The very first week

Nothing stimulates more my imagination, my creativity than making a drastic change in my life because this means to leave behind the known to enter a territory I must explore and discover.

My more recent move happened during summer 2020 after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic passed and we all recovery our “normality” of traveling, moving around without knowing that the second wave (and in some places even a third wave) was just around the corner.

With this decision, I realized, once again, that I’m attracted and probably even addicted to change as I feel the need for it after a period of stability and boredom.

This time the move as a family with a couple of teenagers at home made us even more excited and talkative as they needed more accompaniment than the previous moves when they were younger.

I shared with them what is for me the most creative, stimulating, and even exciting aspect I’ve experienced every time I change the country of residence for personal or professional reasons: the very first week in the new destination.

photo by Grant Ritchie on Unsplash

Of course, there is uncertainty and apprehension to match expectations with realities but the clean white paper in front of me creates more enthusiasm and desire to discover than anything else.

The magic of those first days is based on the need to have an explorer’s attitude where all my senses are wide open, in high alert and I use all of them at the same time. Is pure active sensing & observation.

Being free and courageous to adventure myself into the unknown requires also to be connected and aware of my senses because I need to grab everything around me in this new place: a signal, a noise, a smell, the landscape, the direction of the streets, where the shops are located, the bars, the restaurants, the location of the nearest hospital, the public transport, and I huge list of new things to discover.

These initial sensations, feelings, and thoughts are so intense and stimulating that for me is pure energy that transforms my reality and explodes my imagination in such a way that put me in a state where my creativity is everything and I live it through my whole body, mind, and heart.

Trying to be more conscious of such initial ectasis of my senses I have adopted the practice of record somehow those moments by writing, taking some pictures, or videos. This time I encouraged my kids to do something similar for them to preserve in their life those initial moments before they would be gone as, based on my personal experience, it would happen because everything becomes familiar to us as human beings quite soon.

I’m not able to transmit how much I enjoyed and learned during that initial first week in my new destination, I just realize that every time it excites me more and those first moments accompany me longer, deep inside my self beyond my memory as they are lived through my whole self.

The question is how do I handle the routine of everyday life after all this high voltage of emotions is gone?

In my case, the answer is by exploration, imagination, and full presence to live consciously the new reality without getting trapped in making everything “normal”, standard, colorless.

On my latest move, experimenting and accompanying my kids to live in a place with four seasons for their first time in their life has been quite a trip. The cold weather, the rain and hail, the short days and long nights, the first snow, or stepping into frozen lakes and channels…….are pure poetry that brings new feelings, new sensations to keep our minds in a permanent learning attitude.

Also doing regular physical activity (walking, running, cycling) helps me expanding the “known territory” each day. Allowing myself out of the comfort zone, taking the risk to explore and the permission to get lost that it is one of the best ways to learn and be creative because I have to use my gut, my intuition, to overcome disappointment and frustration that feeling lost initially brings.

After several months here, I try to keep a healthy routine of helping my brain to move, to be alert, and boosting my senses by exposing myself to different running paths around home with a beginner attitude while crossing parks plenty of flowers, birds and small animals, admiring the ancient architecture of oldtown, getting immersed on the majestic dunes or simply running on the beach feeling the wind and hearing the waves next to me…….

The more conscious I am about my context during my morning runs, the more my day is prone to create and imagine new things because I am receiving so many and diverse inputs in such a short time (less than 45 minutes) that sparks my creative attitude for the whole day.

When the weather conditions are beyond my strengths to go out to get these daily doses of beauty that triggers my creativity, then I have the time to sit down and write some ideas and thoughts that crossed my mind as I have done today when is pouring outside and my cup of coffee keeps me warm and stimulate me further to share this with you all. Cheers!

I realized, once again, that I’m attracted and probably even addicted to change