How to Australia

As the sun shined sharply on my body, while I was lying on the sand, I heard a voice directed towards me. I looked up and saw a beautiful woman asking me how the water was. We got talking and she was curious to hear about the spontaneous nature of my visit down under.

It began with a breakfast table conversation with my sister the day after Christmas, in Toronto. I shared that I had an itch to go somewhere warm and jokingly she remarked ‘you could fly to the other side of the world for fun’.

Something sparked within me and it was an immediate yes. That feeling when you know deep in your gut something feels right.

It is less about the thinking, analysing, planning and contemplating that I am so used to, and fairly proficient at now thanks to a lifetime of practice.

The energy of feeling through an idea is different. It becomes less of a math calculation, with variables and more of a flavour of a meal. Taste is generally subjective. Something that I find tasty the person next to me may not. Feeling through ideas is similar. And I found the idea of flying spontaneously across the world very tasty.

A few hours later, I was at the airport getting ready for a twenty four hour travel journey into the future.

I landed in Brisbane, and had nothing booked or planned. I went up to the car rental counter, and it wasn’t until I sat in the passenger seat and noticed the steering wheel was missing that I remembered an important fact I clearly had forgotten.

‘This is going to be an interesting experiment’ I thought as I switched seats in the car and got acquainted with driving on the wrong side of the road.

After a few days at the beach in the blazing hot Australian summer sun, I found my way to Sydney to do a bucket list item: celebrate New Years Eve at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I learned that it is basically the world’s largest new year’s party, and felt the energy. The entire city shuts down for the day, with people camping the night before to get the best views over the harbour.

It took far more hustle and grit than I had anticipated to get myself to a decent viewpoint for the midnight fireworks, with the checkpoints, ticket checks, line-ups and overflowing crowds everywhere. The game was fun to play and brought out the competitive side in me.

Celebrating the turn of the year alone was surprisingly comforting.

A common signal of how comfortable one is with their own company is to sit in meditation for days, or more simply to go to a restaurant or the movies alone. My version of this was to go to the world’s largest party alone. I was the only person I could see who was there alone. That brought a smile to my face.

Thanks to me sharing through this blog that I was in Sydney, a few local friends reached out. I admittedly had completely forgotten that I had friends in Sydney, and it was a welcomed surprise to see familiar faces unexpectedly in the first few days of a new year.

It feels nice to be surprised once in a while. So much of life can feel premeditated and planned, especially social encounters.

One friend, from Toronto, had moved to Sydney during the pandemic for a job and had been living the expat life here for the past year and a half. Him and I have hung out everyday, swapping notes on the respective expat cultures we’ve each lived in across the world.

The frequency of contact with a familiar and trusted friend has felt comforting. It’s been nice to have the space to connect deeply with someone. He has followed my writing and journey for the past decade, and has been intentional about curating suggestions for me to experience Sydney in a way that has felt very aligned– which I feel very grateful for.

Eating at the restaurants the locals frequent, writing my next book sitting in a coffee shop, going on a few dates, getting more than a few mosquito bites each evening, hitting the gym and taking a dip daily in the ocean, have all made me feel like I’ve experienced Australia well.

I’ve enjoyed being temporarily in a different time zone than my world. It has opened up hours during the daytime when I have good energy and no digital distractions. When the rest of my world is sound asleep, I’m bustling with energy and can treat my physical and mental health as the top priority, with my professional responsibilities as my second priority.

In the morning, I deal with my North American responsibilities and connections, and in the evening, I deal with my European ones. In the middle, when there is inspiring daylight and warmth, I get to deal with myself.

My one word intention this year is Flow, and despite it only being a few weeks into the year, I definitely feel like the intention has been guiding me and making it easier to make choices.

My apartment hotel is a perfect example. At first, I booked it for two nights. And then on the morning of the checkout date, I extended it for two more nights. And that has become a routine now, I just extended it for the fifth time.

It is representative of tuning into what feels right for me at this moment. And I notice how counter-culture this is. When meeting a variety of people, the common questions of ‘how long are you here for’, ‘where are you visiting next’, etc. to which my response is a simple and humble ‘I have no idea’.

This response reveals more about the other person than it does about me.

The other’s reaction is immediate and extreme. On one end, people’s response is ‘I love that!’ with a giant smile, and they lean in. On the other end, the response is one of silence and they lean back. My little experiment is either inspiring or triggering.

Being in flow, I find myself more present and surprisingly less interested in taking any pictures. Despite being surrounded by natural beauty and having fun experiences the past few weeks, I could count on one hand how many pictures I’ve taken. I believe it is a sign I’m connecting more deeply with my present moment

Hanging out in a literal corner of the world for a few weeks, I have noticed that being physically further away from the noise and chatter of the world I’m used to has helped me feel more at peace and calm. This has prompted me to feel more reflective and I find I am journaling more, meditating more, working out more and walking more. All of these activities lead to the same result: a closer connection to myself.

And that is what I shared with the woman on the beach. How in a roundabout way, I flew across the world to hangout with myself. The environment, the friends, new and old, the food and the activities have all been mirrors to show me more about myself.

Mission accomplished, I’m now ready to leave Australia and continue this exploration, of both my inner and outer world.

And that is how I learned to Australia.