The sun has set on a beautiful summers break. With it being my first holiday of the year, I was full of expectation & pretty pumped to make the most of it. I couldn’t wait to properly relax (yet still get up early & train), to enjoy all sorts of different & sometimes unhealthy food (yet still remain nice & healthy), & to fully switch off from work (yet still take the chance to work hard on my retreat schedule & finalise a book proposal) 😳.

I share this in a deliberately provocative way for two reasons. Firstly, I want to clearly show that the expectations I created for the holiday were killing me before I had even got there. I was full of contradictions, leaving me confused internally as to what I actually wanted. The result was that, for the first day or two, I was living in my head, trying to work out what I should be doing to match my expectations. When we live that way, we stop being present & we don’t fully enjoy or embrace what we are actually doing in that moment.

The other way I adapted my mindset was to actively embrace & practice gratitude for what I was doing, rather than regretful thinking about what I wasn’t. Gratitude is, without a doubt, the gateway to happiness, it’s not what happens to us, it’s how we perceive it. For the first day or two, my mind was constantly elsewhere, becoming grateful for what I was doing kept me much more present, it sounds simple but its truly a game changer.

My previous post on Instagram was about my intentions to surrender more often. Having become aware of my lack of presence, I wrote this mid holiday with the understanding that I needed to surrender my expectations & simply enjoy where I was in that moment – on holiday with my parents, in a beautiful location, with a huge amount to be thankful for.

Secondly, I share this message because so many of us go through life living in our head & not being truly present, limiting the experience we have. We get so excited about a trip or an event beforehand, then it happens, but without being fully conscious or grateful, we aren’t present & full of curiosity to fully embrace the moment. The result is, it ends & we are left questioning if we really enjoyed it as much as we could have done. When we live this way, life find ourselves constantly chasing life & rarely experience a feeling of true joy & fulfilment of being right there. Instead we keep striving for the next thing, & never really fully embrace the present moment, the place where we actually are. 

We have had two cancellations meaning there are now 2 new places available on our Ibiza Retreat this October. Very much as I describe above, these 5 days in the north of the island are geared towards getting you out of your head & into your heart through yoga, meditation & coaching with me, whilst we will find time to embrace the natural wonders Ibiza provides. Please email me for further details.

Finally, my message is this, my parents won’t be here forever (they are 75, I’m lucky to still have them). But, as I said to my mum on the final day, when they eventually go I want to feel like I have given them everything, I don’t want regrets. We tend to celebrate people’s lives when they are gone, why can’t we celebrate them while they are still with us, that’s my intention. Be vulnerable enough to live fully, love fully, share fully, be present fully & be gratefully. I’m trying, with love, Ben 💖