Following the signs from the universe
I am writing this post from Madeira, a Portuguese island, off the African coast, at the same latitude as Casablanca. We are here because we listened to the signs from the universe telling us to change our course.
We have planed this exciting adventure to last at least six months. It will move us closer to achieving our dream of setting up an Eco-Boutique Guest House. This will be a place where we will hold small to medium size events, like yoga retreats and anything related to healthy and happy living. In other words, events to feed mind, body and soul, where likeminded people have the opportunity to meet and share their ideas and experiences, contributing to each other’s growth.
What is the relevance of our trip to Madeira Island to the theme of this post?
The connection is that this trip is the result of us learning to listen to what the Universe has been telling us for the past years. What I call Universe you may call your inner voice, your heart, intuition, guides, guardian angels, God or something else. It doesn’t really matter what you call it. What matters is that we all have something that continues to send us signals. Life events and apparently insignificant occurrences can be carriers of precious guidance. All we need to do is to be aware and alert to recognize and decipher what these events and occurrences are saying. In general terms, things that make us feel good are positive signals and things that make us feel generally bad are negative signals or sirens.
A latent need for change
Since I met James, he often talks about his love for Asia. He grew up in Malaysia, where his late father was stationed when he was a kid. I love to see his face glow every time he tells me about the incredible sensation of inhaling that first breath of hot, humid tropical air when the aeroplane doors opened. It was an exhilarating sensation, after spending months of being enclosed in a strict English boarding school, where he studied from the age of nine until his late teens.
James often describes his most blissful moments, after arriving home, to be the peace of waking up to the sound of the waves sneaking up to the beach, advancing into the sand, shshshshsh, and retracting toward the ocean, shshshshsh. My mouth waters, when he talks about the pleasure of tasting a variety of succulent, delicious and colourful tropical perfectly ripen and sweet fruits. “I want to live in a place where I can eat fresh ripe papaya for breakfast every day”, James often says. Very often, I might add!
The crisis opened our eyes
As you may know, we live in Portugal, a lovely country in the most western point of Europe, where the climate is mild, compared to northern European countries. The food is rich (too rich for a vegan!), people are generally friendly, but as all of our international friends living here confirm, it is not a land of opportunities when it comes to business and making an abundant living unless you have inherited family wealth or business. We always knew that, but only after the economic crises that started in 2008, did it hit us and made us became increasingly edgy, frustrated and basically unhappy.
Shattered dreams
After the economic crisis, we both had to restructure our professional lives. Prior to that point, I had been working in marketing, commercial and management positions at an operational level, for different multinational companies and James had a flourishing remodelling company for many years, operating between Portugal, UK and Belgium. By the time 2010 came about we had to make quick decisions. James closed his company after a year of professional frustrations and, ironically, I opened one. Yes, I opened a company right at the peak of the crisis! Soon after, James joined me in the wine business and for the following five years we organized professional wine tastings to promote Portuguese wines in a selection of European countries and also started trying to export Portuguese wines.
James and I started off full of passion and enthusiasm for our new project. We loved wine, the countryside and most of the people we met. However, unpredictably, we saw our flame be put out by a number of business circumstances and soon discovered that the world was flooded with wines from other countries. In addition, most importers, for various reasons, had no interest whatsoever in Portuguese wines.
After a few years, we started to realize that maybe that was not the right path for us. We were not living but just surviving and working too hard. Stress dominated our days, I was working very long hours and had no time for myself. James was incessantly trying to convince clients that Portuguese wines were “the next big thing”, but the return was not proportionate to our efforts and our physical and mental health were starting to show alert signs.
Over time, we became growingly disenchanted with the wine world to the point that getting up in the morning turned into a sacrifice.
The universe started to poke us
Our therapy became to watch more and more TV and online programs about travels, about people moving to new countries and building or rebuilding, houses in an ecological way. We came across so many stories of couples that suddenly decided to quit their jobs, leave the city, leave everything behind and took off to live a down to earth, ecological and stress-free lifestyle. It became clear to us that so many people out there were looking to connect with nature. Others chose to travel the world to broaden their horizons, see new cultures, try different foods, help local communities, basically, live more exciting, fulfilling and meaningful lives. These people became our inspiration. We realized that that was exactly what we wanted.
James’s memories of Asia started to come up in conversation more and more often and his desire to go back became unbearable. We decided we wanted to go somewhere to hear that shshshshshsh of the ocean, that he was so fond of in Malaysia, as a young boy.
Taking action
On a sunny morning of April 2015, while I was courageously having a morning swim in our very cold swimming pool, James come down the garden stairs, with a big boyish smile, screaming “Baby, we are going to Thailand in two weeks! I just booked our tickets”. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. His father had just tragically passed away in a house accident and certainly, that occurrence reinforced the thought that life is too short to wait until the next day to do what we want to do.
