Find Your Beach
While sitting on a beach in Mexico during a long vacation, I’ve been plagued with restless thoughts rushing through my head. My internal dialogue goes like this: “I’m sitting on a beach, what could be bad…but ‘should I be more relaxed?’ ‘Am I having the best vacation possible?’ ‘Should I be reading my book or should I be at the tiki bar meeting strangers?’ ‘Is this truly the height of relaxation?”” My attention deficit running mental laps and my desire for relaxation pulsing, I check instagram: I see Pictures of legs looking like hot dogs (and hot dogs looking like legs :-/ ) and Saturday’s only being for the boys…what’s going on?!? I am letting the power of social media sweep me up into the frenzy. The questions in my head continue…how can I just Relax and feel fulfilled by it?
But actually….hot dog or legs?
Hi, I’m Eric Roseman and I have a relaxation problem.
Corona nailed the best tagline of all time. The adult beverage company put the phrase “Find your beach” in the heads of every consumer in 2010 and has been nothing but relentless in their attempt to get a Corona in your hands at all cost. The “Find your beach” slogan is intended to foster a sense of paradise whenever you pick up that slender bottle and crack one open. Consequently it asks you to be yourself and find the very thing that makes you tick — then grab a Corona. In a world where we are constantly reminded and crushed with curated social media posts of smiling beauties on beaches or public figures and celebrities enjoying family time in the tropics, we need to stretch beyond our monkey minds to step back and do some self reflection on what our own true beach looks like.
My recent vacation out to Vancouver was anything but relaxing. Bare minimum sleep and maximum movement led to a week full of distraction and elevated heart rates. My buddy Sam and I spent the week pushing as hard as we could to accomplish as many physical feats as possible and see all of Vancouver. We sprinted up Grouse Mountain, hiked the tallest peak in the Squamish mountain range (Mt. Brunswick), hiked through the eco-lands of University of British Columbia, biked around the entire island of Vancouver and through the hills of Northern Vancouver, and we kayaked miles through the indian arm of the Pacific Ocean to a secluded spot called Twin Islands. We wouldn’t let ourselves stop until we’d crossed everything off our list.
Peak of Mt. Brunswick
Hiking squad up to Mt. Brunswick
Spent an entire day biking around Vancouver and through the hills of Northern Vancouver
While we managed to score a few short-lived beach sessions, it was a trip focused on mastering the intense beauty of the British Columbia mountains. Upon returning from the vacation I was questioned by many asking when I was just going to “relax?”
It became quite obvious to me that I didn’t need a beach to relax — in fact I needed the opposite. To really vacate my routine and daily stresses of life, I needed a truly distracting experience, one that didn’t give me the downtime to let my thoughts run free. I needed unabated action to feel re-centered and to feel appropriately fulfilled.
Although it was just one vacation, I continue to look at this as a microcosm for my entire being. It’s not about looking at the people around you or all the influences that pervade your awareness radius — it’s about knowing yourself, acknowledging your differences and Finding YOUR beach.