Learning parkour is now officially on my bucket list! :)
Autopilot or adventure
Life can be lived on autopilot; walking in the same way, driving on the same roads, talking about the same things, thinking the same thoughts. Every day is just same, same.
Life also has the potential to be an adventure, I can choose to make it whatever I want to. I enjoy living in flow, finding new perspectives, using my body in different ways, challenging my mind to expand.
Oh, how good the awesome guys in the video above demonstrates the way I feel when I step over the edge and allow myself to follow my inner voice, to be all that I am, to live as an adventure, to flow through life like water.
Yesterday I went to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep before today’s morning call. Couldn’t really fall asleep and soon I was wide awake hearing/seeing/feeling a highly persistent flow of ideas. Inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert (see her awesome TED-talk at the bottom of this post) I internally proposed a suggestion to the full-on flow going something like this:
“Thanks for coming to me, I understand that it’s time to take you on now. Yes, I promise, I get it this time, I’ll do it – but can you please come back tomorrow? I really want to sleep now, to get up in time for my early call”. The flow insisted, so I once again grabbed pen & paper, sat myself down on the couch and started scribbling.
A website sketch, a keynote plan and a OneNote outline later I moved back to the bed, noticing that the phone said 4am. Woke up in time for my call with Ivan, made the great decision to have two calls per week, of which one is for the sole reason of introducing people to each other. High five to us!
Headed to the gym for another surprisingly powerful session and came back home for my next call, this time with Richard. Yay, was I talking ’til his ears fell off. Had this urge to fill him in on my current theories and he’s one of the best people I know to freely chat away with. How awesome it is to have friends like that! :)
The day kept going, I checked more things off my list, I talked with dad again who’s back here in Patong in… 36hrs or so and I cooked, ate and read. Had a quick talk with Angelina, who I haven’t spoken with since we met in Toronto about a year ago. I found myself interrupting her in the middle of a sentence, just to say that she speaks like a book. Absolutely beautiful hearing her talk. I couldn’t imagine a better couple on a stage giving a keynote together than Ivan & Angelina. Come on guys, you have so much to share! :)
This day feels like a real day, both because I’ve connected, connected & connected with people and because I’ve been up since morning and I’ll sleep early tonight. For real. I’ll treat myself with a massage from my favorite chick down our road, that’ll get me sleepy. They’re open until twelve and I’ll make sure to have my massage well before that. Then bed. Then sleep. Then waking up calm and well-rested. Sounds like a plan. :)
Over and out.
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Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity
Love, love, love this talk. (Thanks Kaoru for showing it in NYC!) :)
Intense Malaysian visa run – a mashup:
9 visa runners, 2 drivers; 3 women, 8 men; an unexpected array of my (direct & indirect) experiences. UK-dominated group including one outrageously rude dirty old bastard, one Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike with hypnotizing voice, two entertaining party girls, one “reunionist”, one soloist, one passive-aggressive Asian, a quiet French guy & a water-drinking Swede.
Mischievous shots, party mood, happy energies, random talk & casual bonding. Louder & louder, Sangsom & Valium, lack of sleep, built up inner frustration, dirty energies, fight-picking swearword-saturated shouting, near-pissing-in-a-bottle-experience, close encounter, panic attack, overflowing inner anger, unstable death threats & Thai driver with serious Muay Thai skills.
In & out of passport controls, new stamps, filling out forms. Memory loss, spewing the guts out, alcohol poisoning. Walking & talking, Zen conversations, vacuum definitions & creative thinking. Tossing & turning, late-night-mind-reading/writing & tiny English speaking Malaysian cockroaches in the bed.
3 am hotel receptionist savior, solo food-hunt, awesome waiter from Bangladesh, Malaysian old man, double kindness, unfortunate jealousy & lucky payback. Mohammed Ali on bike rides, room service hookers from The Boss (via credit card) and Thai “culture” stories.
Late-night-drunken-overseas-call-to-ex-partner, sleeping with phone off the hook, 15 000 Baht phone bill. Massive road trip, smiling drivers, food, food, food, smoking, smoking, smoking. Asian toilets, wet floors, moths, spiders, geckos & frogs. Movies, music, girl talk and spontaneous she-male mission. Laugther, Facebook, pictures, phone numbers & see you later.
[imagine suiting header here] <— (“but I’m le tired”)
I loved the talk between us women that went from the phenomenon of lady-boys into the planning of a she-male mission. We got all jazzed up and one of them said “oh, listen, we’re talking just like a group of blokes”. Suddenly I got a new understanding for the whole Bangla Road circus, about the fun and the playfulness. How’s that for an eye opener.
[imagine another header right here]
Oh! There’s so much I’d like to share, it was such a crazy and insanely unexpected journey. Then I came back, started my laptop to write this post and stumbled upon a video clip called “The empathic civilisation” via Pamela von Sabljar. I was surprised by how well it connects to what I’ve experienced and also have written about during our wacky road trip (most of all the content of the zen convos & the late nate writing, but also the state transferral or shared experience (i.e. me experiencing the same thing as someone else, just because my brain reacts even if it’s someone else’s experience)).
Went on to check out another one: “21st century enlightenment” from the same creator and found even more similarities. I love how synchronicity works! I love how much there is to learn and how freaking awesome any situation can be, when I choose a perspective that moves me forward in the direction I fancy. See the videos below and see what insights they bring to you. Think big. It feels good.
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The empathic civilisation
Notice how the monkey brain reacts to the human act of nut-eating.
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21st century enlightenment
“To live differently involves to think differently”