If you haven’t picked up on it, I fly a lot.

Between work and pleasure, I’m addicted to traveling now.

I took about 180 flights in 2018.

I spent more time in a plane than I spent in a car.

More time spent in plane and airports than my own bed.

But I’ve never truly appreciated this time.

Most often, you’ll find me connected to the internet writing email or working on a powerpoint. The Office or an inflight movie playing in the background as I plug away on my computer with a posture that resembles that of a T-Rex.

When you spend time on the internet while airborne, you miss out on the greatest gift air travel has to offer.

Forced Disconnection.

There is something freeing about being 35,000 feet in the air.

No one you know is around you.

No one can bother you.

It’s impossible to contact you.

More importantly, it’s impossible to contact others.

You can’t interact.

You can’t scroll through social media.

You can’t get trapped in the mindlessness of the internet.

Instead, you can get lost in an album, book or put some words on the page as I am doing now.

There are no distractions to your stream of conscious and unconscious thoughts.

It’s like going on a date with yourself.

You can give yourself the undivided attention you didn’t know you were craving.

But needed desperately.

There is an indescribable freedom when you fly and truly disconnect.

I feel pretty okay with myself and my life when I’m airborne.

Maybe disconnecting from my current reality is what I’m really craving.

Maybe I need to focus on disconnecting in similar ways when I’m on the ground.

I need to find myself 35,000 closer to happiness.

While grounded.