Nothing Rhymes with 18 it's episode 18
Welcome back to the arena hundred show the weekly podcast where I reach 100
brain fart into your ears. Ew, why did I say it like that? Today we're gonna talk
about the topic getting away. Getting away. Going away. Away. Out there. The
first thought that comes to mind is vacation. Vacation. If we need it,
does it mean we hate our lives? Yes. No. I don't know. I think even if we don't, I
mean if we do hate our lives, definitely time for a vacation. The problem is most
of us can't really afford a real vacation, but you can, if you, I don't know,
a cheap vacation. Maybe even just one day where you do something completely
different, you know. You just call out of work one day or on your day off and you
just don't do your chores and you just go somewhere calming, somewhere near
trees or nature or somewhere to get away and clear your head. But even if we don't
hate our lives, isn't it good to take a break from what you're doing all the
time? Isn't it nice? Doesn't it give you some perspective on your habits or maybe
just give your brain a way of forming new pathways from what you're always
from the well-trodden roads in your mind? Perhaps you can take the road less
traveled. Why am I still doing that accent? It gives you perspective. Like, you
know, when you're standing on the mountain, you can't really tell what it
looks like. But when you go down the mountain and away a little bit, you can
look up at it and say, whoa, I was on a mountain. That's a lot. Maybe I should
give myself a break, you know. And that's really important to just every once in a
while take the time to reflect on what you've been doing. Take some inventory,
take stocks, you know, to make sure that your life is moving in a direction
that you can be comfortable with, you can be proud of, you can stay invested in. So
yeah, and always I think it's also just good for your brain to break your habits
every once in a while just so it can remember how to scramble and try
something new. Even if you love your habits, it might be good. I mean, don't do
it in an unhealthy way. I mean, I remember as very often on the way to
work or school, I'd be in the metro and just be like, what if I just went the
wrong way for no reason? I loved doing stuff like that when I was younger
because there were way lower stakes if I messed up. I mean, like, if I miss a day
of school, maybe I'd get in trouble, but like my life wouldn't fall apart. I
wouldn't miss a bill payment, you know, and then I could just live in a world of
possibility, which is really what the world should be for all of us, I think.
I'm a bit of an idealist, but the world is rich with mystery and adventure and
we should be tasting it every once in a while. We shouldn't be cooped up behind a
screen replying to emails or whatever it is people do at normal jobs that I don't
understand what's really happening there. Getting away, I mean, getting away can
also mean getting away from something that's unhealthy. It's good to take
space if you're feeling like something or someone that you're around all the
time is just shutting you down, pulling you down. It's okay to take a little bit
of space from that just to, and it doesn't mean you're never going to talk
to this person again. I mean, obviously you don't have to. I don't know, but I
think it just means like then you can come back refreshed, re-strengthened in
the face of the negativity and maybe approach it in a different way. I mean,
it's hard not to reflect people's negativity back at them and if you don't
take time to refresh yourself then you might just fall prey to their
habits without even injecting some conscious ones of your own. It's just
good. It's just good you can allow for new possibilities and shift your
perspective. Maybe you'll even realize like, hey, if I come at this person, I'm
not saying it's your fault or your responsibility to do this, but if I come
at this person or situation with a refreshed mind full of positivity and
mystery and adventure, maybe they'll reflect that back at me a little bit. Of
course, some people are just black holes and it doesn't matter what you throw at
them and that's a whole, it's just hard not to get sucked in, but sometimes it
really does help. On the other hand, it's totally okay to just dislike someone and
just be honest. But yeah, it's good to get away, you know, because
not every society is the same. I mean, on a broader way, it's good to, I think, good
to travel, although it feels wholly unnatural because we just shouldn't be
able to zip around the globe at the speeds that we zip. I mean, and that's
really, it's like you're just changing the channel on earth. Like, you're just
like, oh, I went from, you know, Texas to Saudi Arabia. Actually, there's too many
parallels there. I think of things that are more different, but you just flip
the channel and suddenly you're in backwards land or forwards land or
everything's upside down land and in a language that you don't speak. And you
got there in half a day, you know. That's very fast, rather than those long, scenic,
sea-bound journeys of the days of yore, where you'd have months to reflect on
the transition that you were making culturally, mentally, emotionally,
spiritually, some kind of pilgrimage, some kind of relocation, some kind of
exploration. Now you just zip on, you go to the airport, zippity-doo-dah, get some
bad food, and then boom, you're, you know, you're in Southeast Asia from here. And
it's just, it's just, you just flip the channel. And that's weird. And that's
good, I think, because then at least you can be viscerally reminded that not every
society operates the way ours does, and that allows for new possibilities as
well. That you see that it's possible for, you know, a well-run, for a country to be
well-run, first of all, for a country to care about its citizens, for a country to
have tax-funded health care for all, and for the middle class to thrive. Okay,
I'm not gonna make this a political hodcast, but you get the idea. And even
within a society, I mean, you go from a city, excuse me, to a small town in the
United States, boom, culturally very different. You flip the channel. Or even
between cities. Chicago's not LA, LA's not New York, as we're very often reminded
in many a comedy routine. I'm talking here. I'm talking here. That's what I
should have called my podcast. I should have called it I'm talking here with
Rena Hunter. Why didn't I do that? I'm talking here. I wonder if that's taken.
Anyway, so yeah, even within every small town, between the small towns,
you know, the elements change and the people are different and the vibe is
very specific, I'm assuming. Or maybe there's no vibe because none of those
towns are walkable anymore. So I don't even know how much these people are
meeting up with each other rather than just holing up in their living rooms
looking at funny YouTube videos. But I hope that's not true. Another way that we
can make space is internally. Making space inside. I mean, and this is
especially useful if you're in an emotionally crowded scenario. Let's say
like a funeral or just somewhere where there's a lot going on around you and
you need some some place to feel comfortable, safe, feeling whatever it is
you're feeling and maybe it's not so comfortable to display it outwardly, you
know. Or maybe it is. I'm not saying it shouldn't be. I'm just saying if you
need a space and there isn't any space outside, there's always a space that you
can create inside. And you always have the power to do that with your
imagination and your mind and your heart and your spirit. God, I hesitate before
using the word spirit. Yes, I live in California. Yes, that's probably why I
said that word. But anyway, you always have the possibility of making space
internally. Now the flip side of that obviously is disassociation. But that's
like an extreme version of making. I mean, it's not just making space internally.
It's making space between you and your body and you floating up into space away
from your body. I've never fully been able to do that with my consciousness. I
realized I watch a TikTok. God, every fucking episode I bring up a TikTok
video. I watched a TikTok video yesterday. I shouldn't say a TikTok video. I
watched a TikTok. God, I'm such a millennial. I watched a TikTok yesterday
and in the TikTok the girl is like, where is your consciousness located? Because
we're all behind our mouths, right? And I was like, what? What? I'm behind my eyes.
I've always been behind my eyes. That's where my consciousness sits in my brain.
And then I just realized, oh my god, everybody's consciousness is sitting in
a different spot in their heads. And that's so trippy and weird. And I don't
like to think about it because it makes me feel like an alien. But that's
interesting too. You know, and stuff like that forces me to make space
between my old ideas and my new ones. And isn't that fun that we're always growing
from the old into the new?