I sat in a canoe and floated for two hours.

The air was 75 degrees, the sky was sunny.

The lake was cerulean blue.

And a giant (inactive) volcano rose on the far side of the lake, covered in pristine white snow.

Ah, bliss.

As an American, though, doing nothing can feel like a sin. It’s easy to feel unworthy of time off from work, a point beautifully summarized in Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert:

Luca: “Americans. You work too hard, you get burned out. You come home and spend the whole weekend in your pajamas in front of the T.V.”

Liz: “That’s not far off, actually.”

Luca: “But you don’t know pleasure. You have to be told you’ve earned it. You see a commercial that says: ‘It’s Miller Time!’ And you say, That’s right, now I’m going to buy a six pack and then drink the whole thing and wake up the next morning and you feel terrible. But an Italian doesn’t need to be told. He walks by a sign that says: You deserve a break today. And he says, Yes, I know. That’s why I’m planning on taking a break at noon to go over to your house and sleep…with your wife!”

Giovanni: “We call it “dolce far niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing.”

Aside from the “sleeping with your wife” part (and the Miller Time beer part, I prefer a dark Zinfandel…), I can totally relate to this dialogue. It seems I have both parts in me, the American workaholic side and the love of leisure side.

The deeper I get into self-employment, though, the harder it has become to identify with my leisure self. The workaholic part of me seems to have taken over.

So, what’s a self-employed person to do?

Taking time off can feel like a luxury when you’re the only one responsible for every detail of your work, from filing to bookkeeping to meeting with clients (and everything in between.)

But vacation and time off are not just fun, they’re part of a healthy lifestyle.

In a Wisconsin study of 1500 women, medical researchers discovered “the odds of depression and tension were higher among women who took vacations only once in 2 years or once in 6 years compared to women who took vacations twice or more per year.”

Also, “women who vacationed only once in six years thought their home life was more disruptive due to work, felt more tired and exhausted and had less than eight hours of sleep.”

As Dr. Mel Borins says, “Getting away helps to distance yourself from the stressful parts of your life. It can help restore your perspective, give you new viewpoints and allow you to develop new strategies to cope.”

(source: Wisconsin Medical Journal)

The conclusion: vacations are good for mental health and may help you do a better job at work.

No surprise, I know.

Even so, the question for many self-employed people is “how do you take time off when there is so much to do?”

If you suffer from occasional workaholism like I do, I suggest making it a habit of taking two vacations a year, regardless of your work schedule.

However, they don’t have to be long vacations to exotic locations.

Instead, they might be:

• A “staycation” at home doing whatever you enjoy most.
• A girls-get-away to a fun city or country retreat.
• A trip to a far-away-friend’s home to catch up and recuperate.
• A fun weekend workshop doing something new and creative.
• Or as I did, a weekend camping trip to a wilderness haven. This was my view while I canoed:

Photo by Amy Brucker, Lassen Peak, Lassen Volcanic Park

Additionally, make it a habit of leaving evenings and weekends for leisure and non-productivity. It will help you maintain a healthy momentum, while diminishing burnout and frustration.

Whatever it is you do, your only task is to enjoy it. Have fun. Leave all of your work behind. No work email. No work phone calls. No thinking of work.

What did you do on your last vacation (and when was it)? Did getting away help you feel more connected to work, family, friends? Leave a comment below…

These words struck me as profound. Not necessarily the part about monetary wealth (because I’ve heard it so often), but the notion that those who live rich lives give freely of their gifts and talents.

I don’t mean they offer their services for free. They do, however, offer their gifts in the form of services, products (like books), and sometimes free advice (when asked for, of course!).

In other words, the quote might be read like this,

“It is the poor person who clenches so tightly to her talents and abilities for fear of losing them (being ridiculed, laughed at, and failing). The person of wealth shares her gifts freely – in the form of services, products and free advice – to accomplish her will in the world.”

I call this type of gift “heart-gold.” Heart-gold is comprised of what you love most in life. It is often a combination of your innate (and sometimes latent) gifts and talents as well as those things that bring you (and others) joy. When people share their heart-gold with the world they feel remarkably alive.

Since your heart-gold is a gift you can bestow upon the world, the season of gift giving is the perfect time to reflect on the following questions:

• How have I been sharing my heart-gold (gifts, talents, joys) with the world?

• How have I been hiding or hoarding them?

• How might I share my gifts more freely with my community, clients, family and friends?

If you feel disconnected from your heart-gold or stuck in moving forward, or even notice that you’ve been hiding your gifts, I encourage you to check out these three resources:

Resources to harvest your heart-gold

Molly Gordon’s A cure for the “If this is such a great idea, why aren’t I doing it?” blues

Molly’s helpful article is for people who have a hard time moving forward with their dreams.

Chris Guillebeau’s A Brief Guide to World Domination

Chris’  fun, free ebook is great for anyone who wants to be happily self-employed.

The Launch Coach’s Library

Dave’s library of excellent worksheets can help you grow somewhere great. I particularly recommend, “7 Steps to playing a much bigger game.”

Then leave a comment on the blog and let us know your secret for sharing your gifts freely with the world.

Considering this, I decided to post this video because I sense it is making fun of the whole “I create my own reality” movement while simultaneously encouraging us to realize the truth of it all – that on some level we do indeed co-create our reality.

Watch and laugh, then share your thoughts below.

Without empathy our work would be experienced as cold or heartless.

But empathy isn’t something only service providers employ. We need empathy to feel connected to other people, like family, friends and complete strangers. It helps us have patience and understanding so we can more easily communicate and solve problems.

A lack of empathy causes us to become judgmental and agitated when things don’t go our way. We feel disconnected and isolated emotionally, and stop caring about the needs of those around us.

So the other day when I heard about our culture’s diminishing connection to empathy, I became a bit concerned. According to this study, college aged people in 2009 were 40% less likely to experience empathy than their 1979 counterparts.

That means that younger adults in 2009 are far less likely to relate to their friends, family and community than young adults from 30 years ago. It also means that people are less likely to feel heard, seen and respected.

I was a bit disturbed by this news, but then yesterday I became even more concerned when I stumbled upon a video that discusses the history of empathy and its importance in our future evolution.

The Empathic Civilization

The Empathic Civilization is a 10-minute, engaging video about how integral empathy is to our sense of community and connectedness. The lecturer, Jeremy Rifkin, hypothesizes that the health of our planet may be dependent on how well we can create global empathy.

Uh oh.

I highly recommend you watch this video. I watched it twice. The British Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) illustrated Rifkin’s lecture and the graphic element alone is worth the 10-minute viewing. But the information about empathy is also fascinating, especially as it pertains to the work we do as service providers.

It may be up to today’s spiritual leaders (I use the term loosely) to find a way to help people connect with empathy.

I don’t know what that would look like, but it seems important to point out that just because people are 40% less likely to feel empathetic doesn’t mean we have 40% less need to be loved, heard, seen and related to. Indeed, I think the less empathy we experience in this world the more likely we are to need it.

Your role as a service provider is so important. You may be the only person in someone’s life who is empathetic to their situation. You may be the only person who can see, hear, and value your clients’ struggles and accomplishments.

It’s important that you make yourself available. Get the word out about what you do. Have a website, give talks, offer free classes, do whatever you can to connect with people so they can find you and your work. It’s just one way we can help create more understanding in this world.

Don’t underestimate the significance of what you have to offer. If Rifkin is right, your work may help save the planet.