Don’t React

Hello, from Bali, Indonesia!

Well, Ubud, to be exact. I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve connected, and I suppose it’s laughable to finally feel ready, a few countries from Thailand, to share how I’ve been settling in. What can I say? Chiang Mai is my home base. It’s where I wake up every morning, where friends are, a city whose sights, sounds, and situations continue to nourish me. In the first month or so, I met resistances within myself, fought them, and let them go. And now, I’m committed to simply being, studying, and cultivating awareness with each new resistance that comes, each step of the way.

Samskara: Unearthing the Scars that Limit Us

In a previous post, I proposed meditation as a living practice, one that may be embodied in every interaction we undertake with the world. Finding beauty, connection, and stillness in the busyness that can often feel inseparable from our existence. Meditative moments are essential in stepping back and assessing, with clarity, the stories we have written for ourselves. Such stories can consist of anything from five-year plans to grocery lists and, once written, have the potential to dictate our lives.

For instance, let’s say I decide to become a “vegetarian.” Like others on this path, I have personal reasons for making this decision. I have written the story of my vegetarian identity, which I can use to explain my dietary preference to others. However, it is when I lose the true essence of my intention that I allow this vegetarian script to run on autopilot: I might think, speak, and eat in ways no longer because I consciously choose to, but because I have let them become prerecorded. I use the example of dietary choice, in particular, because of a comment a friend once made about his own food identity: “I don’t drink or eat meat. It might change, but that’s where I’m thriving right now. I’m not straight-edge or a vegetarian – I’m just a human being.”

Saying “Yes” in Chiang Mai

Last month, I lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The following is a window into the world I entered  – and will continue to explore upon my return just before the Chinese new year – while there.

If I had to use one phrase to sum up my November spent in Chiang Mai, it would have to be, “just say yes.” Saying “yes” became a daily practice as I was given the opportunity, all too rare in life, to go about my days without an agenda. Less than a week’s worth of clothes accompanied me across the globe, and I brought no laptop. My phone remained unused, except to jot down quick notes about the areas I visited and the people I met. Decisions about what to wear, where I needed to go, or what had to be achieved were, for the most part, erased from my mental sphere. I was free to experience each moment as something beautiful in itself, if I allowed it.