The American economic machine has had its clocks cleaned. According to the NY Times, 14% of recent college graduates are unemployed, and 23% aren't even looking for a job. Many millions can forget about taking any vacation as there's neither time nor money. Others feel lucky to enjoy a "staycation."
But there are ways to recharge, even without much money and time. The goal of many vacationers around the world is to rest, revitalize, and rejuvenate. If you really know how to rest you can have fun and help renew your brain and body pretty much anywhere, starting with these ways:
Reconnect - It's said that you spend the second half of your life reconnecting with people from the first half.
Remember the AV guy is high school? Did he become an internet entrepreneur or languish in Folsom prison? The internet can let you find people very fast even if there are six degrees of separation. Just imagine the stories you'll swap, a very pleasant form of social rest.
Reexperience - Can you recall your favorite childhood swimming hole? That special college hang out? The stadium where you met your spouse? Maybe they're near by and maybe they're not, but for this moment think of some of the most pleasant experiences in your life: it's fun to go back and see where they took place. You might learn a lot about yourself and where you've come from, potentially adding multiple layers of meaning to your life. Remember too, that memories are rebuilt every time they're retrieved. In many ways, to reexperience is to learn. That enriches our brain's memory stores, our brain "savings," which we depend on for judgement and creativity. Playing a childhood game with your own kids can refresh memories and give your children something new to take pleasure in.
Renew your body - Active rest activates the process by which your body rebuilds itself, which it does on a vast and fast scale. Find a pleasant place to walk and go there with a friend or relative. Even a quick 20-30 minute walk can let you grow new brain cells in memory areas. Those new memory storage cells will let you recall and enjoy many experiences, including your vacation without a vacation.
Take brief adventures - Do you know every state and county park in your area? Every museum, institute, historical battleground? As William Least Heat Moon described in his classic "Blue Highways," adventures are available virtually everywhere in America - if you bother to look.
So take a map and draw concentric circles of 10, 50, or a 100 miles. Check out through the Net or guidebooks what's available within each. Many people who try this discover wonderful parks they never knew existed. Others visit neighborhoods in their town or city that fascinate, amuse and surprise them - and obtain physical and mental rest at the same time.
Do something new and a little out of your comfort zone - Never kayaked before? Got on a Segway and rolled through a historical town tour? Humans love novelty and often it's close by. One of my best times came during a moonlight kayak trip set up by the American Littoral Society, where three miles from my home I saw things I never thought I'd see.
Learn about other lives - There are many ways to happiness, as Daniel Gilbert demonstrated in his book "Stumbling on Happiness," and many come by learning through the experiences of others. You may never fly in space, climb Everest, or dive 30,000 feet into the Marianas Trench, but you can meet people who have, speak with them and find out what it was like. Often people who have experienced great adventures are open and accessible.
And we can read about what they did. We can find out what it was like to bounce over the grey dust of the moon, to win the World Cup or the Tour de France, to paint a great painting.
There are lots of ways to vacation - alone or with friends, in the past or entirely in the present, reexperiencing pleasures while renewing mind and body. If you know how to rest you can recharge, rebuild, rewire, and relax anywhere and anytime. With active rest even a brief moment can spark an inner vacation.
