Let’s have a chat. Some of you just don’t know how to relax.

You’re busy almost every minute of every day.

As soon as there’s even a teeny tiny inkling of a hint of life getting a little easier, you’re subconscious says, “PERFECT. This is a PERFECT time to add more to my plate.” And thus continues the snowball effect of not being able to wade in the relaxing waters of less to do. (Me = guilty).

Chances are, if you or your spouse are in medicine or some other demanding field, the personality trait of the inability to relax is even more glaring.

So here I am. Hello.

Today’s PSA is all about taking vacations.

When my husband was in residency, I was ASTONISHED that so many of other residents completely ignored the fact that they were allotted 3 weeks of vacation per year. In fact, Americans, in general, pretty much suck at taking vacations. Glassdoor published results of a survey back in 2017 (check it out HERE) which said that only 23% of Americans used all of their allotted vacation time that year. Totally bonkers.

But not us…no, no. My husband took ALL of his weeks of vacation in residency. Every one. And, BONUS, was even able to eek out some long weekends, too, when possible. And no, he’s not lazy. He wasn’t avoiding work. He was SMART. I’ll get to all of the reasons why he/we did this, don’t worry.

But first, I am here to tell you that these three weeks of vacation per year were life-changing for us and are likely to be for you, too. Prioritizing this time for us was indeed one of the best decisions we have EVER. MADE. When I think back on those five long years, as if traveling down a long, winding, seemingly never-ending highway, each time we hit a vacation, heart emojis and butterflies pop out. Vacations were CRITICAL to our success as a thriving couple during these difficult times of stress and strain.

Let’s pop back in time real quick-like.

What made us decide to prioritize vacation?

Other than the fact that we desired to travel for fun, comradery, and adventure, 1. We knew we wanted to have kids sometime and we didn’t want to regret not traveling before, because we anticipated that having kids would…complicate things (in good and bad ways! Turns out we were right). 2. We didn’t have any debt other than medical school debt, and during most of the residency years, we were DINKS (Dual-income, no kids), which made our financial situation slightly more supportive of our endeavors.

So we made the decision to take all three weeks his program allotted each year. Our rough plan was to use a long weekend or a week to visit my family each year. They live in Alabama. We lived in Seattle. (Still do, actually). Read more about our drama of choosing to live far away from my family HERE, if you haven’t already. It’s quite the story.

Then, with the other available two weeks, we went BIG. No, we didn’t spend a ton of money. We couldn’t afford (and didn’t need) luxurious accommodations or expensive meals, but we got out of our comfort zone in terms of going places that were unfamiliar. So, I’m going to make a little chart here in case your curious mind wonders where we ended up:

Year of Residency	Vacation Week 1	Vacation Week 2	Vacation Week 3	Weekend Trips
PGY1 (2010-2011)	Victoria, BC	Oahu (Hawaii)	Alabama	Whidbey Island, Portland, Camping on Washington coast in a yurt
PGY2 (2011-2012)	Sayulita, Nayarit (Mexico) This was BEFORE Bachelor in Paradise discovered it 🙂	Anchorage, Alaska	Vegas, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park	Rochester, NY, Auburn, AL (for Singer’s reunion), Lake Chelan
PGY3 (2012-2013)	San Pedro, Belize	Alabama	Hong Kong(!!)	Camping in Snohomish, Olympic Peninsula, Friday Harbor, Leavenworth, San Juan Island
PGY4 (2013-2014)	Charleston, SC, Winston-Salem, NC	Puerto Rico	Barbados	Lake Tahoe, UT, Oregon Coast
PGY5 (2014-2015)	Break for having baby 🙂	Break for having baby 🙂	Arch Cape, OR	Bend, OR, Alabama, Portland, Destin, FL

I know, I know. Your program may not have a culture of supporting time off. It’s too hard to get coverage. You get pushback from faculty when you talk about it. You’ll look like a slacker. You may miss an important conference your hospital is hosting. You will miss valuable instruction or that case you really wanted to see.

