Category: vacation

Travel Tips, Trends and Super Hacks

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This post includes a few tips, tricks and trends to help you travel, wander and move about a bit easier and healthier.

Napcabs at the Airport – as long as they are maintained and sanitized, I am all in for a moment of quiet meditation at JFK.

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Smartphone Hotel Keys – This can’t happen soon enough. How many times have you had to return to the front desk with a plastic card key that just didn’t turn that tiny light green?? Now available at select Hilton Hotels.

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A few more travel tips . . .

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JetLag Drinks

1Above creates drinks that will help people avoid jet lag. The brand’s products are available in refillable bottles and concentrates, which help to feed the body with six electrolytes and six essential vitamins to help the body naturally release energy. Available on Amazon JetLag Drink

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LinkNYC is the ambitious plan to replace all of New York’s obsolete phone booths with Wi-Fi-broadcasting towers.

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and more travel hacks. . .3

My favorite Umbrella ever – covers you and never blows out in gusty Manhattan storms.

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Available here. . .  Totes Luggage Bubble Umbrella, Clear

And for sunnier days and warmer seasons – an awesome idea. Free public sunscreen. This summer the city of Boston installed sunscreen dispensaries at no cost to taxpayers, thanks to skin cancer organizations like the Melanoma Foundation of New England and Make Big Change.

 

 

 

 

The Powerful Practice of Mindfulness

morningWith mindfulness we live in the present moment. This is not, however, where most of us currently spend a lot of time. We topple forward into the future and worry about the next day or month or year. We think about what happened yesterday or last week or five years ago. We plan a vacation for months, then when we’re finally lounging on the beach, our mind drifts off to the problems we left at home. The habit of being a little (or a lot) ahead of ourselves, living in the past, or lost in fantasy, extracts an enormous price: We miss out on our life.

Quotes from a book I am reading now.

Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to Happiness

If you are in the US and taking some time off for Labor Day, I truly hope you enjoy a mindful, peaceful and fun-filled three-day weekend.

On Exploration, Sailing and Wandering

 
  We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore. -Andre Gide

Just as a goldfish remains small in its bowl, but grows when placed in bigger bodies of water, so will we. Here’s to embracing change. To forgetting about feeling secure in the pond you are in. 

In the words of Joy Bell, “Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason you don’t have something better.”

A person does not grow from the ground like a vine or a tree, one is not part of a plot of land. Mankind has legs so it can wander. Roman Payne, The Wanderess 

  

Dreaming Big, the Maldives and Shambala in Bali

bali-17-the-holy-water-15-728‘Man needs reckless courage to descend into the abyss of himself.” – Yeats

Somewhere along the line, over the course of a few decades – between paying the monthly mortgage, grinding through the 50 + hour work week, suffering through the daily three hour commute, sitting in front of a screen for eight to ten hours, my heart-felt dreams faded into the background and literally sailed off into the far-away sunset.  I’d forgotten how to dream. I became fearful of the “unknown”. I felt like I was leaning forward, tumbling into the fear of the future. 

No More Fear

Around this time last year, I reached a point. The point where my mind, body and spirit just said no to the manic attempts to run from my life and bury myself in work and possessions.

“A time comes when you know that you can no longer wallpaper your soul.”

This deep inner reflection takes rigorous daily practice, because if you are or were stuck like me, you need to unwind the tape and reverse back into your own true nature to discover the deepest natures of your fear. It’s a painful path and the self-delusion must cease to exist. Every excuse you make is nothing more than an attempt to justify why you are not doing what you truly dream.

Interesting side note: the phrase “do not be afraid” recurs 366 times in the Bible.  think about that.

What is truly important

After shining a flashlight in the face of fear I have discovered -what my heart really longs for is deep love, connections, peace-of-mind, serenity, calmness, security and freedom.

Now I know, one does not need to travel to find any of this, but re-igniting a sense of adventure  also helps set the course.

underwater-sculpure1So this is one of the reasons I yearn and plan to visit Bali and the Maldives. Yes they are on the dream bucket list and yes I am determined to visit, what I believe a place for a soul retrieval – a slice of nirvana – heaven on earth.

I’ve been inspired by others who have gone and have raved about the experience.

I’m just back from Como Shambhala Estate, and life has not been the same since. Spread out across the lip of the Ayung River Valley, about 10 kilometres from Ubud in Bali’s green hinterland, Como Shambhala is a silken, holistic health resort, one of the world’s finest, according to the arbiters of such places, a “Retreat for Change” by its own definition.

Bali and the Maldives. Mother nature provides the magic.

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I would love to know, I am very curious, what does your heart long for?

Creating Headspace, Vagabonding and Living Well

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Every day is its own kind of hectic. Filled with lists, work, frustration, chores, bills, etc.  And as much as I’d like to take a leave of absence, a few days off or dare I say, go on a “vacation”, right now I’m satisfied with stealing daily moments of downtime, right where I am.

Near future plans for travel include far off adventures to the Isle of Skye in Scotland; Bahia, Brazil; Angkor Wat, Cambodia;Koh Rong in the Gulf of Thailand; Palau in the Pacific . . . . .wild and natural places, near and far.

The mindset of a traveler.

I’m currently listening to the audio version of Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. More like a guide book for freeing your life, it’s not just about tactical advice on own to make room for your own travel adventures, it’s about adapting a new way of thinking, living, working and exploring the world.

A sample quote –

“Vagabonding is an attitude—a friendly interest in people, places, and things that makes a person an explorer in the truest, most vivid sense of the word. Vagabonding is not a lifestyle, nor is it a trend. It’s just an uncommon way of looking at life—a value adjustment from which action naturally follows. And, as much as anything, vagabonding is about time—our only real commodity—and how we choose to use it.”

Read

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

A Meditation Vacation

Oh how I look forward to the adventures ahead, but in the meantime, I keep my mind in a calm, relaxed and summer vacation-like state with meditation. I began practicing Vipassana meditation about three months ago for about 10 minutes a day. It’s not easy letting go of all the racing thoughts and anxious emotions, so I looked for a guide.

I started with the Headspace App.  It’s an app created by Andy, a zen-like surfer who teaches you how to meditate. It really is genius. The first 10 minute meditation has you focus just on breathing and I found it to be incredibly soothing.  Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day

Becoming aware of the mind’s power to incorporate moments of calm and peace, the type of relaxed inner calm you might get on a vacation can serve to reduce stress in just a few seconds. It’s like a road trip for the mind.

For mere living is not good, but living well is another thing altogether. Reflect on the quality of your life, not the quantity. – Seneca
Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics)