How many times have you wanted to unleash unspeakable
violence on your holiday partner’s Blackberry/iPhone/Android/ while trying to
relax on a tranquil beach enjoying your holiday? Or maybe it is you sitting/lying there with
your fingers welded to the keypad, your ear finely tuned to the gentle
insistent ringing of your mobile, not able to chill as you need to be on alert
in case ‘the office’ should call.
Heard of the Workcation?
Some of the 72% of business owners that can’t take time off without
leaving their work behind are now taking these, just so they can keep an eye on
their businesses. Goodness, what are we
becoming? Addicted to ‘noise’, constantly in ‘plugged in’ mode, making up
things to think about in case we catch ourselves not thinking about things to
think about?
Mindfulness is trendy now.
In a business context it has been shown that increases in mindfulness
are associated with increased creativity and decreased burnout and an increase
in productivity. [1] [2] In the education field studies presented in The Power of Mindful
Learning [3] show that increasing mindfulness in learning, be it academic subjects,
sport or music, encouraged participants
to use objects more creatively and move
away from mindsets that hamper competence in learning. One study demonstrated that telling people
to mindfully notice new stimuli improved attention and memory.
Let’s reframe the way we are when we are supposedly ‘on
holiday’. Freeing our minds, finding
that freedom and personal space we used to have years ago before the digital
age forced us to be constantly accessible to everyone 24/7. Let’s learn to
stop, disengage and chill. Replace the digital
with daydreaming, the internet with introspection, texting with taking time
out, emailing with easing off ,
messaging with mindfulness. Not only
will we find ourselves being much more energised and creative when we return to
work, we will be a far nicer person to be with on holiday!
[1] (e.g., Langer, Heffernan, & Kiester, 1988) [2] (Park, 1990) [3] (Langer, 1997)
