Take a vacation! It's good for your health

My husband and I really enjoy traveling. We like seeing new places and experiencing new things. In the years we've been together, we've managed to take at least one vacation almost every year.

So far, our travels have taken us to Washington, D.C., Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, Niagara Falls — and we were fortunate enough to be able to take a cruise to the Bahamas for our honeymoon.

We are going back to D.C. this week with another couple, and we hope to take a couple of short trips later in the year.

However, many people don't take an annual vacation. Many people don't even take all of their paid time off from work.

According to the 2008 International Vacation Deprivation Survey results from Expedia.com, about one-third of employed U.S. adults usually do not take all of the vacation days they receive each year. They lose an average of three vacation days per year.

This adds up to a total of 460 million vacation days and an estimated value of $65.52 billion, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

That's a lot of time — and money — to give up to your company. Why would you want to let your company have time that you've rightfully earned?

One reason, according to Expedia.com's survey, is that 38 percent of women and 28 percent of men feel guilty about taking time off from work.

Many people also worry they will lose their job if they take a vacation, according to the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit center for research on the American work force. Their surveys show that in 1977, 45 percent of people felt truly secure in their jobs while only 36 percent have felt that way in recent years.

I have to admit that as a journalist, I'm one of those who is not totally secure about my job, or my industry. But I am not going to let that scare me away from taking my time — time that is guaranteed to me by the employee handbook.

Other people don't take vacations for reasons that have little to do with job security. They consider themselves indispensable or are too competitive to take the time off. Ambition and self-imposed getaway guilt all help explain why workers don't use all of their vacation days, according to a New York Times article.

Research also shows that even when American workers go away, they don't really get away. About one in five people do some work during vacation, according to the Families and Work Institute study.

Ken Siegel, president of Impact Group, a Los Angeles-based consortium of psychotherapists who counsel CEOs and other executives, rebuts this argument far better than I could. "There is no executive who is so indispensable that the enterprise will collapse in his absence. We're all going to die, and our companies will go on without us."

Agreed. This company was here before I got here; it will be here long after I leave.

Vacation time is important because it allows you to refresh, recharge and reconnect with your family. A true vacation - not just away from home, but away from the e-mail and the PDA - can help your health.

The Families and Work Institute study found that overworked employees are more likely to make mistakes and be angry at their employers and at colleagues who do not work as hard. These employees are also more likely to have higher stress levels, experience symptoms of clinical depression, report poorer health and neglect themselves.

However, the good news is former NASA scientists found that vacationers experienced an 82 percent increase in job performance after they came back from a trip, according to a Business Week article.

In order to get the full benefits of a vacation, you need to take at least a week off. Micro-vacations — taking two or three days off — do not deliver the same stress-reduction benefits as vacations that last one and two weeks, according to the Business Week article.

In 2007, 39 percent of American workers anticipated taking a full week off, then using their remaining time here and there, and only 14 percent plan to take a full two-week vacation in 2008, according to the Expedia.com study.

I fall into the one-week category. We'll return from D.C. with a couple days to spare, giving us a nice long weekend to rejuvenate at home before we go back to work. Then, I'll have a couple of vacation days to use for the rest of the year.

You won't find me letting my company have what I've earned. I plan to take every vacation hour alloted to me.

The way I see it, there's too much at stake for me not to take my vacation days, not just in terms of my health and stress levels, but in connecting with my husband. We enjoy new experiences together and the time away to just be with each other in a different environment. It encourages us to dream about changes we'd like to make, and we almost always come back relaxed and with a fresh perspective.

With such obvious benefits, why would you not want to take a vacation? You could do yourself - and your family - a world of good by going away.