory, something which added value and enjoyment to our stay.

It was a very memorable trip, coupled with an extremely comfortable stay at the resort, for our complete family........and felt bad that the week passed off so fleetingly. Anyway, it was completely value for money. Well, don't the photos speak for themselves!!!

It was in this very first outing of ours, courtesy the QVI Vacation Club membership, we realised the true potential and value of this MEMBERSHIP. Even in economic terms, the deal is a steal. Our complete family is now eagerly looking forward to similar and probably enhanced vacation experiences in the years to follow. Impatiently waitinggggggggggg..............

And, in case you are still wondering and debating why you should take your family out on vacations, then check the reasons over here. Thereafter, to understand the benefit of resorts over hotels, while on vacations, check out the details over here.

Happy New Year 2013

I Love This QNet Product.....The BIODISC

It was more than a year back. I was staying alone at Secunderabad, and my wife and son was to join me at this new station some time later. I had little to do on weekends. And, that’s what I told one of my senior retired officer when he gave me a courtesy call. “Then, why don’t you utilize the coming Sunday knowing about a wonderful opportunity I am engaged in, which is doing wonders for me?”, he said. “Sure, there is never a harm in knowing more and about new things”, I replied.

So, after obtaining the coordinates of the venue, I reached there dot on time on the scheduled day. The turnout was impressive. So, after the initial formal introductions, the presentation started. The speaker informed the audience that the presentation comprised of two parts. First, the HEALTH part; followed by, the WEALTH part.

I still remember that it was Ms Shalini, who had come all the way from Delhi, who conducted the presentation. And, for the first time in my life I got introduced to this wonderfully innovative product, the brain child of Dr Ian Lyons and the outcome of the advanced nanotechnology process. Those 45 minutes of the presentation were captivating and one listened in awe and saw and experienced the flexibility test, the strength test, the balance test and the taste test. I was left spellbound and surprised that such a simple piece of ‘glass like’ object had so many mysteries hidden within. I also appreciated the foresight of Dr Ian Lyons to innovate such a product which could convert ‘dead’ water to ‘living and charged’ water and we could do that sitting in the comforts of our homes. No need to climb those treacherous mountains to reach the elusive life springs!!! And, more than anything else, it was available for use by the complete family with numbers of members being insignificant.

While the presentation was on, my thoughts swayed for a moment, and I asked myself wondering, is this part of the presentation related to ‘health’ or ‘wealth’? That was because, to me ‘good health’ is ‘ultimate wealth’, and that’s what was being provided to me by this wonderful product called THE BIODISC.

What I did after returning from the presentation is more important. Having understood during the course of the presentation the importance of water, more so ‘live’ water, for our healthy living, I embarked upon researching and reading more about it on the internet.

I am not a doctor, but works of large number of doctors are available on the net. I searched for all related topics, including pH values,  and in the process I came across this wonderful article of Toxemia by Dr JH Tilden. It sort of summarized for me all the aspects related to the occurrence of a disease in human beings. What I learnt from it, I have summarized it in the following pictures.

This gave me a direct link of understanding with what I had been explained during the presentation. Firstly that our body is nearly 80% water, and secondly that water has two very important functions to perform. One, take nutrients to the cells and two, remove toxins from cells. The Biodisc has been designed to do this efficiently i.e. provide energy and nutrients to each body cell and, efficiently remove the toxins from there, all through the medium of water.  This was enough to cement my belief in the product and I quickly ordered for a family pack. One for our family, and the other one for use by my parents who stay away from us. 

Health of my aged parents has never been a cause worry (touchwood!!!), but definitely a point of concern for me, since they have no one physically present to attend to them in daily life. Falling unwell due to diminishing immunity and resistance level, owing to growing age would happen. They would thus resort to taking medicines, all sorts from allopathic, homeopathic to ayurvedic, something which I detested for fear of side effects of medicines. Thankfully, from the day they have started daily use of water charged with Biodisc for all possible activities, their frequency of falling sick has tremendously come down. And, if and whenever they do fall sick, the speed of recovery has become faster and the number of days the medicines need to be administered has reduced. 

