Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Happy Hour #225: The Importance of Vacation
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Okay, this is Annie and Samantha.
- 0:07Speaker 2: I'm welcome to stuff I've never told your production of iHeart.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Radio, and welcome to another edition of Happy Hour where
- 0:22Speaker 1: we talk about random things sometimes and with that we
- 0:26Speaker 1: do happy hour ish things. Also, Annie, that means you
- 0:31Speaker 1: are you doing anything happy hour ish?
- 0:34Speaker 2: Yes? I have some rose.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Today, Rose to go with a rain.
- 0:39Speaker 2: I know. I feel like I was telling Samantha at
- 0:44Speaker 2: a very productive day and despite the dreary weather, I'm
- 0:49Speaker 2: gonna embrace I was outside and walking all about I'm
- 0:54Speaker 2: gonna embrace it.
- 0:55Speaker 1: Wait, did you wash your car? Because you usually wash
- 0:57Speaker 1: your car when you're when it's raining.
- 0:59Speaker 2: My car is clean because I gave it such a
- 1:01Speaker 2: thorough washing. Listeners, if you don't know, my car is
- 1:05Speaker 2: like the legend of my street. I never move it.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Google Maps.
- 1:10Speaker 2: It's been reported twice. So I have to clean it
- 1:14Speaker 2: when it rains because I don't have access to a hose.
- 1:17Speaker 2: It's maybe there's an easier way to do it, but
- 1:20Speaker 2: that is the way I've decided to do it. But
- 1:23Speaker 2: last time I cleaned it a couple months ago has stuck.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Okay, I love to hear it, love to hear it. Yes,
- 1:30Speaker 1: I am drinking my tea and bubble water so that
- 1:32Speaker 1: I can be productive, because if I drink anything adult
- 1:37Speaker 1: beverage rise it makes me a little sleepy. But yes,
- 1:42Speaker 1: we are doing our Happy Hour episode, and before we start,
- 1:45Speaker 1: because we're actually going to be talking about some fun things,
- 1:47Speaker 1: including about vacation, because just to get a little bit
- 1:51Speaker 1: inside of where we are, I am actually going to
- 1:53Speaker 1: be leaving the house my house for a few days
- 1:58Speaker 1: to go and get away from everything a little bit.
- 2:01Speaker 1: It's not like we're going to visit family, but it's
- 2:04Speaker 1: in an area that has a beach and a pool,
- 2:08Speaker 1: and so we get to enjoy some good quality time
- 2:11Speaker 1: with some family members as well as getting some water,
- 2:15Speaker 1: get to see some oceans, eat lots of crabs. I
- 2:18Speaker 1: hope that's the plan. So we're talking a little bit
- 2:20Speaker 1: about taking some time off and how that can help
- 2:22Speaker 1: your stress. But before we actually jump into that, we
- 2:26Speaker 1: want to give you an opportunity to take some time
- 2:29Speaker 1: off and let go of some stress as well by
- 2:33Speaker 1: joining us on a voyage that our friends at Virgin
- 2:37Speaker 1: Voyages are sponsoring this year twenty twenty six October second
- 2:42Speaker 1: through the seventh, where we are going to be doing
- 2:45Speaker 1: Stuff at Sea, which is a five night adults only
- 2:49Speaker 1: sailing trip that brings the Stuff podcasts to life on board. Yes,
- 2:54Speaker 1: you can come and see us record live while we
- 2:58Speaker 1: are on this voyage, and you can see other shows
- 3:01Speaker 1: like Stuff You Should Know and Stuff they Don't Want
- 3:04Speaker 1: You to Know also do their show live. Yes, it's
- 3:08Speaker 1: gonna be a really fun time. Hoping that you can
- 3:10Speaker 1: come and hang out with us if you, like many
- 3:13Speaker 1: of us, need to take a break. This is an
- 3:15Speaker 1: amazing opportunity. We would love for you to join us
- 3:19Speaker 1: on this voyage, So mark that in your calendar, go
- 3:22Speaker 1: to virgin Voyage dot com, slash stuff to get more
- 3:25Speaker 1: information and to go ahead and start planning. Yes, because
