Why I missed my last newsletter

I missed last week’s newsletter because of this.

I was in the Mara and instead of going to the media tent around 05:00 every morning to write my newsletter I decided to take the time for myself and to sit, with a cup of coffee, at the campfire at our Mara Camp.

I decided to put myself first, above anything else, and to savour the moment. To focus on me and what I was feeling and where my mind was going and to just, well, be. I highly recommend you try and do the same from time to time. So worth it.

Fast forward to today, Thursday, where I find myself at a coffee shop in a small town in the mountains watching people walk past and going about there day.

You know what I saw as I watched random strangers walk past me?

A lack of smiles.
A lack of wellbeing.
A lack of positive energy.

Yes yes, I know it’s a generalisation but to me it was very sad to see and the vast majority of people walking past me, all apparently in holiday, looked absolutely miserable.

Life should not make you feel the way most people seem to feel.
Life should not make you walk with your shoulders hunched.
Life should not make you look down in front of you all the time.
Life should not leave you looking and feeling unhealthy.
Life should not leave you in a physical state that makes everything hard.

Please don’t think I’m living in a dream world where everything is just moonshine and roses because I know very well that it’s not.

But is life so hard, so bad, so negative that so many people seem to just not seem to want to be here?

Mindset isn’t everything.
But if affects everything.

I might be a naive optimist but I truly and deeply believe that if we, as a collective, can start being honest with ourselves about how we feel, what we want, what we don’t want, what we need and what we don’t need that each and every one of our lives will be the better for it.

The first step?

Stop bullshitting yourself.

The second step?

Start realising what a privilege it is to be able to be here an to make our way through this wonderful, confusing, exciting, scary, amazing, uncertain and beautiful thing that is life!

Right, got a bit carried away there but as an eternal optimist it’s so hard to see people not making every moment count and enjoying the journey.

I am quite sure I will be digging into all that in a lot more details, and from various different angles but for now, just for us to breathe a bit, here’s a quick iPhone image of 20 giraffe from the Mara a week or so ago.