Wellness Tip

Entering the National Radio Quiet Zone, which stretches 13,000 square miles across eastern West Virginia, you might feel like you’ve stepped back in time. There’s no cell service, no Wi-Fi, and the radio only picks up the lowest-frequency stations.

The zone surrounds and protects the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where the massive Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope tracks and reads energy waves from stars in galaxies thousands of light-years away.

The community is so serious about disconnection that it even has “RFI Policemen,” roving disconnection cops who come after anyone who produces any radio frequency interference.

Tech-free spaces have flourished in recent years. Some are one-off gimmicks like Kit Kat’s “Free No-WiFi Zone” campaign. Others are more immersive, like the London restaurant the Bunyadi, which banned phones, turned off the electricity, illuminated tables by candlelight, cooked food over an open fire, and even banned clothes. (Perhaps too far for some of us.)

Here are a few key times and spaces to create no-phone zones in your home:

1. Drive Time 

We already know we shouldn’t be texting, browsing, or dialing while at the wheel. Here’s the next step: Even if you’re just along for the ride, try locking your phone away. How many friendships have been forged in the idle time on road trips? How many family challenges have surfaced on rides home from school? How many new ideas pop up while staring out the window at passing scenery?

2. TV Time 

If you’re in the habit of scrolling through your phone while streaming Netflix, you’re not alone: According to a 2018 study, over 178 million Americans report using another device while in front of the TV. This is known as media-multitasking, and neuroscientists warn that it’s bad for our brains. In tests of attention and working memory, heavy media multitaskers perform notably worse than those who stick to a single screen. So savor leisure — and save your memory — by watching one thing at a time. 

3. Dinner Time 

For millennia, humans have connected with one another over shared meals. Having phones out at the table — even if we’re not actively engaging with them — diminishes the quality of our interactions by suggesting that our attention could be drawn away at any time. Banish phones to restore the dinner table as a site of emotional, intellectual, and physical nourishment.

4. Bed Time 

There are lots of good reasons to keep our phones far away from our beds: The screen’s blue light disrupts our body’s melatonin production; the addictive allure of social media keeps us scrolling mindlessly past our bedtimes; the way phones distract us from downtime with our partners; the non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation they emit that our body tissue absorb… Here’s a tip: If you use your phone alarm to wake up in the morning, swap it for a physical alarm clock.

Need a phone-free zone? Book Your Getaway today.

In the 2015 essay for The New York Times, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This,” Mandy Len Catron wrote about a study psychologist Dr. Arthur Aron had conducted at Stony Brook University 20 years earlier. 

Aron wanted to explore whether it was possible to create feelings of closeness between people who didn’t know each other. To do so, he asked pairs of strangers to sit in his lab and talk to each other for 45 minutes — some made casual small talk while others were given a set of 36 questions to ask each other, questions that grew more and more personal as the list went on. 

By the end of the session, two of the strangers who’d asked each other deep questions had fallen in love. Six months later, they got married and invited everyone from the lab to the wedding.

Catron took the 36 questions from Aron’s experiment on a first date to try them out herself, and her experiment worked – she and her date fell in love. But this isn’t just a story about romance, she cautions: “It’s about what it means to bother to know someone, which is really a story about what it means to be known.”

Here are the first five of Aron’s questions to start asking your loved ones to get to know them, and yourself, even better. 

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, who would you want as a dinner guest?

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?

4. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you? 

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

If you’re talking with a partner, take turns answering each question, alternating who answers first each time. Make eye contact as you answer. Remember to be honest, even if it makes you feel nervous or vulnerable.

Additionally, be an active listener —  there’s no point in asking deep questions if you zone out during the answers. Push your conversations further by asking follow-up questions and challenging basic assumptions, including: 

• Why do you think that?
• Have you always felt this way?
• What caused you to change your mind?

You don’t need to replicate a landmark psychological study to get into the habit of asking deep questions. Next time you find yourself engaging in small talk about work or weather, switch gears and ask your companions something more meaningful.

Ready to make meaningful connections? Book your Getaway today.

How are you upgrading your relationship to technology? One habit to consider implementing into your week is the digital sabbath — reserve one full day each week for taking a break from digital technology. Observing a digital sabbath allows you to slow down and enjoy time to rest — and not just rest that’s about recharging for more work later, but rest that reminds us that we are human beings, not human doings. 

