Nathan and I have been living in Nicaragua for 1 month now and are pretty well settled. The hassles of packing up our place in Calgary and putting everything in storage for the big move are almost a distant memory. But what we do remember is all the preparation that went into the move. Everything from researching DEET free mosquito repellent to buying toys (coloring books, games, fitness equipment, etc..) to entertain us on those long quiet days that we were anticipating. We made sure we had all the music and movies and tv shows downloaded just in case the internet was too slow for Netflix (or in the sad case that Netflix just didn’t work here). Scary thought!
Well it’s been a month and I’m almost embarrassed to say, that I haven’t even read a page of a book… On the other hand, I’m not at all embarrassed to say that we have only watched 3 hours of tv in 30 days. What a switch up! Before living here, we would easily watch an hour or two… maybe even three IN A DAY. House Hunters International marathons, a few episodes of Suits, the morning news on HLN, and good movie a few times a week. It’s really hard to believe now how much television we watched considering our lifestyle now.
In Nicaragua the sun is up very early, we are awake every day between 5:30-6am. The sun also sets early so we are generally back at Equilibrio in our beautiful casita, probably even in bed by 8:30pm, and asleep by 9:30pm. No idea where the time goes but it’s great!
In addition to our attachment to technology, we were also attached to some material things that we had to part with before our move. For example, we were so sad to leave our comfy couch in Calgary. A lot of quality time happens in the living room just hanging out on the couch. We got into the habit of eating our meals on the couch, listening to music with a little happy hour, watching tv, playing dominos, etc.. And now, I can’t even tell you the last time we sat on a couch. Actually just last week we went to a restaurant in the area that had a dinning table with a couch type bench. We sat side by side and realized it had been a long time since we sat together like that!
So it’s really amazing how easy it is to let go of things we “think” we are attached to. Just by stepping out of our routine, trying something new, and changing our environment.
Did you know that according to Buddhist teachings, attachment is the primary source of suffering?! If that’s true, then letting go, non-attachment, would be our “get out of pain” for free pass! I invite you to try letting go of something in your life. It could even be as small as a piece of clothing that you haven’t worn for over a year but that you can’t seem to let go of. Starting off small can slowly lead to more as you start to see how much lighter you feel when you release. It’s been interesting to see how easily we have been able to let go of old habits here and create new ones… Like collecting sea shells on the beach! Not a bad trade off 🙂
