Go somewhere else
This article is like the song “Ich bin in love (Paris)” by the group Juli, because it’s about … Berlin.
It’s also designed to confuse you a bit (maybe you’ve already noticed?) and to encourage you to confuse your mind a whole lot more – in a good way, of course.
Are you ready? :-)
I’m going to write about a technique that I’ve used throughout my spiritual/personal development journey, and which I’ve found to be enormously beneficial. It’s something all of you can do too. Best of all, it’s very simple:
Go somewhere else.
Yes, I know there are all those slogans like …
Wherever you go, there you are
Every journey starts with the first step
You always take the weather with you
Start where you are
and so on.
They’re useful too, of course, but for something else, and this article is not about that :-)
Now, as most of you know, I usually live in a flat in France, coaching, housewifing, teaching a few Reiki courses and occasionally an English pronunciation group, and doing mostly pretty much the same free time activities as I’ve been doing for years.
But you’ll likely have noticed that I often … go somewhere else.
So why?
Well, some people go on holiday to relax, because they’re tired or stressed.
Others go on adventure holidays because they find their everyday life a bit boring.
And that’s fine, because recovery time and fun and balance are all really important.
But when I go “somewhere else”, I really don’t see it as a holiday - I don’t even ever use the word. I call it “going away”, and though, of course, I’m going away from my normal physical home, I mean much more than that. For me, “going away” means going away from most of the bits of my everyday external life, in the hope and expectation that having a break from the “normal” will allow space for change to happen internally in my mind.
Because I’ve found that, without me needing to think or understand or philosophise, or be wise or “spiritual” or determined or persistent – or indeed anything special - “going away” automatically provides a whole new set of micro-challenges, which I’ve found will inevitably confuse my mind out of some of the negative patterns it’s been carrying.
To put it another way, “going somewhere else” helps my mind to … go somewhere else. And – importantly – to stay there. This is not just maintenance or damage limitation (like a relaxing beach holiday); it’s designed to be permanent improvement, and usually that’s what it is.
Having said that, though …
My “somewhere else” is typically very familiar - staying at the same meditation centres and monasteries, visiting the same few friends, or a week or two of hiking, usually in the same mountains.
This sort of “somewhere else” is already very valuable, of course, but …
On Monday I got back from a very different (and so, more powerful) “somewhere else” - I’ve just spent two and a half weeks in Berlin. Now, I have a few lovely friends in Berlin, so I was able to stay there for free and hang out and socialise and such.
But that’s not why I went.
I went there to spend several hours a day at the main railway station.
To carry strangers’ luggage.
To give them directions, information and encouragement - often in a language that I started learning the day before I arrived.
To tidy up their waiting/food hall.
To smile.
And to show them that the world really really cared.
Also to support all the other people who were doing the same thing, whether with smiles, encouragement, or my occult understanding of the improbably impractical trains that left platform 14 at 46 minutes past every hour.
And (when people asked) to tell them that, yes, I do live in France, and the reason I came so far really was to help the refugees. Because an example of what is possible can help people grasp the opportunity to see their world completely differently.
But although I went for the Ukrainians and for my fellow volunteers, I also knew that one of the people who would benefit most was me.
Іди кудись ще.
Go somewhere else.
PS It doesn’t have to be a place, of course.
It’s also designed to confuse you a bit (maybe you’ve already noticed?) and to encourage you to confuse your mind a whole lot more – in a good way, of course.
Are you ready? :-)
I’m going to write about a technique that I’ve used throughout my spiritual/personal development journey, and which I’ve found to be enormously beneficial. It’s something all of you can do too. Best of all, it’s very simple:
Go somewhere else.
Yes, I know there are all those slogans like …
Wherever you go, there you are
Every journey starts with the first step
You always take the weather with you
Start where you are
and so on.
They’re useful too, of course, but for something else, and this article is not about that :-)
Now, as most of you know, I usually live in a flat in France, coaching, housewifing, teaching a few Reiki courses and occasionally an English pronunciation group, and doing mostly pretty much the same free time activities as I’ve been doing for years.
But you’ll likely have noticed that I often … go somewhere else.
So why?
Well, some people go on holiday to relax, because they’re tired or stressed.
Others go on adventure holidays because they find their everyday life a bit boring.
And that’s fine, because recovery time and fun and balance are all really important.
But when I go “somewhere else”, I really don’t see it as a holiday - I don’t even ever use the word. I call it “going away”, and though, of course, I’m going away from my normal physical home, I mean much more than that. For me, “going away” means going away from most of the bits of my everyday external life, in the hope and expectation that having a break from the “normal” will allow space for change to happen internally in my mind.
Because I’ve found that, without me needing to think or understand or philosophise, or be wise or “spiritual” or determined or persistent – or indeed anything special - “going away” automatically provides a whole new set of micro-challenges, which I’ve found will inevitably confuse my mind out of some of the negative patterns it’s been carrying.
To put it another way, “going somewhere else” helps my mind to … go somewhere else. And – importantly – to stay there. This is not just maintenance or damage limitation (like a relaxing beach holiday); it’s designed to be permanent improvement, and usually that’s what it is.
Having said that, though …
My “somewhere else” is typically very familiar - staying at the same meditation centres and monasteries, visiting the same few friends, or a week or two of hiking, usually in the same mountains.
This sort of “somewhere else” is already very valuable, of course, but …
On Monday I got back from a very different (and so, more powerful) “somewhere else” - I’ve just spent two and a half weeks in Berlin. Now, I have a few lovely friends in Berlin, so I was able to stay there for free and hang out and socialise and such.
But that’s not why I went.
I went there to spend several hours a day at the main railway station.
To carry strangers’ luggage.
To give them directions, information and encouragement - often in a language that I started learning the day before I arrived.
To tidy up their waiting/food hall.
To smile.
And to show them that the world really really cared.
Also to support all the other people who were doing the same thing, whether with smiles, encouragement, or my occult understanding of the improbably impractical trains that left platform 14 at 46 minutes past every hour.
And (when people asked) to tell them that, yes, I do live in France, and the reason I came so far really was to help the refugees. Because an example of what is possible can help people grasp the opportunity to see their world completely differently.
But although I went for the Ukrainians and for my fellow volunteers, I also knew that one of the people who would benefit most was me.
Іди кудись ще.
Go somewhere else.
PS It doesn’t have to be a place, of course.