As we speak is my 34th birthday. Two months in the past, my plan was to spend in the present day in Thailand. It will’ve been one more journey in my already-busy-rather-crazy schedule.
And now that April, Could, and early summer season are cleaned of flights and plans, I’ve settled right into a a lot wanted, maybe more healthy routine: Reflection.
I’ve spent my life chasing solutions, solely to notice that life is de facto concerning the questions. And although I will spend my entire life studying, These are the issues on this special occasion that I know to be true:
1. It’s a waste of time to fear about getting older. Life simply will get higher with age, expertise, and expression. Turning 31 taught me that.
2. How we expertise life is up to us. The perfect factor we will do is query completely every little thing, particularly the techniques in place, the governing our bodies, and the established order. Assembly individuals the world over taught me that.
3. We’re actually insignificant, spinning round one star in an unlimited universe, alive for the blink of a watch. So how massive of a mistake can we ever actually make? Trying on the stars taught me that.
4. We’re all pushed by intuition, with a primitive thoughts that developed to survive. Each animal on earth shares this with us. Simply because we’re human doesn’t imply we’re not animals, and only one a part of the material of the earth. Time spent within the Galapagos taught me that.
5. Most of us decide ourselves far more harshly than anybody else does. A retreat in Mexico taught me that.
6. Mom nature doesn’t want us, however we want her. Backpacking within the Alaskan backcountry taught me that.
7. Failure is just actual once we refuse to see it as a studying expertise and alternative. Eight years of journey bogging taught me that.
8. Horrible issues could occur to us, However letting it outline our future retains us in ache. The 12 steps taught me that.
9. Persons are largely good. Solo journey taught me that.
10. After we let go of the necessity to be proper, we will cease caring what different individuals imagine, what faith they follow, and the way they vote. What an exquisite world we might reside in if no one wanted to be proper or mistaken. Spending time in fairly completely different cultures taught me that.
11. We’re not simply related, we’re the identical. On the atomic degree, we’re one. Meditation taught me that.
12. Being humble, acknowledging that I know virtually nothing, and remaining open are crucial issues I can do to enrich my life. Being alive taught me that.
13. We don’t want lots. When we’ve got every little thing we want, something past that’s simply greedy, greed, and societal stress. Being virtually broke taught me that.
14. Caring what different individuals suppose and making life selections based mostly on the notion of others is the highway to distress. Isolation taught me that.
15. There could also be no larger reward you may give to one other individual than your pure, undivided consideration. Being an auntie taught me that.
16. Curiosity is without doubt one of the most lovely human traits. After we let it drive us, there’s virtually no finish to the adventures that would unfold. Touring in South Africa taught me that.
17. There are many misfits, individuals who need the world to be higher, individuals who need to share and who don’t need greater than they want. There generally is a world with out company greed, and it could work if we gave it energy. It’s not naive, and it’s not unrealistic. Burning Man taught me that.
18. True energy will not be about cash, controlling others, or having extra. It’s about being in full management of your power, your ideas, and your actions. Tantra taught me that.
19. Hospitality, lovely moments shared with strangers, and a superb meal are all we actually want to be glad. Italy taught me that.
20. Considering our personal dying may also help us to totally reside. Tomorrow isn’t assured, so are we pleased with the life we live now? Are we actually at peace on the finish of every day? It is a query price asking usually. Getting caught in a flash flood in Tanzania taught me that.
21. Every part is at all times altering. Changing into connected to issues simply the best way they’re is the recipe for struggling. even the down occasions as a possibility can set us free. Buddhism taught me that.
22. Life is just too brief to put on garments which are uncomfortable. Why not be comfy? Numerous long-haul flights taught me that.
23. Vogue magazines and advertisements have us chasing perfection, however this physique is the one one I will ever have, and it deserves my love and appreciation. A great deal of work on self love taught me that.
View this put up on Instagram
I virtually didn’t put up this photograph as a result of I felt like I didn’t look ok. I was sucking it in, bloated from my interval coming the following day, you already know the drill. For many of my life, even when I weighed 10 kilos lower than I do now, I have wasted power on not feeling skinny, lovely, or ‘sufficient’. And you already know what? Fuck that. This physique has taken me on six 8+ day backpacking journeys, down previous 60 toes within the ocean on one breath, and a lot extra. I refuse to let something make me really feel insufficient anymore. I commit to this physique, the one one I will ever have. I commit to loving it and seeing its uniqueness as magnificence. We’re not all meant to look the identical. And I can not, simply as everybody can not, ever be an airbrushed picture.
24. Self love is a voyage reasonably than a vacation spot, and it requires fixed gentleness and understanding. Self care practices taught me that.
25. Stranger hazard was a dangerous factor to be taught. Trusting strangers when our instinct tells us it’s alright to leads to probably the most great adventures. Hitchhiking taught me that.
26. It’s actually necessary to get soiled. To recollect we’re creatures of the earth. We are able to’t love the earth if we don’t make an effort to know her. Backpacking taught me that.
27. Worry is crippling, and it’s pointless. We are able to be taught to do it anyway. We are able to be taught to do all of it afraid. Taking off to the opposite facet of the world alone with a one-way ticket taught me that.
28. It’s pointless to simply dip one’s toe in. What’s the purpose of residing if we don’t remind ourselves that we’re alive? The ocean taught me that.
29. It’s not proper that some individuals have a lot and most of the people don’t have anything. Everybody deserves to be seen and handled like an equal. Confronting my privilege taught me that.
30. If I don’t take motion to form the world in the best way I need it to be, then why am I right here? Quitting my outdated job taught me that.
31. Unfavourable issues others say are actually about them and even when they appear prefer it, are hardly ever individual. It solely hurts me if I imagine them. Being on the Web this present day taught me that.
32. Every part I expertise is up to me. Life is notion. Notion is actuality. My first months with out alcohol taught me that.
33. Gratitude each rattling day helps me see how fortunate I am, and let go of what I don’t have. Days spent in hammocks in Mozambique taught me that.
34. I won’t ever have concrete proof as to why I am right here, and I won’t ever have solutions to most of my questions. That’s OK. I can stream with the not-knowing. It retains all of it fascinating. It retains me hungry and silly.
Life taught me that.
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