We all need time to reflect.
After four whirlwind years in Hong Kong I relocated back home to London, managing to catch the final glimpses of the British summertime. It was time to take stock. I have found that we do not do this enough. As a creative it is important to stop, breathe and make sense of what is happening around you. Only then can we really grasp the moments of inspiration which enable us to positively paint onto the canvas of life. Beauty lies in the details, but with today’s rapidly accelerating lifestyles, we seldom get the chance to appreciate it.
I realised I had been bouncing from one project to the next without stopping and asking questions of myself. A ten-day Vipassana course was the answer. Ten days of silence, meditation and reflection. This was followed by a trip back to my roots in India to re-connect with my ancestral heritage. The timing of both could not have been more synchronised.
I started my trip to India with a bang. On my first night I had a near death experience in a car crash in Delhi. Lucky to survive unscathed, my Indian adventure took me to two weddings, magical palaces, forts, ancient temples and encounters with revered mystics. From Dehli to Gujarat, Jaipur, Udaipur and Mumbai. The final leg of my trip included a 22-day full body cleanse at an Ayurvedic retreat in Nadiad.
With no TV, WiFi and simple living conditions, I was confined to the retreat grounds for almost a month. During this period, I wrote a journal, read many books, witnessed a meteor shower and forged special relationships with the locals. It was also a intense Hindi and Gujarati language lesson for me!
During my time in Mumbai, I was lucky enough to reconnect with my mentor Gaur Gopal Das. He is the most inspirational man I know and is lighting up millions of lives with his daily wisdom online. His book, “Life’s Amazing Secrets” has been a huge global success. One of his quotes particularly resonates with me:
“We are not human beings having spiritual experiences, we are spiritual beings having human experiences”
With this in mind, I am feeling reinvigorated and ready for 2019!