Choose One Day a Week to Fully Disconnect 

If you struggle to find one full day to go screen-free, consider rearranging your schedule. Do you have digital obligations that absolutely can’t wait 24 hours? If the answer is yes, ask yourself what makes them so essential and what would happen if you waited a day?

Find a Community

A digital sabbath is easier to observe when you do it with others, especially when you’re first trying it out. Enlist a friend, partner, or family member to go tech-free with you.

Make a List of Tech-Free Activities

Take a walk, cook a meal, work on a craft project, read a print newspaper or magazine, go to the beach, read a book, clean your house, go for a bike ride, take a nap, write postcards — there are limitless possibilities.

Need to plan an unplugged escape to nature? Book your Getaway today.

Unless you’ve made a habit of volunteering, it can be a challenge to come up with the motivation to get started. Here’s something to motivate you: volunteering isn’t just good for the communities or organizations you serve; it’s one of the best things you can do for yourself. 

Doing good deeds for others can reduce stress and anxiety, alleviate loneliness and depression, and improve your mood. Researchers have found that charitable acts stimulate our brain’s reward center, leading to the “warm glow” we feel when we know we’ve helped someone out. And regular volunteer work with an organization can create an opportunity to forge meaningful relationships and build an enduring support network. As a hands-on learning environment, volunteering is also a great way to acquire new skills, to gain experience in new fields and try out possible careers.

Here’s how to get started volunteering, plus a few ways to find organizations to serve and support.

Determine What You’d Like to Do

Do you want to help out your local community? Learn a new skill? Share a skill you already have? Travel and experience a different culture? Test out a possible career path? Work with a specific population? The best way to volunteer is to find something that matches your personality and interests, according to HelpGuide.

Look for Opportunities

Organizations that regularly provide volunteer opportunities include museums, libraries, theaters, youth organizations, historic sites and state parks, 
animal shelters, senior centers, food banks, and places of worship.

Find the Right Fit 

Volunteer opportunities are practically limitless. You might love an organization’s mission but not quite click with the staff. Or you might adore the team but struggle to make the hours fit with your schedule. As you sort through options, it’s important to learn what a given organization’s needs are and whether they align with your interests and availability. 

Here Are Some Online Resources: 

• VolunteerMatch
• The Corporation for National and Community Service
• Idealist
• Volunteer.gov
• Catchafire
• US Peace Corps 
• American Red Cross 
• Moving Worlds

Need an escape to recharge? Book your Getaway today.

For this week’s wellness tip, we want to encourage you to bring a bit of nature into your home by buying some house plants. Not only are they stylish decor that add a pop of color, but they also provide a lot of health benefits, while keeping you connected to nature. Here are a few reasons to invest in a new houseplant.

1. Can Improve Concentration and Focus

Try adding a plant to your desk to boost your mood, which will help you concentrate and focus during your workday.

2. Houseplants Purify the Air in Our Homes

NASA researchers found that some houseplants can remove up to 87% of airborne toxins in our homes in just 24 hours. 

3. Help Us Manage Stress and Anxiety 

Not only does bringing a bit of nature into your home help manage stress and anxiety, but taking care of your plants is a great way to remind yourself to take care of you too.

A Few of Our Favorite Spots to Find New Houseplants: 

• TheSill 
• Bloomscape
• Rooted 

Ready to surround yourself in nature? Book your Getaway today.

Based on feedback we’ve received from our guests, one of the best parts of a Getaway is the opportunity to stargaze far from city lights. This makes sense as an astonishing 99% of people in the United States and Europe can’t see the Milky Way from where they live due to light pollution.

Few things make us feel awe — that sense of wonder mixed with a touch of both fear and reverence — like being immersed in nature. When we stare out across a vast ocean or canyon, take in the panoramic view from a mountaintop, or gaze up at the stars, we recognize that we’re a very small part of something much greater than ourselves.

This can be an unnerving feeling, but as researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have found, it can also make us better people. Further studies have found that in addition to inspiring awe, stargazing can also reduce stress and increase positivity. Here are some tips to keep in your back pocket on your next Getaway to help you find the constellations. 

Invest in a Red Flashlight

The warm glow of a red flashlight will give you enough light to see without ruining your night vision, unlike the bright glare of a regular blue-white flashlight, which forces your eyes to readjust every time you switch it on and off. 

