OK… I’m sitting in a super cool cafe in Stockholm Sweden surrounded by super cool people about to write a super cool blog! This is addition number 2! If you haven’t read addition number one filled with mulit-paragraph descriptions of a beautiful sunset and very short sentences about farting you can find that at http://brianpiergrossi.com (as well as Facebook and Instagram with accompanying photos and videos) .
I thought I would be writing this blog much more frequently. But let me ask you a question: Would you rather travel Europe with an amazingly beautiful woman (inside & out) or would you rather sit in front of a laptop typing keys on a keyboard?? That’s a rhetorical question.
One of the things that doesn’t get talked about as much when it comes to travel is the amount of time it takes figure out your actually travel each day. Learning the metro, the bus system. the trains, the taxis, the uber. the shuttles. the streets addresses, where things are, where to eat. how to get to and from the airport, learning the conversions for money, language differences, where are you going to stay, how close or far is it to other places you want to go, how do you get from here to there. It feels like almost half the time of traveling is figuring out how to travel. People don’t want to write about that part because it’s not sexy but I committed to sharing the truth with you in this blog. Add to that, in our case, getting organized for upcoming retreats, doing the podcast, the private online group. life coaching, keeping a social media presence,
We had several nights of being awake at 3am and being asleep at 3pm and 2 or 3 initial days of mostly just sleeping and getting oriented..
Our host Mikey had several guests stay at the house. They included young college girls from Ukraine, who wanted to jump in the freezing cold lake at 11pm (apparently a tradition for a new country visited) then got smashed (drunk) on hard liquor, broke things in the house and kept us up late into the night.
The following night it was a super fit young acro yoga couple from Russia who rollerbladed 20km to get to the house and played around with some acroyoga with us.
Then it was a young couple from Finland. Turns out the the guy Sam is a spiritual seeker and has studied Buddhism. He was asking me questions about the Tao te Ching and what it mean to be a “mystic”
I gave Mikey his first guided meditation session ever as he requested. He found it life changing and said when we first opened his eyes he was amazed at how bright white the wall in front of him was. He never knew the everything was so bright!
He then decides he wants to come to our retreat on the weekend so we drive there together.
In the opening circle Mikey courageously shares that he has been suffering from depression and has recently had some suicidal thoughts.
The transformation that took place in him, and others, in just two days was incredibly gratifying to partake in.
By the end of the weekend, he had tossed away his knee brace and had regained full flexibility in his injured knee.
His body was more relaxed, and heart open. He was feeling his emotions and he was feeling connected. He was more fluid in his body and much more present to the moment
In this field of presence is always when the magic and miraculous transformations take place… not through making effort or trying to force it.
We are thoroughly enjoying Stockholm. The city is beautiful. Everyday is about 70F. There’s 21 hours of sunshine each day.. The quality of life is very high. The people are well-educated. The water is clean. We feel like we are learning a lot and making a positive difference here… and that my friends is the greatest way to travel!
Tomorrow we go to Riga Latvia for a one night layover! Neither of us ever heard of “Riga” which is why we decided to go! I googled it yesterday and discovered an article that said it was ranked to have the number one hipster neighborhood in the world!!! My jaw dropped! Life is full of surprises. 🙂
Saturday we begin our one week retreat in Italy. New podcast later this week. More soon. Thanks for sharing the journey!
#brianannieworldtour2018
