A doctor buddy of mine shared that if he had terminal cancer he’d head to the South Pacific, secure a large bag of weed (for pain relief), and chill on the beach.

Aside from the cancer, the weed and the beach… that seemed like a good idea to me.

So last week, Monica and I went on holiday in the Pacific. There were a lot of reasons not to go (cost, time away from Lex, distraction from work, difficulty training) but I’m glad that I went anyhow. It turns out the world didn’t end during my travel days and they have high-speed Internet in the middle of the Pacific (who knew?).

The trip was a first step in reclaiming my personal freedom and it made my wife feel special. A win-win!

I like to present (fool?) myself as a mellow guy. It is difficult to see how much stress/fatigue we are carrying until we remove ourselves from our typical environment. You don’t need to head to the tropics to achieve this but I do think that you need to keep a couple things in mind.

Altitude, heat, noise, pollution, crowds, concrete, fatigue — all place stress on us.

To check how you are doing, head for the opposite: sea-level, cool, quiet, clean, spacious, nature, sleep lots. This need not be an epic journey — most of us can achieve that list with a local camping trip.

If you find yourself sleeping 10 hours per night, every single night, then life in the “real world” might be taking a toll on you. To be fair, I did get myself pretty exhausted with ManCamp to ensure that I’d be a role-model husband on our Couples Retreat!

It’s difficult for me to appreciate the stress in my life until I experience the opposite. It’s also useful to realize that nobody is going to sort my life out for me. The best I can hope for is understanding from the people around me — understanding that is built from open communication.

Consider your recovery check list: sea-level, cool, quiet, clean, spacious, nature, sleep lots.

Build your own list and make time to visit your places of strength.