Are you trusting your way through life?

How do you honestly live day to day – Do you live within a basic framework of trust …..or fear as you go about life?

Perhaps it’s a little mix of the two – like most of us, I’m sure? Perhaps it’s more about which way it’s weighted for us, edging towards to trust or more towards fear?

I have strived to live with the former in my life. I attempt to see the positive or funny side of things if I can – but I am not a comedienne by any stretch of the imagination. Make no mistake though – I have also had both short and long bouts of falling into the dark well, staring at the black dog and flailing around like a rabid soul. That sense of feeling like I am drowning in that deep well water of anxiety, sadness, bulimia as a teenager, asking questions around ‘wtf’ is it all about. I have known depression, very dark patches in life, been bedridden twice in my life, and even wanted to give up at times. Really give up. I think many people have been in that spot at some point – have you too?

In the last 18 months, we have all witnessed or experienced the pain of grief, exhaustion, loss, financial ruin, and lack of hope around the world. No one has escaped unscathed.

Yet at the same time, we can also hold the opposite energy of love, trust, possibility, and an enthusiastic positive life force. So even while the proverbial sh#t hits the global fan, we have also seen the very best of people come to the fore. In my experience.

Sacred kindness, compassion, and caring beyond duty for family, community and country. It doesn’t have to be one or the other- but perhaps it’s about us living with the whole messy lot showing up all at once.

I do my best to try and stay in the 80 /20 realm of trust versus fear. In my #LocationFree lifestyle for the past 5.5 years, I have been forced to lean into trust more and more. It’s inevitable. Traveling and working around the world with no fixed home base requires you to dig deep and leap. Im my book I do share what I feel are all the lessons to embrace – and one of them is around trusting yourself and trusting other people. Connecting into communities and allowing the magic of life to show up en route. It’s about not needing to know ALL the bits before you decide to go. Leap and develop wings along the way.

So I somehow managed to “pull off” getting to my favorite Greek island this summer – while still not sure if my business partner could get here from South Africa (we co-host retreats around the world). We also had a smattering of interested and dedicated writers who were willing to take the risk to travel in these oddest of times- safely, tested and masked to within an inch of our lives. But here I am, on Lesvos with a small group of 4 writers and I have been constantly reminded of how sweet life is when you relax and trust!

The power of Trust Part 1

My respect for the Greeks and this very special island got a double dose of #LocationFree love this week. It’s important to “plug into“ your local community when living nomadically to help create a sense of “home and belonging.” So there’s nothing quite like walking out of a restaurant for 2 days in a row and not paying. Tomorrow, tomorrow, she says. I was keeping a handwritten bill of what’s owed by me.

I was about to pay my ‘account’ two days after the fact. I had started racking up my bill while sitting in my “office by the sea” watching Tsitsipo in the final at Roland Garros. How exciting to watch the first Greek in history make it to one of the Grand Slam Finals. I had just forgotten to take my purse with me in the rush to get to the platea! The next day I went up to the top winter village to work, and only returned to my “seaside office” again on Tuesday – and added another 2 coffees to my bill. I had plenty of money in my purse this time when I suddenly remember to pop to the Pharmacia to collect a treat for our writers and pick up some much-needed electrolytes. I was thinking I had my debit card to pay the pharmacy but alas, suddenly had to use the cash in my purse and… the dear “office by the sea” @_gialos_eresos only got half paid. Oh well – next day a couple more cafes were added to my piece of paper and I’m finally all square again. Until today when we all went to eat breakfast there to soak up the Sunday morning Platea buzz ……. and now my bill starts again. I love it. 

#trust is alive and well in the world of #greece #eresos_lesvos

If you would love to read about some more TRUST stories unfold on my Greek island, you can read more here https://www.kate-emmerson.com/2021/06/21/are-you-trusting-your-way-through-life/

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