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Vacations - remembering how to live freely
By Scott Fusco | August 26, 2007
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I think the reason why vacationing is so great for so many people is because for a weekend, a week, two weeks or however long we go away for, we consciously tell ourselves that we won’t worry about money or small problems.
Furthermore, we allow ourselves the opportunity to do all of what we want and none of what we don’t want. There are no worries about work or home and all of the work put into maintaining those things. Regular weekly commitments are gone as well.
All the things that we would normally tolerate during our day but that we don’t actually want to do, we don’t do. If we want to get drunk and sleep in the next day, we do it. And not only do we do it, but we do it without fear of consequence. There is no work on monday morning when we are on vacation. 
I have taken a lot of small trips recently and I came to a great personal realization: I go on vacation to remember how to live when I am at home. When I am on vacation, my mind is uncluttered and I do only what I want to do. In doing so, I give myself the ability to spend time with only the things that I love, the things that inspire me. And I take bits and pieces of these home with me and it makes my life much better when I am at home.
For example, in my article on God consciousness, I spoke briefly of the natural beauty that I experienced while driving through Vermont. The mountains of Vermont triggered such a great emotional response in me that I began wondering, how can I find “mountains” in Rhode Island? In other words, where can I go in my home town to readily access that same awe-inspiring emotional response? I don’t want to have to drive to Vermont whenever I want to feel this way.
And it got me exploring. I have lived in this state for a while and yet I never spent as much time as I should have exploring all of the wonderful natural parks that we have here. The same goes with beaches. I have been to many beaches, but there are also many others that I haven’t been to.
I also had so much fun trekking through the rivers in Quebec that it has got me thinking, where can I find a similar experience near my home? And that is another avenue that I have begun exploring.
So really what ends up happening is that your consciousness of your home town expands in many directions that you never fully explored, and as a natural result of that increase in awareness, you feel a lot more gratitude about where you live. I appreciate Rhode Island a lot more than I used to as a direct result of all of my travel experiences.
And this newfound gratitude comes in so many delightful yet unexpected ways. Drive to new york city and have a glass of tap water and you will feel proud that you live in Rhode Island. We have some of the cleanest, best tasting tap water in the world available to us at all times. And while you might not fully appreciate that if you have never ventured out of Rhode Island, you will be painfully reminded of its great taste if you travel to Florida or New York.
For me, this is one of the unexpected treasures of traveling. You realize that you don’t have to go far far away from where you live. You realize that you don’t have to go somewhere else to get something that you think you need. What we need is right here in front of us, whether or not we appreciate it. Whether or not we appreciate the beautiful state parks, beaches, and clean tap water, it is right there in front of us, unchanging, day after day after day.
And this is a really big part of God consciousness. All of these stimuli have been around us our entire life - e.g. people, animals, the sky, the moon, nature, etc., but we have never fully appreciated them for how incredible they are. And then all of a sudden something just clicks in you, and you re-connect to that divine energy, and even the smallest and seemingly insignificant things become great sources of joy.
And I keep trying to stay conscious of this state of mind by reminding myself of all of these simple pleasures that I have taken for granted for so long. Now, when I drink Rhode Island tap water, I take a moment to really appreciate it and say a quick “thank you” so that I stay conscious of all that I have remembered to be grateful for.
So all of these small changes start to affect you and then it hits you like a ton of bricks: this is what it means to live an inspired life. Vacation offers us a glimpse of that divine, perfect place - a place without worry or responsibilities. And through that temporary mindset that it automatically places us in, we are able to tap into all that has been around us all along but that we were too preoccupied to appreciate.
Now consider, what if we could apply to our “real life” that same care-free, inspiration-following mindset that we automatically adopt while vacationing? What then? How could this have an impact on our life?
Give it a try. Give yourself the opportunity to go through the process of discovery by placing yourself in that vacationing mindset. I have shared with you some of the things that I have observed, but there are many more beautiful things that happen if you keep your mind open.
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Topics: Awareness-Consciousness, Inspiration, Logic-Intelligence, Personal Development, Spirituality |
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