- 3:28Speaker 1: that actually helps you too with that. Yeah, So what
- 3:33Speaker 1: am I talking about? I just came across an amazing
- 3:36Speaker 1: video on my for you page on TikTok not a sponsor,
- 3:40Speaker 1: not a sponsor, but I do get a lot of
- 3:44Speaker 1: interesting information. And there was one creator who came on
- 3:48Speaker 1: talking about how vacations and just taking a long weekend
- 3:52Speaker 1: can be really good for you. So this is doctor
- 3:54Speaker 1: Alexis Kennedy who goes by stress decoder strategies on tektok
- 3:59Speaker 1: If you want to go follow her, But she came
- 4:02Speaker 1: on talking about how just going on an overnight week
- 4:05Speaker 1: long weekend trip maybe three to four days, can give
- 4:08Speaker 1: you so much relief in your stress level for up
- 4:12Speaker 1: to forty five days, so it can really actually help
- 4:15Speaker 1: you out as well as help with that burnout that
- 4:18Speaker 1: we've talked about many times. In fact, she said that
- 4:23Speaker 1: the research that they have come across just thinking about
- 4:27Speaker 1: going on a trip, planning, or being excited about going
- 4:31Speaker 1: on trips can actually be a stress reliever as well.
- 4:34Speaker 1: And I found that fascinating because again, I am going
- 4:37Speaker 1: away for a long, long weekend, not a full week,
- 4:41Speaker 1: I guess technically kind of a full week, but like
- 4:43Speaker 1: being able to just get out of the house, drive
- 4:46Speaker 1: a little further away, to see a scenic view that
- 4:49Speaker 1: I don't see every day, and just spend time with
- 4:52Speaker 1: people that I don't often see. I am a little excited,
- 4:56Speaker 1: I'm not like building up and how that actually is
- 4:59Speaker 1: really really good for you. Now we have talked about
- 5:01Speaker 1: previous episodes when women who are oftentimes in charge of
- 5:06Speaker 1: making these magical vacations, they are overwhelmed with stress and
- 5:10Speaker 1: it is not a vacation, so obviously there are two
- 5:13Speaker 1: sides to this coin, and we have to we would
- 5:16Speaker 1: definitely want to acknowledge that. But when it's something that's
- 5:19Speaker 1: just maybe where people are cooperative and helpful and everything
- 5:23Speaker 1: goes as planned, it's nice. It's nice to have that
- 5:27Speaker 1: time away, and I thought I would actually look into
- 5:31Speaker 1: this kind of conversation about why is it and how
- 5:34Speaker 1: does it actually really help. And there's a lot of
- 5:37Speaker 1: other different studies specific to specific groups, so we're not
- 5:41Speaker 1: going to get into those specific groups necessarily, but these
- 5:44Speaker 1: are a few of the ways that actually does help you.
- 5:46Speaker 1: And this is from Jifalgar dot com about the scientifically
- 5:50Speaker 1: proven way that travel helps reduce stress, and it says
- 5:54Speaker 1: one it can help you stay fit and healthy. So
- 5:57Speaker 1: we know when a lot of times people like to
- 5:59Speaker 1: go on to the adventures where they're hiking, where they're
- 6:02Speaker 1: being able to swim, where they're able to walk around.
- 6:04Speaker 1: If you're going to like Europe from the US that
- 6:07Speaker 1: alone you're just walking about, or even Asia and Asian countries,
- 6:10Speaker 1: the amount of walking that you have to do oftentimes
- 6:13Speaker 1: gives a lot more like exercise. I remember, I know,
- 6:16Speaker 1: like every time I hear people talking about going to
- 6:19Speaker 1: Europe or going to Korea South Korea. Even they talk
- 6:23Speaker 1: about how they felt like they had lost so much
- 6:25Speaker 1: weight because even though they were doing a good amount
- 6:28Speaker 1: of eating, the constant walking was always helpful. Right. And
- 6:32Speaker 1: then also for me when I travel, I always try
- 6:35Speaker 1: to find a place that I can go hiking. Yea
- 6:37Speaker 1: and so go too. I have to. So when we
- 6:39Speaker 1: went up to Upstate New York, we went into some
- 6:41Speaker 1: hikes because I needed to see some of the waters.