Trust me, there will always, ALWAYS be 12,000 reasons not to go. But let me tell you why you should do it anyway.

Reasons Why Vacation is Important in Residency

1. You NEED time away in order to emotionally recharge your relationship.

Residency is fraught with stressors that impact all members of the family. Prioritizing time together, just you and your spouse (okay, your kids can come, too!), sends a message that your relationship is valuable and worth investing in. Time together, alone, can do a lot to repair strain that has been building underneath the surface. Or right smack on top.

For us, we sometimes brought more baggage on vacation than we physically packed, ifyaknowwhatImean. In fact, there were times we had important things to discuss and had simply not found the time in our daily lives until we found ourselves alone on some tropical island. So we’d take some time to address whatever was going on in our lives and hearts (which took longer on some vacations than others). Maybe it was how God was changing our heart about something, or how we were feeling about having kids in the future, etc. (This particular subject was a big one for us and I wrote about it in a family planning series, starting HERE). Then, we’d enjoy the rest of the time with an even deeper appreciation of each other, as well as a stronger connection.

2. You will not get that vacation time back later.

Residency is salary-based, with vacation time already factored in. So, should you choose not to take it, it is literally the equivalent of WORKING THREE WEEKS FOR FREE. So do yourself a favor and get paid to sit on a beach somewhere instead. K?

3. You actually DO need the physical and mental break in order to avoid burnout.

Burnout is real. Residency can have a very serious effect on the mental and physical states of new docs. Lack of sleep and high levels of stress are CLEARLY linked to a plethora of health problems…high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, to name a few. (Check out more about the impact of sleep deprivation in THIS article by the NICHD).

The AMA suggests in a 2016 article linked HERE, that preventing burnout requires a multifaceted approach focusing on nutrition, emotional health, fitness, financial health, mindset behavioral adaptability, and preventative care. Vacations can have a significant positive impact on the emotional health side of things, as they are linked to stress reduction, improved productivity, and better sleep, according to Inc.com HERE.

There’s no way around it. The positive impact of a vacations are numerous. Your burnout bucket gets emptied. Then hopefully it doesn’t overflow again before the next vacation you have to look forward to.

4. You freaking earned it.

Whether you’ve been working the millions of hours at the hospital or spent the millions of hours supporting someone at the hospital, this is a break you’ve earned with your hard work. Allow yourself, for goodness sakes, to accept that you deserve something to do for you. After all, you’ve been giving and giving pieces of yourself to your patients, to benefit their health. This is something you can do to positively impact your own emotional and physical health. Your doctor would surely recommend it. 🙂

5. You will not wish you had your vacation money back.

It’s true. After every single trip we’ve taken, we were nervous about spending the money, but retrospectively so glad to have spent our money investing in a much-needed break. We never regretted where we put our dollars. And looking back, now that we’ve finally entered “attending land,” would have seemed REALLY silly to have not taken vacations because of money. I am definitely not trying to sound braggy, but just giving you real talk. It is possible to be conservative and responsible with your finances in residency, and still go on vacation and have a good time.

Side note for all of you medical students and spouses out there: we still took vacations in med school and you can and should, too! We just did things on a very tight budget…so mostly road trips and visits where family lived! Be creative! But my advice is to get out there!

Welp – that’s all for today, friends! The people who need vacations the most are probably the least likely to take them, and I hope you will take them! And if you already do, then SUPER! Keep up the good work. 🎉🎉

I can’t WAIT to hear about all of the vacations you are planning! Drop me a comment with some of your favs! 👇We’ll be planning another so soon!

Until next time, my friend!!! I’d love, LOVE to connect between blog posts. So say hello over on my Facebook group or Instagram! See you there!!!

And if you’re interested in checking out some of my fav pics from these vacays…here they are! Enjoy!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•