Stimulate the Mind and Feel with the Heart

When two intellectual minds come together, two people who have traveled, live life to the fullest and have the same lens on life-it is magical. 

This often happens in cultural exchange traveling where you just sit and connect for hours talking about life philosophies, relationships, shared experiences, living abroad, and travel. It is like how will others understand the depth of your traveling and these incredible discussions that take place....how will people understand that THIS is what travel is all about and its not about 5 star hotels, expensive meals, big tours, and spending time with tourists the whole trip. 

It is about having this experience with a local intellectual-two minds coming together and sharing a space where you speak comfortably and freely. 

We started off speaking about relationships and releasing labels of "perfection" to find someone that you are compatible with and can enjoy life with

He is recently widowed from a wife who took her own life and he never thought he would move on until he met a woman magically by fate and gave him love and hope again in his heart. She experienced traumatic issues with men and had difficulty fully committing, but the experience with her was so pure and meaningful. 

Would you rather have something short lived that was magical and beautiful or would you be satisfied knowing that you lived and shared moments like that with someone. 

It is something I think about with people who have relationships that end or those who get divorced. If you had a great Chapter of life with someone-5 years,10 years, 20, or whatever length of time it maybe-that should be valued, appreciated, and not taken for granted. 

So many people complain about not finding the one or looking for a perfect relationship, but if you had a great relationship with someone for a long period of time-you should be grateful for that time. 

Greg was very resilient after having a marriage end so tragically, but he had a wonderful daughter that he was so proud of and they both had a great relationship with one another talking regular and being actively involved in each others lives.

 When I get into my therapeutic element, I feel like I wear the hat of being a great listener providing the life feedback that something is looking for and craving. It is dose of realism, a dose of inspiration, a dose of constructive criticism, and a reminder to be grateful for what you do have.

He spoke about his friends son who had Agoraphobia and would never leave his house. He suffered from such depression and inability to interact with others that he just would never leave the house. I reminded him that we are two social human beings who are lucky to have such bold and beautiful personalities to connect with others. We have such depth to be able to appreciate music, culture, travel, nature, and meeting great new friends. 

There are people that are not as fortunate as we are and even when life feels dark with not enough support from family, I have to remind myself that I am alive and I reminded him too of our great gifts that we should be very thankful for..

We had similar dominating yet kind personaities where our behavior can be interpreted in a certain way and if people do not ask questions and are not intellectually savy or do not want to to take interest actively learning about YOU-they form their own opinions, judgements, and get to know a false version of you. This would happen to him when meeting women and dating, but for me it was definitely with some encounters with strangers and family members mainly.

If you are not reading my travel blogs or writing, if you are asking questions in the shallow end and being "intellectually lazy" by not digging deep with those personal connections then you really can't judge. 

I feel robbed of who I really am because people just do not understand my love  for people, my intention, and how good/pure my heart can be. I want to do things properly, stay true to committments, help others, and uplift the spirit of others, but sometimes both of us have this behavior where we are viewed as controlling and this is just not the case when I am traveling and interacting with hosts, friends, and new interactions. 

When you have DEPTH and LAYERS, people who are staying in the shallow end will not ever experience the real feeling of the water.

I spoke to him about my experience on the plane where I was sitting there on New Years eve speaking with an Australian man his same age about my life goals and aspirations that are falling short of where I need to be. Being on a plane to Sydney when I knew in my heart that I should be actively working on India- my resume, my goals, my writing and I know that I failed to make the right decision. 

You LIVE and YOU LEARN and we were two people who were learning through our life experiences, but I am happy with my growth as a person and wanting to do the right thing and be a good person despite having family difficulties-parents who are dysfunctional and provide a huge lack of love and support. I have become "damaged" by not having loving parents, but I continue to move forward and try my best as a human-that is meaningful and that is something most people just don't understand-the learning, the growth, and coping with life challenges, getting up, smiling and staying positive. You fall down and you get back up.

You can be strong and resilient, but there is this fine line between being too resilient and having people notice that boldness and controlling trait that can be read the wrong way. 

 The easiest path to hypocrisy is Intellectual laziness- David