- 6:43Speaker 1: Apparently there were river otters I did not see any.
- 6:46Speaker 1: I was very sad about that. When we went to Seattle,
- 6:50Speaker 1: we went to Mount Rainier and it was a gorgeous,
- 6:52Speaker 1: gorgeous area. My partner I laughed about the fact that
- 6:55Speaker 1: we went to one of the highest climbs, very underprepared,
- 7:00Speaker 1: one bottle of water, and I'm like, this was not
- 7:02Speaker 1: a smart idea, to the point that we had to
- 7:04Speaker 1: ask some young and I'm like, is it worth the view?
- 7:06Speaker 1: Because if it's not, I'm not going. Mistakes were made,
- 7:10Speaker 1: mistakes were made that way. But when we got back
- 7:12Speaker 1: that hot chocolate, it hit a different way.
- 7:16Speaker 2: Yeah, the post hiking, I deserve some relaxation moment is great.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Whether it's like I need a dessert, I need extra carbs,
- 7:28Speaker 1: or I need alcoholic beverages like it just it's a
- 7:31Speaker 1: whole different level. I'm like, Yes. Another thing they say
- 7:36Speaker 1: helps with is it keeps your mind sharp, and it
- 7:39Speaker 1: tell us about how it helps. It helps you regulate
- 7:43Speaker 1: your emotional stability as well as causing creativity and personal awareness.
- 7:49Speaker 1: I was like, okay, that that does make it like
- 7:52Speaker 1: you have to quickly figure out what you're doing, as
- 7:56Speaker 1: I found out in France when I went on the
- 7:57Speaker 1: wrong train.
- 7:59Speaker 2: Oh they told me like that. In France, I got
- 8:02Speaker 2: yelled at by a conductor once.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Yes, for me, I got lost and went the wrong way.
- 8:08Speaker 2: I didn't fill out the ticket correctly, and I could
- 8:12Speaker 2: speak in right French, so it's extra emparrasing.
- 8:15Speaker 1: Oh I could not. I had to have someone to
- 8:17Speaker 1: help me. Here's the thing about that. Even though that
- 8:20Speaker 1: was stressful, Yes, you do have to try to figure
- 8:22Speaker 1: it out. I think one of the biggest I feel
- 8:24Speaker 1: like triumphs is figuring out the subway system for New York.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Even though that one time we went the wrong way
- 8:30Speaker 1: and we ended up in New Jersey. We're fine. I'm
- 8:33Speaker 1: fine with that, but trying to get that when you
- 8:37Speaker 1: actually feel like you've conquered and you know where you're going,
- 8:40Speaker 1: there's some level of accomplishment.
- 8:42Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well it's nice to me. It feels like
- 8:46Speaker 2: the satisfaction you get when you figure out a puzzle. Yeah, yes,
- 8:50Speaker 2: I get this now, I understand.
- 8:53Speaker 1: Yes, and you're like, oh, this place is gonna take
- 8:55Speaker 1: me here, and this place is this goes this direction,
- 8:57Speaker 1: because that's the part that I I'm afraid going the
- 8:59Speaker 1: wrong way, which again, apparently I struggle with trains. Obviously
- 9:03Speaker 1: subways would be the same thing as the our trains
- 9:04Speaker 1: as well, and they just go two ways, and but
- 9:06Speaker 1: they go the opposite way, so trouble occurs. We've done
- 9:10Speaker 1: that with the buses too. The dude was like, where
- 9:12Speaker 1: is she trying to go? The driver was like, no,
- 9:15Speaker 1: you're on the wrong You've been on the wrong one
- 9:16Speaker 1: for like twenty minutes. Fair enough.
