emotional luggage allowance

They say that the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Or a plane ticket.

So my journey seems to start on the 18th May when I leave Barcelona to study Ayurveda with Dr Arun Sharma BAMS and Dr Vinod Kumar BAMS in Himachal Pradesh.

And yet what looks like a single step is part of an already begun process of decision and indecision, shifting weight from one foot to the other, raising one of them and deciding exactly where to put it down. False steps in the wrong direction also teach us when we need to step backwards into ourselves and stand still for a while before starting again.

And long before that first step in the right direction, we start tracing steps in our heads, under our closed eyes, just before we fall asleep, imagining the step we´re about to take and how the ground will feel under our feet. Part fantasy, part second-hand information, part hope, part fear. We start checking out where we´re going, trying to imagine what to expect and getting a head start on the learning we hope to do there.

While the rules of our airline company determine the limits of what we carry physically, forcing us to prioritise - to consider not only what we want and need to take with us but what we can manage to do without - no-one can help us set our mental, emotional and spiritual luggage allowance. That´s a very personal responsibility.

Do we need to take everything and everyone with us that we have in our lives right now? Exactly how far do our emotional arms stretch?

 And if we do need all of it, how can we ever leave? 

And just as we always pack items we never end up using (the wrong battery charger) and forget something crucial that can´t be found where we are going (a torch), how do we know until later which of our experiences to date will prove essential?

Experienced travellers, returning to a country they know and  love, often  travel with almost empty cases, so that they have room to bring back all the beautiful objects they can find. With this in mind, I´ve decided to empty my suitcase of everything I´ve been studying over the last six months and pack only the following for my trip to McLeod Ganj: innocence, curiosity, excitement, trust and gratitude.

What emotions are you taking with you?

Bye for now

Claire

I would like to express my appreciation to everyone whose help and advice brought me to this ´first step´, including Dr Vinod Kumar BAMS of Barcelona; Dr Khan, alternative practitioner specialising in the central nervous system and Padma Thapa, masseuse and beautician, both of S.K.Salud of Barcelona, and Ayurvedic practitioners and bloggers Ivy Irving (USA) and Bhindi Shah (UK)