...and the world didn't end

I’m just back from a 2 week vacation. It was mostly incredible aside from a few heart hurdles but wow! 🤩 .

The first 10 days, I was in my most favorite place in the world, Italy. There really aren’t any words to describe the magic upon magic that I feel there and that I felt there this last trip.

It had been 4 years since I was there last. As we all know, a lot has happened since 2019 🥴. It was better than I ever could have possibly imagined for myself.

I’ve always said that I feel more connected to my Gods, as I like to call them, there. Feels like I could reach out and touch them. I’m grounded, I’m open, I’m in complete trust of what they have in store for me, and generally more relaxed and in the moment.

Which means, I really wasn't present on my phone. I took a few pictures, but really left it up to the group because we started a google doc to share photos amongst us. (I was there at my BFF’s yoga retreat-shout out, Kev!💞).

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I have a love/hate relationship with my phone. Social media specifically, but also just being online in general instead of being present in the moment. So I wasn’t. I really was not online. And though I enjoyed it immensely and didn’t miss it for a moment, there was a ghost of a “should” in the background.

I should post. I should share. I should document this place and tell everyone about it. I should do it now, because later isn’t the same. I should do it, because if I don’t, the world will end.

Well, spoiler alert: the world did not end! I was able to enjoy myself fully. I played music at the retreat for my friends, new and old, I danced for the mountains, I read my book, I did yoga, ate pasta and drank wine, and the world hasn’t felt so alive, so opposite of the end, as it did for me those days.

The pressure I can put on myself to be everything everywhere all at once can be paralyzing. I end up being nowhere.

On this trip, I was there. I didn’t listen to the whispers of shoulds. I just was.

It’s a great reminder. Nothing is really ever that serious that the world will end over. I mean, until it is. But that John Lennon quote comes to mind :

“Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end”.

Do you ever get paralyzed by the “shoulds”? What’s your way of dealing with them?

When was the last time you disconnected and were truly right where you are?

Let me know in the comments below.

Ciao ciao,
Dana