Crystal's Notes 18 July

One mantra I’ve been thinking about lately is: I am a human being, not a human doing.

It sounds simple, but Bhutan made me understand it differently. When I was surrounded by mountains, fluttering prayer flags, chanting monks, and vast open space, I found my usual urgency feel suddenly ungainly.

It was really confronting and annoying to feel how often my mind wanted to turn even beauty into a task: take the photo, capture the moment, reply to the message, think about the next thing, make the trip meaningful, return home improved with key takeaways!

That is the strange thing about modern life. Even rest can become another project if we are not careful.

We track, optimise, document and analyse almost everything, and then wonder why we find it so difficult to simply be present inside our own lives.

Bhutan kept inviting me back to being, not doing.  Walk more slowly. Look properly. Breathe. Listen. Let the moment be enough without immediately turning it into content, productivity or a lesson.

I realised how compulsive I was and tried not to judge myself. Yes I love meaningful work, and I believe deeply in contribution, ambition and building things that matter. But I am learning that if I only feel valuable when I am producing, helping, planning, teaching, fixing or achieving, then my life becomes very efficient and strangely empty at the same time.

So this is the reminder I brought home from Bhutan: I am a human being, not a human doing.

I still want to do meaningful work, but I also want to be awake for my actual life, and rest without feeling I need to earn it.

Are you with me? Shall we rest together? Take a deep breathe and exhale out all that doing energy and let’s just sit for 60 seconds and be.

Much Love,
Crystal