I (Don't) Like to Move It Move It

In all the years and places I have lived, I just realised that I have never moved within the same town. I have lived in 9 different houses in 9 different towns. Often I come back to the same house after venturing out. Now I am contemplating moving within a town for the first time.

This has made me realised how hard the idea is for me! I am very attached to my current house and am very reluctant to even start looking for a new one, but I need to accommodate ‘guest season’ here in Ubud. I have friends who have promised to visit and surely it is easy enough to just move to a 2-bedroom place. Right?

Right???

Just move…

This would be my first move that is not either running away or coming home. I am not setting out on a grand adventure. I am not coming home full of stories and new ideas. The first time moving is not a deliberate shove towards internal change, or a thin mask for a lack of change.

I am essentially a travelling homebody. Unless my psyche is driving me to the radical, I like being grounded, having a place of my own. Even when I do travel, it is with a sense of a base, having somewhere that I could always come back to. For some reason, the idea of actually just moving house has shaken that. I don’t yet know why.

I could simply move my stuff, from one place to another. And take all of myself with me.

As soon as I actually find a house I want to move to…

This is my way, get your own highway!

I was at a business development workshop last weekend, aimed at people who wanted to be speakers, authors and coaches, so primarily attended by those in the 'mind, body & soul' arena. I had the most fascinating conversation with a man who calls himself a coach and trainer (not sure what his specialty is) about the "perceived conflict" between personal development and spiritual development.

He commented that people have an 'either/or' approach to development- you can either be successful or you can be spiritual. I was talking about how my first steps to 'self-awareness' came through psychology, then personal development, then spiritual journeying and how I have found value from all of these routes, depending on where I was in my life and that they all fed into each other.

I went on to say that the different routes suit different people as they have different needs and are looking for different goals and outcomes. I am not sure how the whole conversation went exactly, but I said to him something along the lines of:

"I not only love that everyone is different, I want it to be that way. Everyone has a different 'balance point'- where the balance lies for them in their life. I am an introvert- I don't want a heap of other people to have my balance point! I like having my own space in my particular version of what is right for me, so look at it that each person needs to find what works for them."

The coach/trainer looked at me like I had suddenly sprouted wings or something and actually said he had never thought of that before. That he had thought everyone needed to be guided to the same beliefs or system as him.

Now, I thought his belief was crazy, as it is so natural to me to think the way I do, but when I thought about it more, I guess the desire for others to not only agree with us, but to follow the same path is at the root of much of the conflict in the world.

Maybe we need to accept and actually encourage everyone to find their own happiness in their own space... Don't just walk your own path, support others in finding theirs.