Every year, my family and I go to a beautiful remote island in Canada. After doing this at 40 years old, what surprises me most is how much I learn each year about myself, my family, and the broader world. A key part of unlocking this depth of reflection is that we have no Wi-Fi, I purchase nothing during the week, see no one else but my family, and am totally dependent on the weather. It’s a simple existence.

Here are my reflections this year:

  1. Freedom and independence are extremely valuable to me. I loved being able to wake up every morning and have the biggest decision of the day be what water sport we would do.
  2. Being loved by those you want to love you is invaluable. I absolutely adore my family and am so grateful that we all have fun, just the four of us, and truly enjoy each other’s company.
  3. Embrace the joy of the small things. This could include finding a mink on the island and my kids naming him Jacques Chocolate to the amazing taste of roasted marshmallows.
  4. How I choose to spend my time should fuel me and align with my values. A week off from commitments really helps you think about this concept, and as a result I start my fall with a renewed focus.
  5. I love to be active. All my focus on strength/cardio and nutrition ensures that I can still do what I want to do, and I am so grateful for my body for that. I truly want to be able to slalom ski every day and love it for as long as possible.
  6. Not buying a single item, showing a phone, or ID to anyone for a week really resets what you need vs. want. Inevitably during the week you’re missing something, and that just means you get super creative with what you have.
  7. I can stop working on the small things. The hardest part for me isn’t the withdrawal from email, texts and calls, but quieting the constant working in my head. After two or three days, I can finally focus that mental space on thinking about bigger life issues and business challenges vs. the noise of the day-to-day.
  8. The ability to have some deep talks with our kids. My son is fascinated by business and loves reading biographies. His recent one is Elon Musk. I have mixed feelings on him and hence shared that it’s not only critical to have a killer work ethic, drive, and be innovative, but also important to hone communication skills, empathy and agility.
  9. Diving into books is a true love of mine. It fuels my deep curiosity on several fronts. This year, the range of books (“Breath,” “The Living Gita,” “The Psychology of Money”) and the podcast on the way home, “Hermes,” all help me think about the universe in a different way, and that is fun for me.
  10. Laughing is literally one of the best feelings in the world. I haven’t laughed this much in a bit, and it was laughing at the little things like falling off a hammock, my kids doing funny dances, to messing up the rules on Gin Rummy.

If you go off the grid, what do you learn about yourself?

Emily Culp is the chief brand and strategy officer at BodyHealth and a board member for Stio, Mizzen+Main, and Cordial.

This article was originally published on Culp’s LinkedIn page and has been republished with permission.