- 9:18Speaker 2: I hate when you get on the express and it's
- 9:21Speaker 2: too late. You know you're going have to go a
- 9:25Speaker 2: long way before you could correct your mistake. There's nothing
- 9:28Speaker 2: you can do about it.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Nothing you can do. But when you conquer that and
- 9:33Speaker 1: you realize you know exactly what to do, how to
- 9:35Speaker 1: get on how to use that pass. And look, I
- 9:37Speaker 1: know for many of y'all who do have good public transportation,
- 9:40Speaker 1: you're like, really really for us in Atlanta who just
- 9:44Speaker 1: got our Marta to actually upgrade in some way which
- 9:47Speaker 1: is not even gonna last guarantee, and it doesn't go
- 9:50Speaker 1: outside of like a twenty mile perimeter, So y'all that's
- 9:54Speaker 1: a huge accomplishment. Okay, But yeah, stuff like that does
- 9:59Speaker 1: feel like, oh my god, I get it. I know
- 10:01Speaker 1: what I'm doing, and it does feel good. Another way
- 10:14Speaker 1: vacations help. It helps ward off burnout, So they talk
- 10:17Speaker 1: about how you can actually take time to relax and recharge,
- 10:21Speaker 1: hopefully having those moments. One of the best things in
- 10:24Speaker 1: really getting to a point in understanding how you vacation
- 10:28Speaker 1: is being able to plan around that. So for me,
- 10:32Speaker 1: I make sure I don't have too many activities in
- 10:35Speaker 1: one day so that I can come back and sit,
- 10:37Speaker 1: because if you have too many make me do too
- 10:39Speaker 1: many things, if I have to talk to too many people,
- 10:41Speaker 1: if I have to do too many activities, I'm gonna
- 10:43Speaker 1: crash out and it's gonna feel stressed and I'm gonna
- 10:46Speaker 1: want to, like the next thing, not talk to anybody.
- 10:48Speaker 1: Don't do anything. So for me, I figured out how
- 10:51Speaker 1: this works where I can wake up when I want
- 10:53Speaker 1: to have breakfast at this time, go home and recharge
- 10:56Speaker 1: for a couple of hours, or go to the hotel,
- 10:58Speaker 1: go do your other thing, come back and like not
- 11:01Speaker 1: not crampact. I can't do crampact. That is not my style.
- 11:05Speaker 1: I know some people love that and he's got heart
- 11:07Speaker 1: scheduled down to a te okay, but.
- 11:10Speaker 2: I've had to learn it's for the best if we
- 11:15Speaker 2: adapt to each other exactly and I do my thing exactly,
- 11:19Speaker 2: you do your thing, and we meet up where later
- 11:22Speaker 2: is best.
- 11:23Speaker 1: Like the first time, was it the first time or
- 11:26Speaker 1: the second time? We hung out at like a park
- 11:29Speaker 1: and you were like gone. I was like, you know what,
- 11:32Speaker 1: I need to go back to the room for about
- 11:34Speaker 1: two hours. You go do your thing. I'll find you later.
- 11:37Speaker 1: And you're like okay. But knowing that you are very
- 11:40Speaker 1: like able to be alone, you are able to You've
- 11:42Speaker 1: got your plans and it didn't hurt your feelings for
- 11:45Speaker 1: me to be like I need to go lay down. No.
- 11:48Speaker 2: In fact, it's a situation where I do love to
- 11:52Speaker 2: share things with people, but it's not fun sharing things
- 11:56Speaker 2: with people if they're miserable.
- 11:59Speaker 1: So you would rather me tell you I need to
- 12:01Speaker 1: rest rather than be miserable whole time and making you
- 12:03Speaker 1: miserable and anxious.
- 12:05Speaker 2: Yeah, being like anxious that you're not having fun. I
- 12:07Speaker 2: would rather you tell me what you want to need
- 12:12Speaker 2: go do that.
- 12:13Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes I'm down.
- 12:15Speaker 2: The things that I really want you to do with me,
- 12:18Speaker 2: I will tell you. Yes, yes that I think that
- 12:20Speaker 2: you would also, SIMI like.
