The Next Trip You Are Going to Take
It will change everything.
The next time you travel, you will not need a passport. You will not even need a photo ID. As a matter of fact, you will not need any baggage — you will leave it behind. The next place you will go is within yourself. Everything you need, you will find it there.
You will embark on that trip from the place you live in. Sitting on a chair, appreciating the sunset, or cooking in the kitchen. Or maybe, you will be taking a walk outside, away from your smartphone, not wearing earbuds. You will listen to a natural sound that will be whispered in your ear by the blowing, gentle wind. That sound will spark in you a sense of awareness, and you will feel grounded.
To allow that to happen, you will silence your phone notifications. You will turn off your electronics at bedtime and not peek at them before you had your morning coffee or tea — you will only need one cup of coffee a day. You will savor every bite of your food and chew it well so it can be properly digested.
Your palate will reject processed foods and animal protein and crave crunchy vegetables and soothing oatmeal with peaches. You will chew fresh ginger rather than artificial gum. You will ditch your calorie counter and enjoy original, unaltered flavors and the benefits they bring to your body. You will delete most of your phone apps. You will reduce your social media accounts to no more than two and minimize interactions — you will also mute certain profiles and topics.
You will declutter your closet and your drawers. You will purge sad memories with your donation and trash bags. You will make your living place more enjoyable by adding something simple to it: a scented candle, a framed picture of someone who inspires you, a potted plant. You will read a physical book and underline it with a pencil. You will get an old school alarm clock to help you wake up on time.
You will sleep better. You will have clarity as anxiety subsides. You will get used to quickly closing your mental tabs and quieting your inner noise.
You will slow down the pace you walk, talk, and type. You may not disconnect completely from the giant web we currently live in, but you will find balance by refusing to let it be your brain’s only form of activity and excitement . You will set boundaries by limiting your screen time, reducing your sugar intake, and placing fewer orders on Amazon.
When you do reconnect with the virtual universe, you will be in control — it will not drive you into a rabbit hole. You will not accept the algorithm recommendation to click on the next story or video. You will set the limit: screen time will go down. Slowly, it will stop feeding your brain the negativity that got you to be so outside of yourself.
You will create something: that book you want to write, that canvas you wish to paint, that scarf you plan to knit. You will take care of yourself. You will change the world by making yourself happier and better.
