Sometimes You Have to Outsmart Your Own Damn Self. Here's How.

"I've always wanted to live across from a field of cows."

--said this girl never.

Who cares about cows? Not me. At least up until last year.

But in Costa Rica I ended up living across from a cow pasture.

Every day I watched the Brahma bulls as they ate our compost, fed their calfs, chewed their cud and sat in the shade.

And they provided me with immense comfort....they were so calm...they only know how to be cows!?

They were not worried about tomorrow or next week or global warming or the Ukraine or their daughter's braces or how expensive everything seems to be on the menu (I feel like I'm 47 going on 82 lately)? and that's when I can actually READ the menu.

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And I had an AHA MOMENT.....I thought:

THIS is what people are talking about...... when they talk about nature and animals.?

THIS is the insidious power of outdoor spaces!

THIS is why people in Colorado are obsessed with hiking!

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While in Costa Rica, I did NOT do a lot of surfing or hiking or kayaking or camping or traditional outdoor activities.?

I'm just not that person. I enjoy the occasional adventure, but I am not DRAWN to it.

And so my experience there was more....domesticated.

**I sat on my deck a lot..?

**I rode through jungled land on the way to the grocery store.

**I drove across rivers, taking home my daughter's French friend.

** I walked barefoot in the mud plenty, while I waited for my COVID test results.

**I was often in the rain with no umbrella or rain coat--on my way to a coffee shop.?

**I jumped from cliff faces and waterfalls.

**I regularly saw bats, iguanas, tropical birds and massive bugs--everywhere.

**I listened to hundreds of frogs...singing so loudly that you couldn't hear each other speak---from my house.?

**Every other day, I ran and hopscotched through the tide pools and along the "point of where the ocean meets the land just like I was walking on a wire in a circus...." (two points and a postcard from me, if you know that lyric--Congratulations Geoff Ellis for nailing it within five minutes)

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And I realized this is part of why I went to Costa Rica.

To bravely exit my comfort zone.....but in a non-threatening way.

I KNEW I wouldn't find NATURE on my OWN, so I SET UP MY LIFE so nature would FIND ME.

And it did. Nature snuck into my consciousness. So much that for the first time in my life,

--I questioned my love of urban life....

--I feel just a little bit claustrophobic in my little brick bungalow in Platt Park.

My point? Getting what we want takes creativity. Ingenuity. Even counterintuitive curiosity.

--Do you need to outsmart yourself?

--How could you change your approach?

--What might it yield?

--What are you not noticing?

--Do you need an outside perspective? Most people do. I'm convinced that healing and growing is NOT a SOLO endeavor.

I'm in the business of transformation. Moxie. Messaging. And Manifestation. Muggles need not apply.

#messaging #personalgrowth #change #youarebrave