At our home as well, we have put the Biodisc to every use possible. I remember this particular incident when our son, all of eight years, was alone at home while I was at office and my wife was away teaching at school. I get this call from my son, and crying inconsolably on the phone he tells me that he is bleeding profusely from the cut he has sustained near his eye owing to a fall on sharp edge of the glass table top. I did panic, but controlled myself quickly. We always have two spray bottles with super charged water in the house, one of which I carry to my office daily. The other is kept suitably accessible at home. So, I told him to first spray a lot of this super charged water on his wound, wet a handkerchief with the same water and then keep the wound tightly pressed with this wet handkerchief, while I would rush home in the car. He promised me to do that. It took me 25 minutes to reach home. I was extremely worried, but something in my heart was comforting me. On reaching home I was mighty relieved to find him cool, calm and composed with the bleeding having stopped. It was a big wound, but not meriting stitches. Having come to terms with the situation, I played with him for some time to distract him and then told him to keep spraying the super charged water on the wound every half an hour while I returned to the office. By the evening when I returned and to my surprise the wound had already started showing signs of healing. We discontinued our practicing of applying coconut oil on the wound before going for a bath for the fear of impeding the healing process. He continued as usual, and in a matter of just three days, he was as good as normal. And, being the type of sportsman that he is, every other day he returns with some bruises from playing football or cricket, and what he does without fail after reaching home is to spray the super charged water on his fresh bruises. No directions required. That’s the kind of faith the child has developed in the powers of this product.

And to top it all, this incident is ultimate. My wife has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and is taking daily dose of recommended medicine since last nine years. It was detected also as being an impediment affecting her conceiving, apart from other related problems. Once put on medicine, everything fell in the right place. A daily dose of 75mg of Thyronorm/Eltroxin was prescribed for her thereafter. All related symptoms of hypothyroidism got controlled once she started taking this daily dose. She would also periodically get her Thyroid Test done to see if any change in dosage of the medicine was warranted, but it remained unchanged at 75mg. It’s been little over a year now that we have started drinking water charged only once by Biodisc at home. And for the past few months she started complaining of some discomfort and uneasiness in daily life. At first we just did not care, but when it started persisting, she approached the doctor recently. She told him everything including her daily dose of medicine for hypothyroidism, except about drinking of water charged with Biodisc. He advised her to get her Thyroid test redone, as he had got one test done the previous year. And guess what the doctor tells her after seeing the test report……”Reduce your daily dosage of Thyronorm to 50mg forthwith.” A wonder, atleast not for those who know the true value of Biodisc. These snapshots of her two reports and related prescriptions will be proof enough.

This is actually in complete consonance with what I tell people when I introduce them to the Biodisc. Doctors prescribe us medicine to cure us. However, owing to intake and transportation of that medicine by unstructured dead water in our body, the quantity of medicine which gets absorbed by the cells is lesser than required and desired. So, in the follow up visits, the doctor increases the amount/dose of medicine to have the desired effect. While this may help, but also may lead to side effects due to obvious reasons. What happens with use of structurally charged and live water prepared with the help of the Biodisc is totally opposite. The cells are able to absorb maximum medicine with such kind of water, which at first instant may be felt as an ‘overdose’ as has become evident in the case of my wife. So, next time the good doctor has no option but to reduce the dosage, apart from probably wondering about the reason of quick recovery and improvement!!!

A similar sentiment has also been echoed by Mr Pratap from Nagpur, who suffers from Diabetes and whose video can be seen here.

Now, after all this recollection, do I still need to shout and proclaim which is my best QNet product??? No wonder and undisputedly it is THE BIODISC, our treasure house of WEALTH…..if Health really means Wealth for you. It should be. Thank you Dr Ian Lyons, thank you Amezcua and thank you QNet for providing us access to this life enhancing product and making it available at our doorsteps.

I will not try to reiterate and emphasise on the virtues of this excellent and remarkably technological innovation. The world is now well aware about it. The increasing demand and it’s making inroad into innumerous households is a proof enough of it’s known benefits. For those who are un-uninitiated, they can read more about it here and peruse the certifications given by world renowned organisations here  (the official site), and about many more related aspects here.