TIE BUTTON

Frequent travellers will know that not everything will go as planned. Believe it or not, that's not always a bad thing.

Here's is why I want you to celebrate the shit that happens in your wanderlust life.

What I've discovered on my travels and in all the people I've met along the way is, Shit happens. To everyone. Barely ever do I meet people who dust off their backpack with not one awful, gruesome or grinch-worthy story to tell. 

No matter if it's a stolen passport in a third world country, getting hopelessly lost in one of the biggest cities of the world or a near death experience, falling off cliffs in order to get away from a party (Yes, Mark. Looking at you right now).  

The most interesting stories are also the most intense ones. When strangers share their most important (travel) story you can bet that 9 out of 10 times, it's not gonna be a love story, or a story about winning the lottery.  These stories are about moments of despair, about rough circumstances, the hardships one has to overcome.

With these stories comes the feeling of relief. People immediately share laughs in between gasps of disbelief.  The pure joy of having made it through it, completely changes the way one might look at scenarios that are scary, frightening or sheer horrifying.

 Bad experiences make the best stories. 

 Of course you will enjoy the sunset at the beach, but it's not the colour of the water you will describe when you come home.  The stories you take with you and keep on telling, are the ones that had the biggest impact on you.  If something bad happens to you but you found a way to work through it, that's when you grow. That's what makes you more of who you are. 

The journey, the struggle and the happy endings that you didn't see coming. It's like what they (them being physiotherapists, explaining how muscles work to me) say about your body; After the most intense exhaustion comes the biggest relaxation. I guess great stories really never start with eating a salad, unless a cockroach makes it into it or a deadly plant. What doesn't kill us really makes us stronger. Not only that. It makes us empathise with others. It makes us say "This sucks, but you'll make it through it" to a friend that needs to hear everything is going to be okay. 

So blessed be your scars and the skills you've developed getting them.

Pictures were taken in Amed, Bali where I got to spend some amazing time with the wifey.

A series of letters; to my greatest fears, biggest struggles, the future, the past and the present.  

Over the past years I learned a few tricks that make it easier for me to cope with difficult situations and therefore start the healing process whenever neccesary. While writing has always been my most creative outlet, this form of text has a more specific purpose. In order to find a certain amount of peace of mind I started addressing whatever it is that is occupying my mind.   

With a new year around the corner I thought I would start sharing those letters with you. May they help you, amuse you or simply just show you that you are not alone.

  A letter to Anxiety

Holiday season has us all busy and stressed. It's an especially difficult time for me to find the balance between happy family and happy mental health. So I took some time to bring the focus back. 

 Disclaimer: This isn't about struggling. This is about wining and over coming.   

   Dear Anxiety, 

 I know it was you. I saw you coming from a mile away.  You never bring reasons, only doubt.  An infinite number of questions about values and worth. You let me argue with myself, you push me into corners. You feed on fear that I am no longer willing to give.

I haven't figured out how to say goodbye, yet. I have not the slightest clue how to leave something behind that has been with me from the start. All I know is that you might be here, but I will be busy saving myself. When I feel my living room filled with my friends' laughter, when I find a note from my brother reminding me to call my mother, when I hear no harsh words for canceling last minute, when they grab my hand because they can see it on my face, when they give me space without disappearing, when they let me be the way I am and when I let myself be the way I am, 

 ....I know I am enough. Yours truly,