In S3E8 of The Latitude Adjustment, Erica and Rusty take you straight into a rainy surf lesson in Bocas del Toro, Panama—panga boat, deep water, no beach, and a nervous system that would like to speak to the manager. Using surfing as the metaphor, they unpack why fear often spikes right after you make a healthy choice—setting a boundary, resting, quitting numbing, telling the truth—not because you did it wrong, but because your brain is leaving a familiar pattern and treating “new” like danger. You’ll get practical positive psychology and strengths insight, plus the official Aging Heroes Challenge: Three Breaths in the Channel—name the moment, name the wave, breathe, and choose from clarity instead of panic—so you can ride the wobble, build self-trust, and keep paddling toward a second half that actually feels like yours.

When life takes one ordinary curve and everything spills, the storm is loud… but the aftermath is sneakier.

In this episode of The Latitude Adjustment: An Aging Heroes Podcast, Erica and Rusty use a painfully real metaphor—fish stew in the trunk—to talk about what happens after the crisis “ends,” but your body and brain are still living like it’s happening. We unpack the coping strategies that feel productive but don’t actually heal (aka “Febreze for the soul”), why avoidance works in the short term and traps you in the long term, and what “vinegar moves” look like when you’re renegotiating identity after loss, diagnosis, disruption, or a life chapter you didn’t audition for.

If you’re in the “after,” this one’s for you. And if you’re not… save it. Life has curves.

When life blows up your perfectly planned day, you don’t need a personality upgrade—you need a storm plan built around who you already are.

In this episode, Erica and Randolph “Rusty” take you into a Caribbean airport meltdown (complete with weather chaos and a toddler discovering new octaves) to unpack a practical truth: in a storm, the goal isn’t to do everything—it’s to do the right things.

You’ll learn how to identify your “storm role,” divide the hard stuff by strengths, contain the habits that turn stress into a shipwreck, and build a simple Strengths & Nonsense Storm Map you can use before the next crisis hits.

Because you’re not meant to white-knuckle storms alone. You’re meant to run them like a crew.