Mindful Moments

Happiness lies in the mindful moments of everyday life - from our guest @mom_and_a_half_man.

Zanzibar. Miles of white sandy beaches. The sea couldn't be more turquoise. Small fishing boats swaying in the waves. 

Postcard landscapes as far as the eye can see. Love is in the air. And light reggae beats. Paradise. isn’t it?

I have been living here for a few months now and yes, I can say that I am happy. Most of the time I wake up in the morning filled with deep gratitude. But is it really this place that makes me so happy?

Because actually, it doesn't matter where I live. I can only create my paradise myself. Regardless of the external conditions. 

Because I believe that I have to see my paradise in order to really perceive it as such. And that's not always easy, even in a beautiful spot like Zanzibar. But let's start at the beginning.
I've been traveling for almost five years now and I have been living in a much more relaxed way than I did in Berlin many years ago. 

When I go through the world, I have to be careful, to pay attention to even the smallest details. Everything around me is strange, new and exciting. Behind every corner the next adventure could be waiting. This new world full of smells, sounds, and people I have never noticed before, is exciting. When I'm on the move, I am fully in the moment, I feel, smell, taste, sense. Sometimes I just stand there for minutes inhaling the moment. I am alive and that feels so good.

It has become all the more important for me to be aware of my surroundings and to focus on my own satisfaction. 

I regularly experience how challenging it can be to keep on creating a new life and how enriching it is to constantly question the existing and adapt it to my current needs. What is really important, what can be removed? Does that still fit for me or do I have to make adjustments?

Throwing off burden makes you wonderfully weightless. But for this I have to know my needs and give them space, be mindful of myself. For a long time I didn’t give myself priority, I simply overlooked the quiet needs in my noisy and fast everyday life.

Now it is becoming easier and easier for me to listen to myself, and it is good for me. So good that I wish I had taken a closer look sooner and lived what is really good for me.
Well, I used to live in Berlin. A truly exciting city, in which a lot of beautiful and exciting things actually happen. 

I was blind to it then, my ‚corset‘ was too tight for me to inhale this pulsating city. I was too caught up in functioning, too busy with almost never-ending to-do lists. Rarely I was able to look left and right or even into the sky to watch the clouds. 

The everyday life would have been so much easier after a brief moment of pause.I wished I was gone, far away. To finally be able to experience beautiful moments again. And I went away. The best decision of my life perhaps, because it brought me valuable insights.
Traveling I noticed these beautiful moments can literally be anywhere. It almost doesn't matter whether I'm wandering the dirty streets of Bangkok or the sun is caressinng me on the beach in Zanzibar.

If I have a negative focus, I won't be able to appreciate dream beaches either. But if I walk carefully through the littered streets of Bangkok, I will discover the true beauty of the moment.

We are constantly surrounded by beauty. It wants to be seen. So if we stop now, focus on what is already there, then we notice how rich we actually are. And that it is completely irrelevant where we live. Because our paradise is ourselves.

December 2020

@mom_and_a_half_man followed her fortune after a burnout and has been on an open-end world tour ever since. 
She is currently stopping off in Zanzibar