Anna Moon Sun

As a libra, I’m middle of the road with most things. When it comes to travel, I like to have an idea of some things I want to see, but not be tied to a strict schedule. For the first day of our honeymoon in Tahiti, I had nothing planned. And it was the longest, loveliest day I have had in a very long time. I always thought I was very good at doing nothing, but sitting in front of the tv with my iPad, iPhone and laptop all running different things (and sometimes a magazine too, sorry Beckee) isn’t exactly doing nothing. While it’s not necessarily productive, going through the lists of things I’m supposed to be doing and bookmarking things I want to be doing, still occupies quite a bit of space. 

I suppose it’s ironic that as a yoga teacher and student, I say or hear “be present; clear your mind…” at the beginning of every class. However, I never fully grasped what that felt like until recently. It’s sad that the empty/free space in my mind felt so foreign (and that it took 4000 miles to get there!) but it was absolutely wonderful. We sat in the pool, drinks in hand, for what seemed like hours soaking up the sun and beautiful scenery.  At one point when it seemed like we had been there well into the afternoon, we looked at our phones and it was still only 11am!!

I’d love to tell you that I was able to maintain this new found freeness in my mind for the duration of our honeymoon, but that’s just not how I’m wired. Within 2 days (ok, more like a day and a half) the familiar pang of needing to do and experience things came back. I started researching “Top things to do in Tahiti” like it was my job. And what’s even more gross is that sometimes I found myself thinking “this would be a great pic for Instragram!” Ugh. However, on the other side of that, if I ever want to get paid to travel then that is the nature of this beast.

So my lesson from this trip is that I think we can all learn from two cult classics: Morpheus and En Vogue…Free your mind. Let yourself be open and present in a way that immerses you in the moment. And you don’t have to get there by traveling 4000 miles away. Maybe it’s going to a new coffee shop, restaurant or city that you’ve never been to. Let yourself “be” there, observing every sight, sound and smell without looking at the clock. And if you can’t get away physically, I think that travel is about so much more than being in a different geographic location. You can be a tourist in your own mind by reading a great book, watching a movie or just enjoying a few minutes of quiet time. As we begin one of the busiest and most stress-inducing seasons of the year; maybe we can even look at visits with family as an exotic trip! (That one will probably require a little more practice and a lot of booze, but it’s worth putting it out there :p) 

xo, 

Anna Moon Sun

P.S. I will share my carefully googled activities in a future post.

P.S.S. I have watched the Matrix at least a dozen times and I still don’t really “get it”.

P.S.S. I threw En Vogue in there because I freaking love the 90’s!

P.S.S.S. Are you allowed to have this many P.S.’s?