LESS EGO / MORE SOUL



There’s a reaaaalllly awesome restaurant now open in Burleigh.

They serve raw foods and it all tastes amazing!

Annnd you feel GODLIKE after.

From Earth and Water

Shop 6, 30 James Street,
Burleigh Heads,
QLD 4220

Open Tuesday – Saturday, 11.30 – 4pm

C’mon, I wouldn’t plug it if it wasn’t awesome!

Traveling in a Different Way – taken from Paulo Coelho’s Blog

When I was very young I discovered that, for me, a journey is the best way to learn. I still have this pilgrim’s soul to this day, and have decided to relate some of the lessons I have learned, in the hope that they will be useful to other like-minded pilgrims.

1] Avoid museums. This advice may seem absurd, but let us reflect a little together: if you are in a foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to seek out the present, than the past? Usually, people feel obliged to go to museums, because ever since they were small they have been told that traveling is a search for this type of culture. Of course museums are important, but they require time and objectivity – you need to know what it is you want to see there, otherwise you will come away with the impression that you saw several things which are fundamental to your life, but cannot remember what they were.

2] Frequent bars. Unlike museums, this is where the life of the city can be found. Bars are not discotheques, but places where the people gather to have a drink, pass the time, and are always willing to chat. Buy a newspaper and observe the bustle of people coming and going. If someone speaks to you, strike up a conversation, however banal: one cannot judge the beauty of a path merely by looking at its entrance.

3] Be open and forward. The best tourist guide is someone who lives there, knows everything, but doesn’t work at a travel agency. Go out into the street, choose someone you wish to speak to, and ask him or her for directions (where is such-and-such a cathedral? Where is the post office?) If this bears no fruit, try someone else – I guarantee that in the end you will find excellent company.

4] Try and travel alone, or – if you are married – with your spouse. It will be harder work, no one will be looking after you, but this is the only way of truly leaving your country. Group travel is just a disguised way of pretending to go abroad, where you speak your own language, obey the leader of the pack, and concern yourself more with the internal gossip of the group than with the place you are visiting.

5] Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything – not prices, nor cleanliness, nor quality of life, nor means of transport, nothing! You are not traveling in order to prove you live better than others – your search, in fact, is to find out how others live, what they have to teach, how they view reality and the extraordinary things in life.

6] Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid: I have been in many places in which there was no way of communicating with words, and I always found support, guidance, important suggestions, even girlfriends. Some people think that if you travel alone, you will go out into the street and be lost forever. All you need is the hotel card in your pocket, and – should you find yourself in extreme circumstances – take a taxi and show it to the driver.

7] Don’t buy much. Spend your money on things which you won’t have to carry: good theater, restaurants, walks. Nowadays, with the global market and the Internet, you can have everything you want without having to pay for excess baggage.

8] Don’t try and see the world in a month. It is better to stay in one city for four or five days, that visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman, who needs time to be seduced and reveal herself completely.

9] A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller said that it is far more important to discover a church no one has heard of, than go to Rome and feel obliged to visit the Sistine Chapel, with two hundred thousand tourists shouting all around you. Go to the Sistine Chapel, but also get lost in the streets, wander down alleyways, feel free to look for something, without knowing what it is. I swear you will find it and that it will change your life.

Copyright © 2010 Paulo Coelho

Traveling has made me realize that time is not endless.

I am having to become very comfortable in making new friends and then letting them go.

But as people come and go it’s important to recognize that the length of time they stay in your life is by no means an indication of the impact and importance of their role in your life.

I want to meet a million, billion great people in this lifetime, and share just as many god-awesome experiences with them.

Because life is long enough – truly.
It really just comes down to what you make of it. You get what you put in!

The best part about exploring the world on my own like this is that I am the only person around to paint the picture of who I am…

I am free. To choose and to change, who I am and who I would like to be.

Something I was reminded of when flicking through last years travel journals…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gagR2_Yi8wE&w=560&h=349]

You can go to Peru to find yourself through an Ayahuasca ceremony led by a local shaman.

