Friday, December 22, 2017

Distraction. The unbroken connection with unrest ... The fear and escape for rest and coming home.

Many people who have already been here at the place where I live and work, regularly and independently of each other have said that they think I live in Paradise. To be honest that feels like a super compliment about that what I call ‘being home'.

Mainly for me it is the experience of the high energy level I experience here, the connection with nature (flora and fauna) and culture. The, for me, much stronger relationship with what is LIVING life all about than I had ever before. All available for free. It’s just a matter of opening your senses to accept.

The Pavana Chiang Mai Resort, where I live and work, calls itself; 'The one-stop destination for healthy living'. A holistic approach.
After all, being healthy does not only have to do with your physical body. Your mind, emotional balance, spiritual connection and deepening and insight into you’re your approach to your energy givers and drainers are also part of it. All of great importance to feel intensely 'healthy' and therefore also to be able to really call yourself ‘healthy’.

In the approach of the physical body, the resort also works together with an external organization that mainly focuses on the body fitness. People of literally all types / come-off and sizes who are here for a week or sometimes more. Intensively busy with their body. And with the temperatures we have here and in relation to the intense and heavy program is not always only having fun I can tell you. A program especially full of intensive physical activities. No stopping or standing still. Running, cycling, swimming, training. When I often see the bitter faces of many participants, I sometimes wonder if they do not experience it as a temporary physical torment for the 'good cause' instead of the possible introduction of the invitation to a long life healthier and more enjoyable lifestyle. But if people really give it a place, make it a routine in their lives afterwards? I just and only wonder.
And actually this does not make any difference with doing a detoxification program here. Giving your body only a one time gigantic shock by heavy cleansing cannot really be healthy in my eyes. You need to change your lifestyle. The intention is to see it as a start to do that.

Recently when I walked to the Sala, my open classroom here on the hill, I met a man from that fitness program. Outwardly he looked stressed, completely caught in his mind, headphones on his head (more and more people I see walking around with it).
I tried to speak to him. Of course he did not hear me. I could hear the hard fitness/workout music on his ears from a distance. Totally in a kind of 'trans'. He finally saw my approach to connect with him and took the trouble to take his earphones from his ears and to hang them around his neck for a short while. In the for me now even more noise created by the device, I told him that he missed the free available fantastic bird and animal sounds in this paradise as a gift to remember the start of a brand new day. If looks could kill…

When I returned home I saw that I had not turned that morning the ‘page of the day’ of my book "Wisdom from the Far East 365 Days" yet. So I did. And it showed me this:

"The wind blows and lies down. The birds are whistling. A dewdrop of a leaf falls in the deep valley of the mountain. Even more peaceful is the mountain. "
(Master Keizan)

A smile on my face arose. Accidently?
I am thankful and grateful to hear those birds every day, almost every day I witness the always different sunrise. Indeed I hear those dewdrops fall, my dog and myself breathing, the sound of my footsteps on the walking path and his dribble and especially ... all those fantastic morning sounds that the animals make at the crack of the day. That fantastic energy of the living environment. The smell of the forest, of the farmlands under the dew, or the rice paddies. The chanting of monks in the distance. The man who early brings his cows to his land and, hopping behind the animals, his little daughter in her school uniform supporting them. She is already ready for the school bus, but still helps to bring the cows to the land together with her dad. No mobile phone in her hand.
Yes ... indeed ... a paradise.

And does that all only have to do with here? I do not think so and I think certainly it plays a role. It’s more inviting but, not to everybody like the headphone man. Much more, however, I think it has to do with the lifestyle and your own choice to be able and allow yourself to connect with that what already is there. With that what is free available. With the silence. And do not get me wrong. Silence is not the absence of something. It is not. It is the invitation to be aware of the availability of everything that is already waiting, is already there, for you. For me a different connection than walking with music on my ears in this beautiful nature.

Always and forever the need for distraction. And if you ask people, they just do it to relax ... For me a run away from yourself. Fear of going and coming home to yourself.

So for me no headphones in that fantastic nature. Nice to hang them on the willows.



Frans Captijn
Host / Catalyst / Talenteer at Captijn Insight


Captijn Insight“Catalyst in your process to new sustainable flow in life, love, family, business, career and work. Whether you are an individual, couple, team or organization.” 




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