- 12:23Speaker 1: But also I think you and I had like a
- 12:26Speaker 1: moment of like, Okay, these are the things I can do,
- 12:29Speaker 1: so let's do it up here like we made you
- 12:31Speaker 1: to plant it out. Yes, So being able to communicate
- 12:34Speaker 1: and work that out is good. I again like you,
- 12:38Speaker 1: if you can figure that out, it does really help
- 12:41Speaker 1: you to recharge. I know that sometimes I just want
- 12:43Speaker 1: to sit in a beautiful sceny, beautiful scenery, like one
- 12:46Speaker 1: one for because my birthday. I for some reason, I
- 12:50Speaker 1: love traveling and getting out and doing things. That's kind
- 12:52Speaker 1: of my thing. And like one birthday, we just went
- 12:55Speaker 1: up in the woods and all I want to do
- 12:58Speaker 1: is sit by the water and hang out. That's just it.
- 13:02Speaker 1: That's all I wanted to do. And it was lovely.
- 13:04Speaker 1: It made me very happy. That's a great time to me.
- 13:08Speaker 1: Another thing that this article says is a big mood
- 13:11Speaker 1: booster that found that after just three days on a holiday,
- 13:15Speaker 1: the participants quality of sleep, mood, and physical complaints had
- 13:19Speaker 1: all improved, so literally just three days. Sometimes it doesn't
- 13:24Speaker 1: feel like enough when you enjoy it too much, when
- 13:26Speaker 1: you're enjoying it so much, rather that like you want more.
- 13:29Speaker 1: But just having that moment to step away, to truly
- 13:32Speaker 1: step away, it does. It kind of makes you feel refreshed.
- 13:36Speaker 1: I remember during COVID when we weren't traveling and I
- 13:39Speaker 1: just felt so stuck and like a little bit claustrophobic
- 13:43Speaker 1: because we hadn't gone anywhere, we hadn't done anything, we
- 13:45Speaker 1: hadn't seen too many people. I would turn on the
- 13:48Speaker 1: TV of like vacation sites. To that point, my partner
- 13:53Speaker 1: would download vacation sites on his VR system so I
- 13:57Speaker 1: could sit out and pretend like I was there.
- 14:01Speaker 2: I remember that the VR stage of the COVID lockdown.
- 14:07Speaker 2: I remember that I just needed it.
- 14:09Speaker 1: I just needed to be able to like pretend like
- 14:11Speaker 1: I was stepping away. Another of the way that it
- 14:16Speaker 1: helps it shakes up your routine and offers a new
- 14:19Speaker 1: perspective being able to see different types of landscape. It
- 14:22Speaker 1: really does feel so wholesome and recharging, like going through
- 14:28Speaker 1: the woods of Washington State versus wait, like because we
- 14:33Speaker 1: have tons of trees here in Georgia. But it's different.
- 14:36Speaker 1: It is completely different. Obviously, the landscape is different, the
- 14:40Speaker 1: looks are different, the like the mountains are different, the
- 14:43Speaker 1: architecture is different. So just having that just being changed.
- 14:48Speaker 1: So one of the best decisions that we did was
- 14:50Speaker 1: to rent a car and to drive through from Portland
- 14:53Speaker 1: to Mount Rainier and just being able to see the
- 14:56Speaker 1: sites that was completely different. Like I get nervous sometimes
- 14:59Speaker 1: obviously driving, but it was such a nice change.
- 15:03Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's one of the things I love
- 15:06Speaker 2: about traveling is there is a big kind of upfront
- 15:11Speaker 2: stress for me because you know you're going to a
- 15:14Speaker 2: new place, You're thinking about the logistics and all of that.
- 15:16Speaker 2: But when you get there and you see all of
- 15:19Speaker 2: these new things just kind of revives me. It kind
- 15:24Speaker 2: of wakes up my brain. It's like, oh, I've never
- 15:27Speaker 2: seen like I remember the first time I was driving
- 15:29Speaker 2: to like the west of the United States. I never
- 15:34Speaker 2: seen like nature like that, And it was beautiful and
- 15:39Speaker 2: I still think about it. So I do think that
- 15:41Speaker 2: having that having those moments of like, oh wow, this
- 15:46Speaker 2: is so different from where I where I.
