Tag Archives: Buddhist

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

How To Give Up Your Travels for Home

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“How was Australia? I bet you’re disappointed to be home!”

“Your trip in Africa looked amazing, I’d never come home after something like that”

“Don’t come back here, nothing’s changed”

“How can you find a job like this rewarding when you’ve done something like that in Fiji?”

These are just a few of the comments about my return home, some from friends and family, one from an interviewer, but pretty much everybody says the same thing.  They’re right. Continue reading How To Give Up Your Travels for Home →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

Travel, Mental Health and You

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For some, travel is not just about discovering new places, but escaping old ones that have had a negative impact on our lives.

But what if the negativity in your life isn’t coming from your past?  What if it’s following you around, bringing down the day? If you’re carrying it with you, you can’t run away from that. Continue reading Travel, Mental Health and You →

Travel

There’s a Fly on my Eyelash…

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… And other Failings and Frustrations of an Unhappy Expat.

Sometimes, the reality of travel doesn’t quite live up to the romantic vision you once had of your nomadic self.

It’s not all glitz and glamour in revolving restaurants, fun and frolics in the sea or peace and tranquillity in the forest.  Opening your mind.  Discovering yourself. What if you don’t like who you discover? What if your mind is so open you can’t shut it down?  What if the big wide world is so incredible that you can’t be happy with the simple pleasures of home anymore?  It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the fantasy of what travelling should be and the effects it should have on you.

A lot of people expect to develop a new personality, the one that belongs to that happy hippy you see in every travel photo, ever. You know that girl, with her floaty dress, perfect skin and Rapunzel hair, a flawless braid along one side of her nauseatingly carefree head, dancing along the shoreline of an empty beach, laughing at something hilarious an empty clam shell just said.  But we can’t all eat, pray and love with such perfection – Screw you Julia Roberts. Continue reading There’s a Fly on my Eyelash… →

Sometimes I Overthink..., Travel

VIPASSANA – Can You Really Un-think Yourself Happy?

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Meditation. It’s not as easy as it looks.

 

Four months ago, I was messy. The kind of messy that makes people you know stop answering your calls encase you cry, again. But luckily not everybody is as harsh as my mother, and a good friend suggested to me that maybe there was something more productive I could do with my time than sit around complaining and feeling sorry for myself. She wasn’t wrong. My brain works at about 100mph and could probably do with some down time. Ten days of silence, alone with your own thoughts, learning to meditate. That sounds like BLISS! Not everybody’s initial response I’m sure, but at that stage in my life, perfect!

 

Vipassana is a Buddhist meditation technique, focussing your mind on you, teaching people to accept the reality of the present moment “As it is”, the basic idea being, to lead people towards a simple and happy life. One important thing to understand is that this is NOT a religious preaching seminar. You do not need to be a Buddhist, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Agnostic, Jedi or even if you still have gils, this is a course and a technique which is available to absolutely anybody at no cost, as long as you’re lucky enough to have a 10 day gap in your working / living schedule which corresponds with a course.

 

In my prior ignorance, ten days of silence sounded extremely difficult. I talk incessantly to anybody who’ll listen, so most of my friends and family snorted at the idea I could even entertain an hour of zipped lip. But I love a challenge.

Continue reading VIPASSANA – Can You Really Un-think Yourself Happy? →