July Editorial by Aurore Mayer: Dare to Truly Recharge!

Summer is finally here, and it’s time for a well-deserved vacation. You deserve to rest, unwind, take your time, and clear your head. To do that, it’s essential to free yourself from mental strain and relieve the stress caused by various social pressures.

Here’s something to keep in mind BEFORE you go on vacation: 70% of women and 57% of men found their last vacation exhausting, and 53% of women and 39% of men found it stressful. The reason: household chores don’t stop in July and August, and the unequal division of these tasks between partners often worsens during the summer months. Women and men who return from vacation feeling tired also attribute their state of exhaustion to conflicts, financial pressures, and the difficulty of finding time for themselves.

However, taking time for yourself is essential. It has been proven that taking time to recharge on your own helps reduce stress and aggression and contributes to greater empathy and curiosity. In other words, by taking time for yourself, you improve the quality of the time you spend with others.

So, how can you TRULY recharge during your vacation? By letting go of the pressure (vacations aren’t a competition!), allowing yourself to disconnect, treating yourself to a healthy dose of self-indulgence, and letting your mind wander toward optimism.

Cultivate your right to dream! And why not dream of gender parity? Of a world where the issue of equality in access to professional responsibilities, domestic tasks, and the mental load will be a thing of the past… Because we’ll have come up with plenty of great ideas during our time to recharge, allowing us to act with creativity and energy when we work together.

Aurore Mayer, Director of the “Un Une” Network