The First Deep Breath ✈️
Today we're heading out on vacation. Fall in the Mediterranean. Our annual WGN Come Along cruise. It goes from Lisbon to Rome, with a few cocktail hours with some of our wonderful listeners along the way. Always the best part.
But let's be real. The getting ready part? That's where the stress lives.
Not the toothbrush or face cream. It's the planning, the packing, the money math, the work pile waiting when you get back. The endless what-ifs that creep in right before you zip up the suitcase.
Until I get on the plane.
The moment I sit down and the door closes, something shifts. There's nothing left to do. No more lists, no more decisions. I'm forced to just... be. And that's when I take my first real deep breath in days.
Every single time I think the same thing: why did I spend a week winding myself up for this? The calm was always available. I just couldn't find it on the ground.
I don't have a perfect solution. I'm still working on it. But I've started asking myself earlier, before the stress takes over, what would it feel like to just let go right now? Not on the plane. Right now.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.
But I'm getting better at finding that first deep breath before I ever leave the house.