Why we should pay attention

when we craft our lives

As I am writing this I am sitting in a small café in Lakka on the beautiful island of Paxos. My boat is moored on the quay and I took some time to write. It took me a while to see the content of this weeks blog. Because I feel that on a larger scale something is shifting inside of me and the intent of this blog. It needs a little time to land so I was questioning whether I should post something or not this week. But I guess the phase I am in is exactly the topic to write about.

Three weeks ago I left Casa Lucia for a new adventure. After a weekend in Arillas I stepped on board of a sailing boat. The aim was to become a better sailor and be able to sail a boat individually. I am sailing with a friend who has his own boat as well, so he can help me when I need it. We had planned to leave about two weeks ago, but finally left last Wednesday. Before we could go there was a lot of work to do to get the boat ready. Which asked me to be flexible and patient.

People who know me well know that I didn’t have a lot of patience in the past. But I’m leaning into it more and more. Accepting that things are the way they are. And while I was waiting for the boat to be ready I looked at life from a different perspective. After all these years of creating the life that suits me best I came to the idea that I see life as an experience. For me it is about taking it all in fully and take time for everything I do. I hardly go on holidays, because I don’t like the idea to step out of my life for a couple of days or weeks to experience something different and than step back into the system that I wanted to escape by going away. I try to see my life as one big holiday. Doing the things I enjoy and be aware in every moment. That’s why I didn’t mind the delay of my sailing trip too much. I knew that I would be sailing in the end and I let the delay be an experience as well. Feeling the irritation at certain moments and feeling myself surrender to what was. Luckily the surrendering was much more present than the irritation ;-)

It made me realize the importance of taking time to experience things. And how we often step away from feeling what things do to us, because we don’t have the time. There are so many things in life that would be great to experience fully, just because the feelings that come with it are necessary to process. But we let our jobs and to do lists be a bigger goal in our life than just living life.

When you take life slowly, you will experience your sensations more intensely.

This is why I take time for things. It is also the reason that I don’t focus my whole life on working. My life is my work and my work is my life. There is no difference. In everything I do, I am myself. And that gets easier every day. I have always been crafting a life that suits me best (according to my personal rhythm and what my body is capable of doing at certain moments in time). People can say to me that it is easy for me to live like this. Because I don’t have kids, a mortgage and a demanding job. But these are the choices I made. Stepping out of a system where everyone follows the same route wasn’t always easy.

I stepped back many times. Just to try to be ‘normal’.

But these days I see that ‘normal’ isn’t the life we have created with demanding jobs that you don’t like, bringing your children to a school they hate and eating food that is cheap and easy to cook, but unhealthy for your system.

Life is about paying attention to the things that are important. But you need to take a step back to see what that means to you. We all need a couple of things in life and the most important one to start with is feeling safe and secure. Being connected to people you love and who inspire you to do what you love to do. It’s never about earning more money, gaining more or better things.

When you feel at home with yourself, you can feel at home anywhere. Then the surroundings never matter, because you are okay and safe. When you don’t feel safe to do what matters to you, take a step back and see where this feeling comes from. Maybe you have to make some changes in your surroundings, quit a job, end a relationship or change the place where you live. There are things outside of you that can be a burden to really be yourself. And sometimes you need to change something inside yourself.

Have a great day, sending you love and appreciation, Irene

Do you want to live a life from your truest essence, and have some questions? Leave a comment or send me an email. I love to hear from you!