It is said to be an incredibly enlightening ceremony, allowing a human to move beyond their own conditioning, acomodadors, inhibitions, psychological limitations, depressions, fears, addictions and pain.

But, be warned, it is a trip which often involves going into the darkness of your psyche.

If they haven’t spent much time exploring your own internal landscape, many participants describe themselves as surrounded by infinite fear and dark satanic creatures, alone in an unfamiliar realm that even your worst nightmare would even fail to emulate.

So whats the attraction?

Enlightenment.

Healing. Self-development.

A new perspective on life.

Freedom.

This article by National Geographic sheds some pretty awesome insight on the experience.

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NB: this post was written before ever having tried Ayahuasca. In my experience, I have found grandmother Aya to be a very reasonable and loving teacher, who has led me to expand and understand myself in so many beautiful ways. You can read about some of my experiences here.

For a more diverse exploration check out these articles on Reality Sandwich.

If you are interested in travelling to Peru for healing and self exploration, might I recommend the Temple of the Way of Light.

I escaped.
Went to the country.
Just me and my K9
Quiet…nature…space

I faced my fears
Of spiders and snakes
Of the world after dark
The sounds of creatures of the night
My fears of the unkown

I filled my pockets with ma-ca-dam-bia nuts
Beat my drum,
Danced barefoot in the forest…
Naked.

Read books,
Pondered life
Remembered:
There’s no need to
be
or do
ANYTHING.

Each night I created fire
“Man’s first magic”

Upon the damp grass,
Listening to music
I lay beneath the stary sky
In wonder and amusement

Thismorning I explored the outback like I was the only person alive…
Just me and the wind.
And so many butterflies…

The take home message
gifted by my island

Is that nothing really matters.

We give meaning to all the objects and experiences we come into contact with.
Much more meaning than any object or event truly deserves.

We label, categorize and justify, creating our reality.
But we are not objects.
Lest we forget.

We are consciousness

The space between objects.

The breath between thought.

The realized present moment.

Now.

We can’t define ourselves,
Hard as we try.
Nor should we.

“Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much.

As Buddhists say: the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.

Likewise: “Thought [and word] can at best point to the truth, but it never is the truth.”

- A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle

Greece was it. A place of life. Real life. Where you go to connect with it; the freedom, the energy that drives you.

It taught me to follow my heart and my instincts and to satisfy my urges unashamedly. From skinny dipping (absolutely naked) to finding passion with another soul, I was liberated. Away from all the judging eyes of people who think they know you.

They know nothing really.

A home is protected – governed by society. There are expectations. There is order.

I want havoc. I want uncertainty. I want to understand my ability to choose. Not feel I should do what others think is best for me – they have no idea.

This is my life and I intend to make the most of it. Reality is what you choose to remember; your life as you decide it to be. Fact.

I’m young, I’m restless and unashamedly relentless. The world is mine. Just as it is yours. But do you have it in you to explore it on you own? To push the limits of your being and realize your full potential?

Act now, apologize later.

I’M GOING TO SUCK THIS OYSTER DRY.

Family, remember that I love you and I am so grateful for all that you have given me.

Reader, you may take me as you wish. I am a bird. I am free. At the end of the day if there is one think that I have learnt about life, it is this:

EVERYTHING IS NOTHING. EVERYTHING IS REPLACEABLE. NOTHING REALLY MATTERS, SO GO YOUR HARDEST!

I will put myself out there to meet new people and have new experiences.

I will not compromise my desires for anyone or anything else unnecessarily.

I will be honest and kind always. I will justify sparingly.

I will be generous, I will love, I will share, I will give.

I will seek new challenges everyday, pushing myself to express creatively on a regular basis.

I will use this as an opportunity to discover and redefine myself as an individual.

I will not be afraid to be myself.

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Bon voyage Brisbane, I’m off to play with the rest of the world. The possibilities are endless.