Revelations in Asia
On April 21st of 2015, we took off to Thailand. When we arrived we still caught a few days of the Songkran Water Festival, the celebration of the Thai New Year. This is a century-old tradition of paying respect to the elders, but in practical terms, it turns into a very messy water fight, with people on the roads and on top of pick-up trucks, throwing water to every passer-by, using water guns, buckets of ice cold water, and even hose-pipes. Adding up to the mess, if you did not pay attention, you would be smudged on your face with a white powder, which I presume was chalk. All that commotion, in the endless crowded streets, with an incredible mix of smells, coming from a variety of street foods, put us immediately in a radically different state of mind and energy. We could feel something was starting to brew.
Five days later we were on a plane to Bali to meet with some friends who go every year and guaranteed we could not miss it. They were right. I am eternally thankful for that tip because it turned into one of the most special trips of my life, so far. We were in Bali for five days and in Ubud for only one day, but that day was enough to trigger many realizations. The welcoming nature of the people, their kindness, their craftsmanship, their faith to their Gods and their willingness to please and help made us realize that what made us happy was to welcome people, serve them healthy and delicious food, make them feel welcomed and special. This is what we love to do at home.
At the airport, I had tears running face. My soul did not want to leave.
Learning to overcome fears
From Bali, we eventually ended up in Koh Tao, in the breathtaking Mango Bay Boutique Resort. A whole new set of experiences added to the magic of the trip. For the first time, I gathered the courage to overcome my fear of snorkelling. I could never get the breathing right, and always panicked. It almost didn’t happen, but a voice inside me said: “Luciana, you have to overcome your fears. You have to step outside your comfort zone. Put your yogic breathing in practice, relax and go out there to enjoy this experience. You will never forgive yourself if you leave this island without trying”. At that point, I put on my vest, at first struggled with the glasses, but then closed my eyes and off I went into the warm water.
At first, I was nervous but after getting used to the correct way of breathing and the amazing water temperature, it felt like entering into a new world. And it was. It was the world of those beautiful, colourful, wonderful creatures, that until that day I had only seen in books and cartoons. The feeling was a mixture of thrill and freedom. Truly indescribable!
Post-Bali-depression
Back at home, we kept the Bali spirit alive by adopting a new morning ritual, where the dress code was to wear a sarong. Our breakfast became a big bowl with a variety of fruit, topped with nuts and honey, sometimes mixed with porridge oats. We enjoyed our healthy breakfast involved by the aroma of burning incense, bought in Ubud.
Our rituals soon developed into what we baptized as the “post-Bali-depression”. We were constantly talking about our amazing experience and how great we felt when we were there. It felt like a piece of ourselves stayed behind. We kept talking about wanting to go back to start a new life, but it was not so easily done considering we have friends and family in Portugal and Bali is a long way away.
Yoga unexpectedly showed the way
Life went on and after a few months of being back from our blissful trip, we decided to participate in an intense, three days, spiritual cleansing yoga retreat, led by my old time yoga teacher, Luis Lima. We decided to go in the hope that through yoga we would find answers to the numerous questions populating our minds and calm the restlessness of our hearts. The retreat was to be held in Madeira Island.
The yoga retreat was very physically and emotionally intense. It was held in a beautiful hotel, but after the three days, we decided to stay on the island for a few additional days to explore. We chose a hotel called Dazkarizeh73, which was recommended by friends who had stayed there a few months earlier. When we drove into the gate, my heart started to race. It felt like we were in Bali again. No difference. The decoration, the music, the incense, the statues, all the details and the hospitality of the staff, all took us back to Bali.
Was this episode the Universe’s way of telling us that we were putting our focus on the wrong island? Was Madeira the place we should be looking at?
Since then we returned to Madeira three times before deciding on this trip to test-drive the island and understand if this is really where we want to be to pursue our dream.
The universe gives answers
The decision to come to Madeira for six months was the pinnacle of a soul-searching journey. Today, I am certain that James’s path and mine crossed to unite two souls in need of direction. We have been jointly working very hard to find our bliss by listening to the signs from the universe. Nonetheless, in this commitment to go after our soul’s desire and a life of intention and purpose we have also made extensive research, internal and practical exercises, set goals, planned, strategized and let go of certain material things.
When we started, all we knew is that we wanted to find a common denominator that allowed us to walk the same path. We both feel a deep need to make a difference somehow, to find an activity that will fulfil our lives and our souls. We are not sure how that is going to materialize, but we know it will. We can feel it.
Listen to the universe
Our venture to Madeira Island is the result of a progressive build-up that culminated with the decision to take a step and move forward. I cannot highlight enough that change depends only on one thing: ACTION! If you want things to change in your life, you have to make it happen by taking action, by having the courage to step outside your comfort zone and enjoy the thrill of the unknown.
I decided to write a journal of our experience in the next few months. It will be a way of keeping our friends and family updated on what is going on, but it will also be a way of having you, dear readers, as accountability partners, as we stay committed to our goal and to what we preach: gratitude, faith, positive thinking, patience, persistence, perseverance.
(This post has been reviewed on March 11th of 2017. The journal is in the process of being turned into an e-book)
May The Bliss be with you,
Luciana
