It has been 66 days since I left Thailand for Melbourne. I was following an inner call and my intuition when I made the move to spend some time exploring that wonderful Australian city. It was a Monday morning when I landed, and a Monday too when I took off. It was only two months, but two of the most significant ones in my life so far.
I started my trip without definite plans, not knowing where I would stay, what I was going to spend my days doing (apart from participating in a dance course once a week), and without any idea of Melbourne’s life and people. However, there was one thing I was sure about: that I had to visit this place.
Since I had just over two months before I had to return to Thailand, I decided to dedicate this time as a sort of personal holiday, doing whatever I felt like – even if it was nothing sometimes – and giving myself the space to receive and learn more of the very thing that brought me to Melbourne.
I went without any expectations. However, I had the strong intention of staying tuned into accepting whatever came along the way and keeping myself in the vibration of gratitude, by simply being grateful for whatever is.
Gratitude is a high vibrational energy when the mind is focused on being grateful for whatever is present in our lives. Instead of focusing on what one wants to have in life – which would indicate a lack of some sort – focus on and love what you already have, and soon you will receive more of what you have and also that which you don’t (yet). Being grateful for whatever is opens up channels for us to receive more high-vibrational energy in the form of people, events, and meetings, for example. The practice of gratitude seems like an easy one, and it is – as long as positive experiences and people come into our lives. However, it can be challenging when one is called to face challenges. This is the beauty of the practice. Be grateful for whatever is – even something less pleasant – and with a non-judgmental attitude. Take life as it is, loving it as is. One can love anything into existence, including anything you can dream about. Be grateful for not getting that job, not receiving that phone call you were waiting for, not owning your dream car (yet), and soon you will get an even better opportunity, meeting, and so on.
Approaching life without expectations and being tuned into gratitude opened up doors for me and I received throughout these past two months much more than I could ever have thought of or wished for. I found friends who were not only colleagues within the same profession, but also became fun-loving buddies and, moreover, role models of unconditional love and a soul family.
I found a community of spiritual seekers who became my tribe. How did I know that this was my tribe? Because it felt like being one of them from the very first day, due to the mutual acceptance and true appreciation, a sense of respect, deep support, and love. They were my sisters and brothers, it felt like since a very long time – and finally I found my way back to them.
I found the place I could finally say YES to! Melbourne, for me, had the perfect combination of modern life and spirituality. I was looking for this combination a very long time – to be honest, without knowing what I was looking for. I just had the feeling within, a feeling that a place would tell me how that place and its people would be like, and how I would feel myself being in that place. I had lived either for short or long terms in seven different countries up to this point in my life, and I hoped to find that very feeling in all of them. I was ready to settle down when I found it. It gave me the feeling you have when you feel like being home, you feel like you belong to it, and it feels like you finally got it right. You just know it – beyond reasoning and logic.
It may sound cliché, but this is the truth. Life was falling into place for me in Melbourne. Although I had this experience earlier in my life as well, usually it was concentrated on just one or two aspects of life. Either work was “falling into place,” or traveling abroad was falling into place, etc. But this time it seemed like everything came together at once. Events, meetings, friends, work, study, accommodation, sisterhood, future projects – everything was in so much alignment, at ease, in synchronicity. Life was flowing for me and I was flowing with it, with ease. I received everything I could have thought of without effort, exactly at the right time, without pushing anything or being pushed by something, and without having to make any compromises.
I am grateful for this experience, and sometimes I wonder about the conspiracy and complexity of the universe. Why Australia, why now, and what comes next?! Why was I born in Europe when I feel the most at home in Australia?
The 66 days are over, and I am here now, in Thailand to finish up some commitments. I focus on keeping my mind centered in gratitude, which made my departure easier, as part of me wished I could just stay there and restart my life from here and now. Does that sound silly or unreal? Do those who have known me a while, and especially those who have been following while I ran amok over the last four years, know how BIG this is for me.
Bye for now, Melbourne, and hope to see you again in October!
Oh yes, I know you wondered: I do also have some things to say about the men of Melbourne… but that is a topic for another post!
