Several months ago, I did a podcast episode on a Netflix series I had watched called The Secrets of the Blue Zones Living to One Hundred. It looked at the lifestyles of areas in the world where people lived well into and beyond their nineties.
I have been in Bali for just a week, and it is all I can think about.
A major piece of the series that comes to mind here is living a daily life that balances your mind, body, and spirit.
On Jack’s first day of school, they did two cooking classes. That’s right, cooking! They made cookies and frosted them. For a group of preschoolers this was as hands-on and as messy as can be. It was also successful! They followed that with the creation of a Balinese stir fry. They chopped garlic and cut cucumbers. They sliced pineapples and veggies. They took turns stirring it on the hot plate.
It was fabulous.
In the week we have been here I have gone to the bathroom more times than I went in the month leading up to this adventure. My tummy is fine. I am managing the food quite well in fact. It is just so healthy! One might think rice and veggies here and rice and veggies at home would be the same.
But they aren’t.
The rice is grown just miles from the resort. The fruit and veggies as well. They are not trucked all over the world, filled with chemicals and sprayed with poisons. And the taste! So utterly delicious.
The hotel practices mindfulness it how everything is run. First and foremost, everything is reusable. No plastic anywhere. Second, cold drink offerings are juices made with ginger and beets and turmeric and tangerines. While there are places to get soda, it is not visible anywhere at the Maya Sanur.
Local drinking water is unsafe. So, all the water we drink comes in bottles (glass) or from water coolers at the spa or my gym. The lack of convenience in procuring my drinking water has made me so much more mindful about using it. At home we think nothing of dumping half empty water bottles out. All we must do is hold it up to the fridge and get more.
I would not dump any water out here. We use it to brush our teeth!!
As you walk along any sidewalk or beach path or busy city street there are small bowls of what looks like food, fruit and leaves it seems. There is often incense burning in it. These small offerings are everywhere. They are placed there to remind people that gratitude to the universe is a natural and healthy part of life.
The humility behind the slight bow that is part of most greetings and goodbyes, and offerings of thanks is so much more personal than a handshake. It emotes empathy and grace. A firm handshake feels like a challenge in comparison.
The landscape, the water, the trees and greenery, the mountains across the bay, all this visual stimulation is full of beauty. Even the busy, chaotic, cluttered city streets feel beautiful to me. Money is not wasted on making a presentation or setting a tone. The people and products inside do that.
My time at CrossFIt Sanur, a part of Paradise Bali, has been a safe place for me. The gym is so familiar, and so much the same. Walk into a CrossFit Gym anywhere in the world and you are home. I have met people from all over the world. I have done some amazing workouts.
This gym is a go to place for citizens, ex-pats and tourists. There are three floors with a variety of services that address all manner of fitness. And the yoga. It is everywhere all the time. I have been able to avoid it so far. We shall see. I think what I might do is go up onto the grassy roof before breakfast and do my own version of the practice of body contortion and mind cleansing.
If my first week in Bali has taught me anything, it is that slowing down is not a thing to be feared. That spending an entire day at the pool, looking at the Indian Ocean, watching Jack play is just as important as the three hours I have been on my computer this morning as I write this blog.
I want to have some sort of awakening. I want my life to make sense. I want to show Jack that life is not all America and the chaos there. And Kenny? I want him to see his value in the world and how he fits into this crazy puzzle. I want to honor Molly. I want to care for Gracie. I want to matter.
And here in Bali, it seems letting go of all of that is the key to all of that happening.
And there it is!