South/Central America

Colonia
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“Do 3-5 small, enjoyable things spaced throughout each day that distract you from grinding duties and that hit your stress reset button. This creates a feedback loop of anticipation, enjoyment, gratitude, and spontaneity.”

Every so often I do one of these things to temporarily escape my environment: I look at pictures of embassies around the world. Like I’ll google “Canadian diplomatic missions”, then I’ll click on the wikipedia page and look at all the different Canadian high commissions, along with the pictures if what they look like. 

I’ve done that with every country I can think of: Canada, Cameroon, Guatemala, Paraguay, Australia, France etc etc. It’s an oddly soothing experience, and yes I’ve been called bizarre for doing such a thing. But hey it works for me, it’s mentally stimulating and to each their own. 

Another thing I do to mentally escape, is I imagine dropping everything and moving to a city at the end of the end of the earth (Ushaia, Punta Arenas, Hobart, Wellington, New Zealand), where nobody knows me, to start my life over. No social media, no regrets, preferably with a new identity, but not mandatory. 

I’m sure most of you can relate to the above described scenario of course, this is not a unique thing at all. For me this also happens when I see certain environments, sunsets or pictures. 

In October 2019 I took a ferry from Buenos Aires to a city called Colonia Del Sacramento in Uruguay. When I was walking through this beautiful, peaceful, historic, quiet town on a windy fall day, I stumbled upon this house: 

When I look at the picture now it seems to be two houses in one, if you see what I mean. Whatever it is doesn’t matter, that’s not the point. The point is that that house, in that setting, in that environment, irradiated a heavy dose of peaceful vibes. I had to take a picture. 

In that moment I thought: “It would be nice to get lost here, away from everyone and everything.” And BAM! Like a b**** slap, I’m snapped back to reality, because that’s not how life works pretty boy. Ditch the dream, and be a doer instead. 

So instead I’m sitting in a room in Vancouver, with my mind on a million different things at once, cause it be like that sometimes. 

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