- 15:49Speaker 1: Am, Yeah, yeah it does, it does, and what it
- 15:53Speaker 1: actually helps improve your productivity and creativity later, Like it
- 15:57Speaker 1: kind of shakes you up and gives you a different perspective.
- 15:59Speaker 1: I think that all the time when you're like you
- 16:02Speaker 1: feel like you're in a rut or you're in limbo
- 16:05Speaker 1: because you can't think of what you need to do
- 16:07Speaker 1: next because we've done this for that episode of that
- 16:09Speaker 1: idea is we're like, oh my god, what we gonna do?
- 16:11Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? And then being able to
- 16:13Speaker 1: take adventures or just step away and seeing letting it go.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Oftentimes it helps revamp something or whether it's like coming
- 16:21Speaker 1: back to old hobbies and realizing, oh you haven't talked
- 16:24Speaker 1: about this or or do it just or how much
- 16:26Speaker 1: I used to love this, Like it's such a nice
- 16:30Speaker 1: change up when you can just let it go because
- 16:32Speaker 1: you're not so intensely focused on productivity that that productivity
- 16:38Speaker 1: kind of comes along later. I love that. I miss that.
- 16:43Speaker 1: I need that obviously, and with that, yes, we want
- 16:47Speaker 1: you to take time. Whether again it's like just a
- 16:49Speaker 1: three day weekend where you take off to go up
- 16:53Speaker 1: the road, up the up the state or downstate and
- 16:57Speaker 1: go visit your local areas, like the in state vacations.
- 17:02Speaker 1: We have Savannah and that's not too far away from us,
- 17:05Speaker 1: which has some different scenery, familiar because we've been there before.
- 17:09Speaker 1: I've been there before, but still different. And it's nice
- 17:11Speaker 1: to see going to like Charleston, which is not too
- 17:15Speaker 1: far again, we're going to visit family down at the beach,
- 17:19Speaker 1: so it'll be nice to get to there and to
- 17:21Speaker 1: have a moment to separate and seeing people have fun
- 17:24Speaker 1: on the beaches. Hopefully you know, not all the time,
- 17:27Speaker 1: but you know, for this time, get to eat crabs,
- 17:32Speaker 1: local shrimp.
- 17:33Speaker 2: Got to keep me updated.
- 17:35Speaker 1: I need this any.
- 17:39Speaker 2: I am very happy for you, and I do want
- 17:42Speaker 2: to know about the seafood you eat. I will be
- 17:45Speaker 2: very jealous.
- 17:47Speaker 1: Well, we need to come back because I know, like
- 17:49Speaker 1: we haven't gone to get oysters in a while. It's
- 17:52Speaker 1: a long time. We got to make up for that.
- 17:54Speaker 1: But yeah, so for you our listeners, who I know
- 17:58Speaker 1: have been probably overstressed as well. I hope that you
- 18:02Speaker 1: are able to take that time to give yourself some
- 18:06Speaker 1: recharging and then yeah, if you have some time in
- 18:09Speaker 1: October and want to come hang with us on a voyage,
- 18:13Speaker 1: go to virgin Voyage dot com slash stuff, get some
- 18:17Speaker 1: more information and come hang out with us.
- 18:19Speaker 2: Yes, we're pretty fun. Despite our topics, we're pretty fun,
- 18:29Speaker 2: So yes, come hang out with us. You can email
- 18:33Speaker 2: us in the meantime at Hello at Stuffmanenever told You
- 18:36Speaker 2: dot com. You can find us on Blue Scott Mom
- 18:38Speaker 2: Stuff podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff won
- 18:41Speaker 2: Never told You. We're also on YouTube. We have some
- 18:43Speaker 2: merchandise at coom hero and we have a book can
- 18:45Speaker 2: get where if you get your books. Thanks is always
- 18:47Speaker 2: to our superroducer Casey and our executive producer Maya.
- 18:50Speaker 1: Thank you, and thanks to.
- 18:52Speaker 2: You for listening. Stuff Whenever Told You is production by
- 18:54Speaker 2: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you
- 18:56Speaker 2: can check out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast wherever
- 18:58Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Yeah