Sometimes there comes a time in life where we are forced to take a pause, and reassess just what makes us happy. After pushing ourselves all our working lives to achieve more, possess more, and to own more stuff as a measure of our success, we wondered why we felt so depleted all the time. Always striving, but never quite fulfilling...
So we started looking a little deeper, beneath the surface of our niggling discontent. Yes, we were running a successful, and in a lot of ways fulfilling wellness/retreat space, as well as juggling other work commitments and family. We were providing a beautiful healing space for people to enjoy in our home in Terrigal NSW, with regular yoga classes and a sweet little romantic Airbnb accommodation for guests to chill out and reconnect. We were good at it! We had received the badge of Superhost for all 12 quarters since we started, earning us 5 star reviews most of the time. We were contributing good things to our community, and meeting so many wonderful people from all over the world, proudly showing off our beautiful home town by the sea. We were taking short vacations every year, and always making improvements to our lives. But something was definitely missing....FREEDOM. Freedom to have some down time, to nurture ourselves, and to take our time with things, to rest and slow down, and really give to ourselves what we were so generous in providing to others. I had worked shift work for many years, and quite often survived on 4 hours of sleep a night, while Tony was definitely feeling the physical strains of working in the building industry for so many years. In short, it was time to let go of so much that we had lovingly created together, and to create some magic for ourselves.
I became more than a little curious about minimalism, and the 'Tiny House' movement was my new passion. We knew we were headed in a totally new and unconventional direction, and simplifying our busy life was our new obsession.
But where do we start to untangle ourselves from such a complex web of existence? There was only one answer - to simplify everything. Firstly, we decided to offload most of the material baggage that we were identifying ourselves with. Our home, cars, business and other belongings were all needing to be moved on, to make some space for us to be free to travel and explore our world, and to really discover who we were, and what our true purpose is. We were rich on paper, or at least in the conventional sense of owning a lot, but ironically so time poor that our life was becoming a little mechanical and empty. We felt trapped by the circumstances we had spent so long creating, with no time to actually pause and enjoy it all!
'To be human means you can mold situations you are living in the way you want them. But today most people in the world are molded by the situations in which they exist.'
- Sadhguru
Once we made the decision to sell everything, things flowed so smoothly, affirming our daunting decision. But it certainly wasn't an easy transition from a very full life to one that was much simpler and debt-free. We found out that it takes a lot of effort and organising to simplify your life, not just materially, but especially on an emotional level too!
During this transition phase my friends would laugh at me whenever I'd say I was too busy for a catchup. They would eye me suspiciously, and wonder what I was doing to fill the days now I had no house, business or job to go to. Shouldn't I be available all the time now that I had no real purpose to my life? But just as it takes a long time to accumulate so much 'stuff', we discovered you need to give yourself plenty of time to readjust to your new way of living. I am still struggling with actually letting go of the need to struggle. For years my normal state was one of a continual battle to keep afloat. Bouncing from one challenge to the next, with careful precision. I currently have feelings of groundlessness, and uncertainty about the future. Do I even deserve a peaceful life? Have I earnt it? Will we drift into a life of oblivion, without earning our legitimate place on this planet? What next...and then what next? But at the same time there is something so deliciously exciting about just jumping off and not knowing.
With total trust we just let go of it all, and connect into the flow. Deep breath!
Ironically once we sold our home and paid off the mortgage, we knew we could not afford to live in Terrigal again. There was no going back! We had signed the deal. The market had grown so much we were now instantly squeezed out, unless we went back to the bank to ask for more...which would mean getting back into debt. NO DEAL....
We were already feeling the niggling pangs of being outsiders, going against the current that had swept us along all our lives.
We gave ourselves a break by way of a 12 month transitional period, to slowly pare back our belongings towards true minimalism. Rather than just give everything away (although we did for the most part), we opted to rent a container to store the 'stuff' we just couldn't part with so quickly while we transitioned through this phase towards a minimal life.
We then temporarily moved in with Tony's 91 year old Greek mamma, while we focused on finding our mode of transport to take us forward into the unknown...a life of travel and discovery.
Read on to find out more about our new home 'Sunny' the bus.
See you on the road!
Love, light and peace...
Danielle & Tony xx
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