Six Months to Live: How Would You Live?
On June 29th, 2012 this concept and philosophy ran through my head as I was sitting on the runway on our Korean Air flight about to embark on the greatest trip of my life. I was all set and ready to go on my honeymoon after being married for 10 months and spending at least 40 hours of planning this trip through recommendations from people and copious amounts of TripAdvisor. In my head on this runway were two thoughts:
1) Why do we wait until the end of our lives or until some crisis situation happens before we realize how short our time is. All to often I meet cancer survivors or other people that survived crisis situations and their philosophy on life is much different than everyone else which is to have no regrets. A lot of people I know or meet that are not truly living life have the concept that they are “too busy” or “they don’t have enough time” which are the two BIGGEST excuses or reasons people never get to TRULY enjoy life.
2) This was more of advice that came from an amazing practice member, Gayle, which was to make sure during this trip I am fully present and whenever I see an opportunity to make this trip special for Shira to capitalize on it. This will be our only honeymoon so do everything possible to make this special for her, she said. Well, I feel very confident I did and by combining these two thoughts of life I not only had the time of my life but the time of my life with the person I love the most.
I wanted to take some time and share my experience with you as MANY of you have been asking me for pictures and about the trip.
Day 1 we wanted to see the city and spend some time getting outside. We ended up going to Khaosan Rd and after tons of walking we were hungry. Our first true authentic Thai meal we had pad Thai street food for a whopping $1.
The 2nd day we visited the Grand Palace which is where the royal family used to reside and the infrastructure and design of this place was magnificent.
On the 3rd day we decided to visit the Tiger Temple which is about 1.5 hour drive from Bangkok but was WELL worth it. Upon entering the Temple we offered food to the monks for their only meal of the day which was an honor followed by having breakfast with them. In the Temple is where the tigers live and was so surreal playing with these little and big guys to give them their breakfast, wash them, walk them, and exercise them. Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life but this excursion was a last minute decision and I am so happy we booked it. The thoughts of living life to the fullest kept crossing my head as we were deciding whether or not to book this as it was very expensive but I am so happy we did.
We left Bangkok on Wednesday, July 4th and head to Chiang Mai to spend some time in the mountains.
Once we arrived we went to a cooking class to make our own dinner and I made curry chicken while Shira made the pad Thai.
Our second day in Chiang Mai we ventured out to Patara Elephant Farm where we would become elephant owners for a day. We would feed them, bathe them, ride them, exercise them, and do the exact same chores the staff would do with them in a single day (except we weren’t getting paid and paying).
The final day in Chiang Mai we decided to relax by the pool and just BE with each other.
On Saturday, July 7th we headed to Koh Samui for some beach time and snorkeling.
The second day in Koh Samui we took a boat trip to Koh Tao and Nuangyan for snorkeling. Here are some pictures of some of the fish we saw.
On the final day in Koh Samui we ended up at Chaweng Beach which was beautiful and had white sand with crystal clear water. We ended up spending the day relaxing here as well as closing the evening out with beachfront coconut oil massages.
On the first day in Krabi we went white water rafting in Class IV – V rapids and felt like this would definitely be illegal in the states. There is no training and the only time to paddle is when they shout “forward, no backward” out in broken English while going full speed through the rapid.
Following the rafting we ended to going to a waterfall and once again the “living life fully” concept came to my mind. Once we arrived there were some locals jumping from a rock that was 30 ft high and in my head I was thinking “There was no way I could this. There may be a rock below, what if I slip, or what if I don’t jump out too far”. After about 10 seconds of negative self talk and me trying to talk myself from doing it I knew that this had to happen and I had to jump. Relating this to life I could’ve backed out and gone into fear mode but there is one quote I heard a few years back and will remain with me forever which is “how we do anything in life is how we do everything”. If I would have talked myself out of doing this from fear then what areas of my life am I limiting my potential because I am talking myself out of doing it from fear (REREAD THAT SENTENCE AND GET IT). So with this running through my mind I jumped and what a thrilling and amazing breakthrough. I then proceeded to encourage Shira to make a jump and have a breakthrough and after about 5 minutes of her contemplating all the reasons not to jump we leaped together. Powerful!
On our final day we took a private long tail boat to Hong Island, Red Island, and Paradise Island to do some more snorkeling. It was at these islands we saw more beautiful fish, two sharks, and found Nemo.
- Where in your life can you live life to the max?
- Where can you take risks that you are not taking?
- What area of your life do you THINK you are waiting for to get better before you start LIVING?
wait until we have no money before we realize we need to save,
wait until we have diabetes before getting off sugar,
wait until our relationship is failing before we want to work on it,
wait until business is not doing good before we do marketing,
wait until someone is on their deathbed before we reconnect with them,
and many other examples which are common ways our society reactively lives life.
