Namaste! I’ve just arrived back from a month of travels around South India and wow what a trip!
It was a lifelong dream of mine to visit India and experience the multi sensory colours, smells, sounds and it didn’t disappoint 😀.
Chatting it over with hubby this morning we both agreed that it’s such a soulful place to visit, you feel an instant connection with the warm and humble people and see communities, friends and families with strong bonds, support and friendship.
I have loved all of the smiling faces and simple life lessons many of the people we met have taught us. Many a wise person gave us fruitful life advice along the way, from mindful living, to dancing and laughing everyday.
It’s a land of contrasts and extremes and being an empath I found my emotions were constantly being triggered from one strong feeling to the next.
One moment you see the most beautiful elephant standing right there in front of you, the next a poorly man begging in the street.
One moment your walking on a deserted paradise beach thinking how beautiful nature is, the next you see locals throwing thier plastic waste into the Ocean.
But where on earth do you see so many very strongly religious people living with many different religions so harmoniously? We were woken in the mornings by early morning Muslim prayers and comforted at night by the rhythmical sounds of the traditional Hindu drumming, not to mention the beautiful singing on Sunday mornings from the Roman Catholic Churches. We even stayed opposite a massive church named Santa Cruz, (my husbands family name) that definitely gave us some street cred in that area!
I’ve been having a social media digital detox these last few weeks too, which has meant I’ve been able to switch off and truly tune into living each moment as it happened, we were so lucky to experience coconut fringed beaches, bright green tea plantations, we went in search of specialist coffee plantations and slept on an mini island with the backwaters literally on our doorstep. We stayed mostly in Homestays, getting to meet generations of the families and eating divine home cooked vegetarian meals or ‘homely’ meals as they say over there. I’m looking forward to trying to recreate some of those dishes!
Oh yes and not forgetting one of my main reasons for visiting was to learn about and explore the Ayurvedic world, Kerala, the state we spent most of our time in is the birthplace of this amazing ancient healthcare system. So in the name of research I was fully committed to experience as much as I could!...
My new mantra from our wise friend Ravi is ‘Be friends with your body’ I couldn’t agree more. Feel a new hashtag coming on!... #befriendswithyourbody
Until next time India! 💚🧡