[00:00:46] Hi and welcome. I thought today I’d share a little insight or reflection that I have been pondering these past few weeks, that I have realised in myself for years, and it’s regarding travel. Because, I don’t know about you, but when I get to a new place, that can be on holiday or when I worked in corporate and travelled for the company, but when I arrive there the first day, I feel somewhat unsettled, often lots of emotion and stuff coming up and something not being quite right. But usually for me, after the first night of sleep, I feel like, “Okay, now I’ve really arrived, like all of me has arrived here.”
[00:01:44] And I’ve heard of that before. I heard other people talk about it, but it just came up recently again when my father told me about a piece of Native American wisdom, and unfortunately I could not research it, I didn’t find it. There is also the gap of translation, I don’t know the exact English words I’m looking for, so in case you know which proverb or saying I’m talking about, feel free to reach out and let me know. I would be grateful.
[00:02:26] So what my father said was that the Native Americans say that you shouldn’t travel faster than by horse, because otherwise your soul doesn’t have a chance to catch up or come with you immediately. What I’ve found in German as far as sayings go, was more like when you arrive at a place, you have to wait a little bit until your soul catches up and arrives with your body. But the essence is the same, that when we go to a place and we move faster than our feet can carry us, or maybe a bicycle or something, but if we move faster than that, there is a moment or a little bit of time, a gap, where we are not fully settled in.
[00:03:30] And I believe it also depends on how familiar you are with that place. For example, if I’m traveling 300 kilometres to see my father and I’ve lived in that house before, then obviously I do feel at home more easily than when I go 300 kilometres to be in a different city and stay at a hotel. I noticed that before, but I’ve really started to give myself permission basically, to be okay with needing some time to arrive; which of course, if you are away for a weekend or something, the time that actually all of me is present is rather short.
[00:04:27] And I do find the same phenomenon on the way back home, that I kind of don’t want to leave that place. Usually, I drive much slower than when I go towards a place, because part of me is still lingering and it isn’t really coming with me. It feels a little bit like I’m dragging my body faster than my soul is ready to.
[00:04:57] And yeah, I find that is a really interesting thing that happens to other people as well. I’ve talked to people who express the same, that there is a moment where you need to wait for all of you, and whether you call it the soul or whatever is your word for it, or maybe it’s also different parts, but until all of you, your energy is lined up again and has fully arrived in the new place, there can be this feeling of being unsettled, neither here nor there, and I just want to normalise that experience. Some people experience that probably more intensely than others, but if you experience it, that it’s completely normal. And how can you be a little more gentle and compassionate with yourself when you experience that, can it be okay that it might take a whole day or maybe even two days until all of you has arrived where you are and you can enjoy the moment more fully?
[00:06:14] Let me know your experience. I would be very interested in hearing if that has happened for you, too, what you do when you come and find that you are somewhat unsettled. Do you simply wait, do you have some practices to, I don’t know, call your energy back in, so the acclimatisation period is much shorter than normal? Let me know, what do you think about this? I would be grateful for your insights and for your experiences. And talk to you next time.
