Lessons from Portugal

By March 19, 2019Mindy

We are now 3 months into 2019. Bruce and I took time off from our Wellness Wagon tour from mid-December until the beginning of March. We were able to return home to Santa Cruz and host our wonderful three sons and their equally amazing girlfriends for Christmas. It was great to be home to celebrate with our family.

Bruce and I spent most of January nomatic jumping from One Day to Wellness training to another, while our RV got a well needed tune up in Houston.  From January 28-February 20, we really had nothing scheduled, no home, no RV, and no where to be. We packed, hopped on a plane with 2 surf boards, and headed to Portugal. Why Portugal? Well, we heard that the surf is epic, the climate is very similar to Santa Cruz, the cost of living is low, and the people are very inviting to tourists.

All of the above is true. We loved everything about Portugal! The country is breathtaking. We stayed in many coast towns – Lisbon, Ericera, Porto, Penishe, Casias and Sintra.

We stayed mostly in a campground in Ericera. Ericera is known as the World Surf Reserve and for good reason. The surf was huge and most days Bruce couldn’t go out into the waves as  – well – he would have died. These were the days where I scored; These were palace and castle visiting days. I love learning about history so I was in my element exploring these amazing sites. So I spent days pretending that I was a princess on a daily basis while walking through palace after palace.

This was one of the best trips of Bruce’s and my life. We were able to experience life for 3 weeks with no time or urgency. Bruce and I slept A LOT. We woke up when we naturally wanted to awaken. We went to bed when we were tired, We ate when we were hungry. We worked out when we wanted to move. For three weeks, there was no rush, no stress, no timetable, no worry. Our only job was to enjoy the moment and we did.

It took me a few days to “let go” as I am a worker by nature. I can’t lie; It took me a few days to let go of the guilt of not working. As the days went by, I found myself letting go of the expectations I had for myself. My expectations turned into exploration and breathing in everything and nothing. I got really good at doing nothing and not judging the choice.

I am now back “working,” but I have learned that doing nothing is okay. I am letting the lessons learned from my time in Portugal to penetrate into my everyday life – striving to create the balance that makes me whole.

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