“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated”
~Confucius
Home is where you lay your hat!
I will try to remember this as I get back into the pace and demands of life with nearly 4 weeks away of travel - the moon was just a sliver when we left and we celebrated the full moon on the beach in France. We covered over 4000 miles to the most Western part of Europe, stumbled upon some stunning places, made many memories, with our happy place being the beach and the freedom of wild camping - living the simple life. Of course with all five of us living out of the motorhome, there were challenging moments - ‘the beast’ is quite big, but at times can feel quite small - and we simply did not have much room for extra stuff.
After hours of travelling it felt so good to move and although my practice did not look like it does at home, it was a wonderful reminder that just sitting with your emotions and thoughts, the mind starts to get irritable and it manifests as discomfort in the body. Movement is essential for mental stability and joy, even a few simple asanas and breathes at a rest stop made all the difference.
We got into a rhythm of waking up naturally, if lucky our camping spot was close to the sound of the waves, investigating the best surfing spots, looking up at night to the stars, and eating fresh on the BBQ every night. I know it does sound idyllic and certainly was, but there were moments when we wondered on our sanity and needed quite a few deep breaths - getting stuck in a tiny Spanish village and what felt like the whole village coming out to help us try to make a 3 point turn to get out - parking for the night under a sprinkler system and being woken up thinking you were in a bad dream in a car wash, as the sprinklers went off right under the motorhome at 5am. We lived, learned and now look back to laugh! It was also a great lesson for letting go of not having everything we normally ‘needed’, from a hot power shower, playing a favourite video game or have the toy that was really wanted in that moment. But most importantly it was a time for us to disconnect, practice the art of having less, letting go and allowing some space and observing and appreciating what was front of us - living our yoga.
I am deeply grateful we carved out this precious time to enjoy the simple things, travel is a wonderful reminder of how beautiful and diverse the world is and how fortunate we are to have the choices to explore it. We arrived back to a mixture of emotions, sad our adventure has come to a close for this time, but excited to see our house, our pets, toys forgotten, favourite foods, grass that has grown back and a hot power shower without crocs on - the simple things reminds us to have gratitude for the abundance in our life's.
My morning practice - no mat required
