The Power Of A Quiet Mind

Introduction note:

If you wish to enjoy the reading of this letter to the fullest, I highly recommend you listening to the following playlist as you read:

This will allow you to experience a little my state while I was writing it.

Now let’s get on to it.

There are places we dream about.

Places that feel far in the distance, blurry, out of reach.

Places that seem to be calling for us, but the closer you get, the more they lose their essence of wonder.

And there are places that make us dream.

Those that instead of sending you far in your imagination, anchor you in the present.

Their realness is almost overwhelming, to the point of wondering how is it not a dream.

This is what the Andes felt like to me.

Exactly a year ago, I was in the middle of the Peruvian mountains, on my way to a special journey.

What I expected to be the discovery of a region, actually ignited a journey into the self.

Before that happened, I wasn’t aware of how miserable I truly was. How my life situation was not suiting what I was desiring from the depth of my being.

The ugly truth was that I wasn’t honest with myself, and I did not want to listen to what that inner voice had to say.

This silent voice whispering you the truth about yourself, but that you choose to ignore by increasing the noise within, hoping it will disappear.

It never does. And it will keep on whispering and making you aware of its presence in other ways.

Physical pain, nightmares, poor social interactions, or anything that can make you uncomfortable enough to pay attention to it.

The thing is that we mostly operate unconsciously, or rather we let the mind run the show. And whoever gets in its way to suggest an alternative that doesn’t suit its narrative will be ignored.

It is a painful experience, because your mind will make you feel bad for allowing this to happen, convincing you it needs your full submission to survive.

But listening fully to that inner voice requires a quiet and calm mind.

Some reach that state through meditation, others do it by putting their body in motion. But even so, few are capable of bringing that peace and quiet consciously, and even fewer are able to maintain it.

You might still witness and experience these moments of pure presence without you inducing them consciously. Those are very rare. But they happen.

This was my experience arriving to this viewpoint on my last evening trekking in the Andes:

The physical effort to reach the top had already affected me in focusing on my breath over any thought my mind brought up.

And when reaching the view, there were no words that could describe what was happening inside of me.

After years of experiencing inner chaos, I tasted inner peace for the first time. It moves me to write about this experience today still.

That moment lasted just a few seconds, maybe a few minutes. But it opened me to what living meant.

Most of us live in survival mode, not even aware that we have the power within us to live fully. This power is within our reach. But to access it means to let go of certain things not everyone is ready to do yet, or at all.

And so during this intense moment of quiet and presence, I heard something.

That something was my own voice.

And it was very different from what I was used to hearing. The tone, the pace, the message, and the energy were different.

"This is what living means”

It is difficult, maybe impossible for me to explain to you what this sentence means to me. Because it encompasses everything that makes me who I am, something I am still far from grasping and understanding myself today.

But I will tell you this: it goes beyond the words itself. You might not understand with your mind what it means and what it implies, but you will feel it to be true and honest.

My year since then has been transformative in many ways.

You may see the nice images, the cool travels and wonderful adventures I share here and on social media, and although they are true, they do not reflect explicitly the suffering that was going on simultaneously.

If you asked me back then “do you think you’ll have figured it out and acted upon what that moment brought you in a year time?” I would probably have told you yes.

But this door to my awareness kept on opening new doors, one after the other. And so today, I feel I am still at the beginning of this journey of what living means to me.

It is a journey of understanding the nature of things and of what makes you who you are.

Understanding that pain, loss, and letting go of certain things is what frees you.

So let this be a reminder that you have the power and the opportunity to experience life, whatever it means to you. And that experiencing simple things in life such as peace, freedom, and love, is a complex and personal journey.

I understand it may sound a little “mystical” or too spiritual to some, but to those who are open to more than their mind, can you remember a time of pure presence where you felt anchored in the moment?

If so, I suggest you try and understand what was the environment and the conditions that led you to that, and try to reproduce it.

You may find answers to problems you were not expecting.

There are several reasons for me to go back to Peru.

One of them is to bring a vision to life and capture a shot I wasn’t able to capture a year ago. More information will be shared on that soon.

But another reason for me is to find answers to questions I have and struggling to answer here in the environment I currently am.

I am excited and grateful about this upcoming trip. It’s been driving me for quite some time now and I am looking forward to share this story with you more in depth soon.

Until then, I wish you a good day.

See you in the next one,

Angel