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I just returned home from six weeks in Southeast Asia! I look back at what seems like an internal boot camp in many ways. Like a sponge, I tried to soak up as many learnings as possible during my time in one of my favorite places in the world.
I spent two weeks in Taipei, Taiwan and a month on the tropical city-island of Singapore. I had fun posting up the different things that I saw on the streets + my experiences with the ever rotating 24 hours of Insta-stories. Those short visuals offer a tiny taste of the ways the mind can stretch to other worlds, realities, cultures. It is a smattering of visual snippets and sounds … yet it is the assimilation, integration and inner transformation that I bring home with me in my heart.
I have always felt very at home in the Far East; at the same time, I cannot deny the effects of having spent the majority of my life in the U.S. ~ an outlook and daily habitual patterns reflective of a Western lifestyle. Being able to spend some real time in Asia allowed me to move beyond being like a tourist, constantly in fascination mode, into a deeper understanding of life there vs. at home. Having a longer + direct experience of life in the East has helped me have a deeper realization of ways of living or habits that can greatly benefit me back home.
Beyond culture, the environment and the way that Mother Earth expresses herself in different geographical locations affects us as well. For example, living in the desert in Arizona, the plants know how to conserve energy and then jump when the timing is right - and teach us to do the same. In the desert, there are few trees obstructing the view of the sky; the horizon-to-horizon visibility helps us see inside ourselves. We cannot run from ourselves, and the fiery heat burns out impurities.
However, this is the first time I’ve spent so much time in a tropical place. In Taipei, you see pots of plants everywhere, around businesses and apartments. No one waters them - the rains are enough and the soil retains moisture long enough for plants to flourish. Moss grows on the sides of buildings and everywhere under your feet. Tiles and bricks on the sides of large buildings are discolored from the prolific mildew. Mother Nature cannot be stopped, even in the city. If you venture out of the city to the mountainside, you see how the plants take over the hillsides - it is impossible to walk through without a machete, because the plants are so thick
Singapore is even more tropical, lying very close to the equator, with the same temperatures all year round: 90’s with up to 90% humidity. Once a thick jungle, it is a now an urban city-state occupying an island that takes about 30 minutes to get from one side to the other, with its sprawling buildings and 5 million people. Even more jungalicious than Taipei, you see little trees sprouting out of brick walls and in every crack available. Tropical trees like papaya, mango and coconut are everywhere.
Tropical plants have other lessons to teach us, ones of abundance, fertility, effortlessness and ease. It is easy to get things to grow - you don’t have to ‘work’ so hard at it. Or if you do work at it, you get results. It is lush and everything is constantly growing; it seems anything is possible! When things grow so fast, they are constantly changing, thus the importance of setting your sails and being able to shape and mold specific outcomes.
I’ve tried to distill what I consider to be some of the most important teachings from this trip, from the tropics + their plants and flowers ~ if you're curious, click here to read: 6 Lessons From the Lush Tropical Jungle!
You'll discover some of the habits that I believe hold us back from total abundance {money, relationships, work, expression, whatever is desired} - and how to catch ourselves in engaging in those habits - and take charge, so we can transform limitation into limitless possibilities, wild expansion, and creating our ideal lives right now.
Love + flower petals,
Katie
