Get Away!

I don’t know about you but there is something I dread about the winter. It’s not the cold, it’s not the snow, it’s the darkness. Driving to work in the dark and driving back from work in the dark again drains the spirit. At least it drains my spirit. I shouldn’t speak for you. Yes, I have a lamp that shines bright on my face in the morning to stimulate my pineal gland but it’s not the same thing as getting real sun time.

That’s why I make a point of getting away every winter to someplace sunny and warm. It’s transformative. The minute the plane door opens and I feel the hot humid air I relax away the hunched shoulders of the sub zero climate and start happily sweating in my tropical print shirt. This is my advice to you…get away yourself during the winter.

Maybe I should say get away from yourself during the winter but that’s probably too psychological for you. You don’t have to spend a lot of money and you don’t have to go for a month-long sojourn. Just get somewhere warm and soak it up.

My wife and I need 80 degrees and constant sunshine guaranteed so we go to Mexico or to the Dominican Republic in the wintertime but it gets reasonably warm in Florida so if the hassles of flying are too much for you, you can still get away. Puerto Rico is an Island option and you don’t even need a passport. They say that travel expands the mind but for many of us it expands the waistline. Just because you are in a foreign place doesn’t mean you have to forsake ALL your eating habits.

Some people are all getting up and going on a vacation. See this. Experience that. See every possible sight. I don’t mind those vacations and lord knows I need my mind expanded but those types of vacations wear me out! Maybe I am getting old. My favorite vacations are ones where I can sit back, relax and read! I read and watch and listen to medical stuff all the time but when I go on vacation I like to get deep into a book or a book series. It’s usually fiction or science fiction but I am getting more into spiritual reading as I mature. Being on vacation gives me time for the “Big Picture” thoughts and ideas. I know that admitting to still reading books makes me yet again a dinosaur but it is what it is. Whether it’s a Kindle type device or an actual book doesn’t matter to me but the act of prolonged time spent reading seems to be a vanishing activity.

One of the metrics I use to see how dependent people are on their electronics is to ask the question, “How long in the morning after you wake up do you begin looking at your phone?” For most of my patients it’s less than a minute. I don’t look at my phone until it rings! How old and out of touch am I?! My friend’s on the toilet bowl scrolling through his phone first thing upon arising in the morning and I guess that’s common but that’s not me. I keep threatening to swab his phone to see what germs are on it but he is convinced it’s what everyone does. I don’t suppose I can convince you into taking a holiday from your social media accounts but again getting away should mean doing something different and maybe that can include less phone time and more real people in person contact. My holiday wish is that people get a chance to get away and relax and restore themselves. Get away by yourself, reconnect with family and friends, but just get away ! Until next month…get well and stay well.

JT BARRY MD

Dr. Barry