Hello friends and family.

Happy Sunday, Monday, or whatever day this finds you. I hope your life this July is going well. I am back home in Kuala Lumpur and filled with new perspectives on my life. This is one of the greatest gifts of travel!

The theme of this week is “travel lessons”

I have been ‘home’ for 4 days now and wow what a difference I feel. I walked back into my life and a full schedule, with a long to-do list, new babies to meet, friends to catch up with, and 4 events in this upcoming week. Can you feel the stress here?

I instantly noticed how stressed I am in my daily life. I wake up with a very long to-do list, I have things that must get done and I have committed to events. A very different space from when I was traveling with limited items.

After this trip, I am convinced that owning fewer things for me will bring me a lot more happiness and time. Fewer things mean less choice and that means more time saved. It’s a fact!

More things I noticed this time around:

• I only ate when I was hungry. Nothing planned. Just hungry and went to get something to eat. Then moved on with life.

• I needed a third of the things I brought with me. Meaning in my actual life I need less than what I have. I have a few one-time items that I will probably need once a year! Why do I own it if I can call a friend and borrow theirs? (Time to declutter)

• Less planned activities meant that I had time to randomly dance in the park on Sunday. Yes, I can plan it but how much random magic am I missing out on?

• I finished work much faster when I was traveling because I realized I have a small window of time in these spaces. This I need to carry into my life.

• There are so many people who are living lives vastly different from what we see online and many of them are joyfully happy with it. A good reminder that there is no one way to live well.

I also loved staying with good friends and learning what hacks for living life they had.

• Greek yogurt, cucumber, lemon, salt, pepper, and garlic is delicious and goes with everything! Thank you Nas for changing my meal times.

• You can add your supplement powder to half a kombucha and top it up with water. Save money on kombucha and get your goodness in. Thank you Leah for that tip.

• Eating ice cream and riding a scooter around a city at night is instant happiness! Thank you, Alejandro.

Your task this week:

• Rate your life at this moment on a scale from 1 to 10 on the stressful scale.

• How can you lower your stress number? Think about 3 actions.

(For me it’s eating meals without a phone or laptop, going to bed earlier, decluttering life, saying no to all new plans for August…oh and breath more)

Remember each week, we are just moving one tiny step forward to creating a life you love. 

How to choose peace & healing over chaos & toxicity.

Hindz is one of my favourite Youtube creators, he is a good reminder of all things calm and peaceful. His voice soothes you as you listen to his insights into life. Today’s video is a good reminder that peace and healing is a choice.

Artists Who Inspire

Andres Barrioquinto

Found this beauty while looking for contemporary surrealist art. Meet Andres Barrioquinto, an artist from the Philippines. The thing I love the most about this is that he painted it himself. I think moving forward with AI art, this style will be saturated by artworks created online. Hopefully, these good artists remain at the top for their time, creativity, and effort.

Song of the week

The song that made me fall for Brazilian Zouk. Hope you enjoy this one! And it’s a good reminder to slow down and breathe.

Before I forget - a big thank you to @0melapics for the Tribal design that inspired this branding.

Final thoughts:

I never imagined that I would be living a life of travel and it still surprises me 20 years later that I get to be in new spaces, share meals with people from other cultures, and learn words from countries far from my own.

It feels surprisingly normal to live in Thailand for 2 weeks or head to South Korea to see friends. And it’s all possible because I chose it and took action to move life to this way of living. I hope that by following this journey of mine you get the courage to make some decisions and live the life you always wanted.

✈️ Final note...I Made This...You can click the link below to buy That Travel Book (My first baby). Please drop an Amazon review as well…much needed for that platform. Thank you!

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