I grew up in a small town called The Middle of Nowhere, Minnesota. It took leaving for college and living a couple years in a different state to appreciate where I came from. Some days, when I was away, I wanted nothing more than to go sit on the pier and breathe in the smell of the dead fish on the not-so-clean beach. As weird as that sounds, smells bring back memories. When I smell fish, typically the dead variety, my mind jumps back to a time when wandering the path by the lake was the way you passed the time. Along with disregarding the “do not jump” signs on the pier, but don’t tell my mom that.
Now, as an adult (whether my mom thinks I am or not), I will take a time out by the lake. Maybe the day was just a shit show and the thing I want to do is go home, eat a tub of ice cream and watch Netflix. Lets be real, I do that more often than I should. So instead of being one of those, “I release stress by exercising.” type people, I take my stress out by sitting at the lake and smelling the dead fish. Okay. I don’t really like that smell, but if you sit in the right spot and the wind is blowing West, you can smell the fresh cut grass and the tulips near by.
That is the little slice of heaven. The little bit of calm before the next stormy day. It is the peace that you get addicted to. The first time you sit out by yourself and take in the smells and sights you will only last a few minutes. I know. The first time I went to go be with just me, I got out of my car, sat looking at the lake for what seemed like a half hour, and went back to my car. It was only five minutes.
When you are not used to spending time by yourself, that is when you learn you need it the most. It takes time. It takes practice, but so does everything else that is worth it in your life. You practice how to love. You practice how to be patient. You practice how to treat others with respect and kindness. (If you don’t, maybe you should be working on those too.) You should practice how to spend time with yourself.
One thing that I learned about travelling, especially by myself, is that there are lots of times that you are alone. There are a lot of times were you will be sitting there thinking you have been sitting on that hill looking out over the Pacific Ocean for thirty minutes, but it will only be five. It seems this way because getting to know you, takes time. Learning how to control your thoughts, takes time. Learning how to block out everything around you and focus on your breathing, takes time. I will confess. I have yet to figure out how to focus on breathing, with out panicking that I am breathing too fast, or too slow, or too shallow, or too quick. If ya’ll have any secrets to this, feel free to let me in on them.
Now where was I? Oh, Practice. Someday you will get better. You will look back and the initial five minutes that you could stand to be alone with yourself will grow into thirty. Then it will turn into the a whole day and eventually a solo trip. That solo trip is totally worth it, but I suggest you have the skills of being inside your own head first. Otherwise you may just go mad.
So go take some time for you today. Take some time to learn about you. Get away from people. Get away from your stressors. Take back you love for peace and the area around you. Take back a little part of your that may have slipped away for a moment. Find that slice of heaven. I promise you don’t have to travel too far.
Lost2FoundTraveller
P.S. Oh and I don’t mean go sit on a rock to think, with your phone in your hand. Leave that shit at home.
Lost2FoundTraveller 