Bring Binoculars

Especially if you’re just getting started, astronomers advise holding off on investing in a costly, tricky-to-use telescope. Instead, pick up an inexpensive pair of binoculars, which allow syou to see the sky in far greater detail than with the naked eye.

Be Strategic About Timing 

Crisp, cold nights are much better for stargazing than warm, muggy ones, when humidity creates haze in the air. And you’ll see the stars more clearly if you choose a night when the moon is waxing or waning, since a full moon’s brightness can wash out the pinpricks of sunlight.

“Find Your Park After Dark” With the NPS 

The National Park Service’s website provides listings of park-sponsored evening events, activities, and educational programming nationwide, along with listings for observatories and stargazing tips.

Get Help From Apps

With a variety of apps, users can simply point their phone cameras at the sky and instantly identify the stars, constellations, and planets overhead.

Need an escape to nature? Book your Getaway today.

Jubilation: (noun) A feeling of joy, delight and triumph.

During our founder Jon Staff’s college years, he took a class called Introduction to Science and Technology in Society. One of his assignments required students to give up all electronic communication for 24 hours as a demonstration of how ubiquitous electronic communication is. While he was apprehensive, it ended up being one of the best days of his college years.

A Day of Jubilation is a great way to refresh your relationship to familiar surroundings. It can also be an exciting and unconventional way to discover a new place. Scheduling a Day of Jubilation is a great way to disconnect from distractions and reconnect to what matters most. Here’s how to prepare for your next Day of Jubilation.

Choose a Date

Find a time when you can disconnect for a full 24 hours—and if you’d like to share your “day of jubilation” with friends or your partner.

Power Off Your Phone and Set an Email Auto-Reply

Give advance warning to folks who might otherwise worry if they can’t get in touch with you immediately. For everyone else, calls that go straight to voicemail and auto-response emails should make it clear you’re not ignoring anyone; you’re just not available.

Pick a Favorite Spot

Set up a specific time and place to get outside, explore, and enjoy some tech-free time off in nature with those who matter most to you. 

Be Adventurous

While you might have some ideas for how you plan to spend your day, keep yourself open to whimsy and spontaneity. Follow your instincts and curiosities; allow yourself to be guided by happenstance and unexpected encounters. Let the day take you where it will.

Ready to plan an unplugged day of jubilation in nature? Book your Getaway today.

Over the past few decades, millions of American workers have bought into the “cult of busy” — so much so that 59% of millennials report feeling “shame” for taking a vacation. And it turns out that our days off aren’t really so “off” after all: Many of us admit to carving out a few hours of each vacation day to do work, or taking work calls on holidays.

A recent study by researchers from Columbia University, Harvard, and Georgetown found that when subjects were told a person was busy, they immediately perceived that person as more competent, ambitious and successful. Whereas leisure and luxury goods were once aspirational status symbols, the new status symbol is having no time for leisure at all.

Studies show that vacations are crucial for our physical and mental health. They substantially decrease our risk of heart attacks and depression, lower our blood pressure, and improve our sleep. They also help with family cohesion — allowing us to create new memories with our loved ones. And vacations even improve our work, allowing us to feel more engaged.

Here are some tips to help you be totally off on your next vacation.

1. Schedule Vacations in Advance 

If you keep waiting until “later” to request time off, you may never get the chance. Flip through your calendar to find a time to get out of town — or at least to get away from work. 

2. Get Organized Before You Leave

For a guilt-free break, strive to complete important tasks and delegate ongoing work before your vacation begins. 

3. Set Your Out-of-Office Auto-Reply 

Make sure to include another colleague’s contact information for notifications that can’t wait until your return. You may also want to ask a trusted coworker to monitor your inbox while you’re away, just to make sure nothing crucial slips through the cracks. 

4. Turn Off Your Phone Notifications

Try to resist checking your work email entirely, but if you find yourself feeling more anxious that way, limit yourself to a quick scan of your inbox no more than once a day. Leave your phone behind whenever you can. 

5. Don’t Overschedule Your Days 

If you’re traveling somewhere new, you might be tempted to pack your trip with sightseeing excursions and tours. Try to resist the impulse to schedule more than one organized activity per day — remember how fleeting time off really is, and make sure you actually enjoy it.

Want to plan an escape to nature for your next vacation? Book your Getaway today.