Vacation

Have you been feeling sluggish lately? Overwhelmed at work? Easily irritated?

These signs of stress can indicate that you're on the path to burning out, which can lead to depression, anxiety, and weight gain. And they may also mean that you're in serious need of a vacation.

Experts say it's important to take care of yourself at the first hint of burnout to ensure you're not working yourself into the ground.

So, if you're experiencing one or more of these signs, consider giving yourself a break to de-stress and clear your head:

You're always tired.

If you find yourself feeling tired more often than usual, ask yourself if it could be a symptom of a bigger problem. Chronic fatigue, in which you move slowly, take extra time to do daily tasks, and constantly feel drained, is a sign you're burnt out.

You don't take care of yourself.

When you're feeling overly tired or stressed, unhealthy habits begin to take over. If you find yourself constantly craving junk food, drinking more than usual, or relying on coffee to keep you moving, it might be time to take a load off.

You're overwhelmed.

You're always working, but still feel like you should be working more. Or maybe your heavy workload causes you to feel guilty when you don't complete everything you wanted to that day, forcing you to work more. Working yourself to the bone won't help you be more productive, so give yourself a break.

Your phone is a source of stress.

Phones can be helpful, allowing us to make sales, solve problems, and keep in touch with friends and family. However, if the sound of your ringer gives you anxiety or makes you feel overwhelmed, it's a sign you're getting burned out.

You have a negative attitude.

If you find your usually optimistic self constantly frustrated, cynical, or in a bad mood, it might be a sign that you need to recharge. Though everybody has their off days, if you're experiencing them more than normal, you need to take a step back.

You can't concentrate.

When you're mentally exhausted, it becomes difficult to concentrate, focus, and remember important information. If projects start to take twice as long as they should, or you find yourself re-reading things multiple times, it might be time to take a break. Once you recharge, you'll be able to be more productive.

You can't sleep.

If you're constantly thinking about the mountain of work you need to face the next day to the point where you can't sleep, it could be a sign that you're on the path to burning out. Though insomnia may start as trouble sleeping a few nights a week at first, it can turn into a nightly problem preventing you from getting any sleep, no matter how tired you are.

You're always thinking about work.

Even after you've left the office, you find yourself worrying about what might go wrong in tomorrow's meeting or a tiff you got into with a coworker earlier that day. If stress puts you constantly on edge, you'll likely forget the reasons you actually like your job.

You've lost your ambition.

Starting out, you push yourself to be the best at your job, to get promoted, and to help your company grow. But if you've lost your competitive spirit, you're probably stuck in a mental rut, which isn't doing your career any favors. Give yourself a break, and take time to rethink your goals.

If you are feeling any of these, you should probably go out and take a break from the daily routines.

Vacation !
Why we need it? Why is it necessary? What is should be?
People, busy with his cobwebs, entangled in his life, office, personal work. Daily routine reduces our life day by day, months by months. The time we realize this fact, it's too late to amend. In this dog race of competition, success and money, we almost forget the word "Life".
Whenever someone asks, "How's life going on?", we usually reply, "bus kat rhi hai yaar". We forget the fact that this is all we have, these breaths are all we have. A big chunk is wasting their lives indulged in petty things, forgetting that we can achieve higher goals and can serve higher motives.
Sometimes while crossing a busy road, I wonder how busy everybody is. Nobody is concerned about the person standing next to him. We are busy solving our own problems. It's like a monstrous snake engulfing a deer in the jungle. Problems, duties, work, goals, etc., we gave them so much priority that now they are engulfing our very own existence.
This is why we all need a vacation.
A beautiful place, where no worries are there, no tension, no deadlines, no responsibilities, is best for vacation. It is meant to rejuvenate a soul, to relax the 24 X 7 working mind, a tired body and to give yourself sometime to think, to introspect.

It's been proven that allowing your brain to day-dream allows you to better solve problems and be more creative.
Your brain operates on two levels: One side is task-focused and the other side is focused on letting your mind wander and daydream. As you can imagine, a hard worker like you is pretty much always in the task-focused mode, overworking your brain to stay engaged on something you must finish for work, all the while taking in an overload of information (a 2011 study claims everyday we process 174 newspapers' worth of info!).
Fact: The more (shorter) vacations you take, the happier you'll be.
As far as vacations go, the more the merrier. A study done at Erasmus University in Rotterdam found that among about 1,500 Dutch adults in which 974 of them took a vacation, those who took time off were happier than those who did not, mostly because they were excited in anticipation for their vacation. They also showed signs of slightly increased happiness for two weeks after they returned from vacation. So, the trick for success, says the study's leader, Jeroen Nawijn, seems to be taking two or more short breaks spread out in the year rather than one massive vacation. Spread out that happiness!
In fact, you should try to take a vacation day every single week (if you can). Your performance review this year could be higher if you just go take your vacation. Bosses who take vacations return to work as more focused business leaders.
                                                Work gives me happiness, undoubtedly. I love to learn new things, experimenting new things, after all I am an engineer. But on the vacation spot, I realized what a vacation can do. It relaxes the mind and fills a new energy in one self. It changes one's perspective towards life. Life is meant to be enjoyed.
There are times when I lock myself in my room and work for hours, considering that room as my world. But when I close my books and go for a little vacation, I see things with a different perspective. I appreciate the breeze, the drizzle, the birds chirping and the world drawn before us for us.
Vacation doesn't mean, a month long holiday and a cosy resort with a spa in the basement. Vacation can be of few minutes, sitting on a chair in the balcony. It can be trolling on the road while it's raining. It can be lying in the bed, while the lights are dim and the music is low. It can be sitting with your loved ones and laughing. It just means keeping everything aside and give your mind a little rest.