I have a friend who uses his spring break every year to go to a “silent” retreat. It requires absolute abstinence from any form of communication for seven days at a resort with other people. While it’s an appealing idea in the abstract – I wish I had the discipline (is that what it is?) or curiosity (maybe that’s what it is) to go to one – it sounds grueling, even though I appreciate that everyone has their ways of finding the kind of true “break” we each need.

According to psychologists, some boxes need to be checked for vacations to tend to our mental health. Detachment (getting away from our routines), relaxation (more calm), autonomy (control of our choices) and mastery (gaining awareness and skills) are all key components to an effective respite. Warmer temperatures and fancier surroundings aren’t necessary, but they immediately give us the sense of being away.

For the last two weeks I’ve been on a “staycation” – an apt description which for me included unusual activities like uninterrupted work at school, discovering a new place to hang out in Columbus, cleaning out drawers and taking our dog for a requisite (by her standards) number of walks. That was the extent of it. And while it checked all the boxes, I also experienced a sense of completely empty time – something I rarely get even when we travel except for the waning hours in airports during flight delays.

Serendipitously, on my first day of cleaning, an article jumped out from deep in my desk with the question Are You Flourishing? I had clipped it from a magazine in the mid-90s when, as an upper school dean of students, it was clear that we needed to help students begin to understand their own wellbeing.

As you can see, it included a box with “signs” of the Aristotelian concepts of hedonic and eudemonic flourishing: short-term pleasure and noble perseverance as key components to healthy living. While these two kinds of emotional wellness are often posed at odds with each other, we know – through extensive psychological research and just plain observation of human nature – that they need to be in balance for good emotional health. The list also echoes some the same qualities that make a good “break” – autonomy and mastery.

If the ancient Greeks were troubled by these dynamics of living well in the same ways that we are today (in such a completely different complex world), it is safe to say that our dilemmas are more likely a result of our internal experiences of simply being human and unlikely to be solved by how we manage and manipulate the world around us. I mean, if even the Finns aren’t happy about being named the happiest country in the world… what can we do? We keep at it, finding ways to help each other live fulfilling, meaningful lives – and part of that can be achieved by a school like this one.

Here, we want to ensure that flourishing, in both hedonic and eudemonic ways, happens here and not just on vacation or – in the case of a student’s mind – later in life. It’s a question we have posed in many ways these past few years (and has led to initiatives such as Makerspaces, Forest Fridays, the Empty Bowls project, classes such as Writing in the Marketplace, etc.) but also most assertively in our partnering with Research Schools International and Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. This spring and next fall, we will be actively involved in working through what our researchers find.

And this week, we have nationally recognized speaker Lisa Damour coming to meet with our students and parents about their emotional health in such a tumultuous world. I strongly encourage you to attend Thursday’s event for parents and guardians that will begin at 6:30 p.m. in our theatre.

Finally, we now know from research that anticipation of a vacation can be as stress relieving as the actual break. In an effort to send a little buffer towards our first weeks back this April, the school has decided to completely close (meaning no camps and no one on campus except for security) for the Fourth of July week (July 3-7). I hope with this decision, everyone who is part of our school – including those who work all summer to repair our buildings and cut our grass – will get the opportunity for some downtime which, as we know, is an important component of a healthy life.

Welcome back for the spring quarter,

Melissa