How little is too little?

Sometimes I don’t talk to anyone for days…

I’m currently living in a container hotel. You know, these places where all you got is a small box with a bed in it. That’s all you got. Just a bed. That’s it.

And you know what?

I’m really enjoying it. It’s like you have your own little tree-house. You climb up there and it’s like you enter a whole different world. A world that you have just for yourself. Where you could do whatever you wanted to. Where everything is possible.

I’ve been staying there for the past three weeks or so. It’s 7 bucks a night. All I have is a carry-on bag with ten or so items. And this laptop right here.

During the day I stay at a coworking space. It’s open 24/7. It’s about 50 dollars a month. I’m usually the first one to arrive and the last one to leave. Right now, it’s 11.40pm and no one is here anymore. I’m all by myself. It’s a huge space. It’s like a giant living room.

I didn’t talk to anyone there yet, even though I’m already here for almost three weeks now. It’s like I’m keeping a secret. It’s like I’m a secret agent. No one knows me. No one knows anything about me. No one knows what I’m doing. Heck, most of the time I don’t even know what I’m doing.

I don’t know anyone there. And I don’t know anything about anyone. And sometimes we say hi to each other. And sometimes we don’t. But I have a smile on my face every time I say hi to someone. Because I know that they don’t know. And I don’t know either.

Everything is like a big mystery. It’s like I’m having my own personal Vipassana meditation retreat. You know that kind of thing where you go to India or any other place in Asia where you meditate all day and you’re not allowed to talk to anyone. Where you’re only allowed to talk to your master, or whatever they call them there.

And for me, my blog, my readers, you are my masters. You’re the only ones I talk to. Alright. I also write with one or two people on Facebook from time to time. And call back home occasionally.

And you know what?

I’ve never been happier in my entire life. I’ve never felt lighter in my whole entire life.

I have plenty of time to be with myself. If you learn how to be comfortable just being by yourself, then you’ll never be lonely. You’ll never be lonely once you’ve learned how to spend time with yourself.

Is that a sad thing?

For some people it might sound sad. But for me it’s one of the most beautiful things out there. If you’re able to spend time with yourself away from all the distractions and constant social stress, that’s the only way to figure out who you are deep down inside. That’s the only way to figure yourself out.

Look. I can leave whenever I want to. I can go wherever I want to. Sure, this life is not for everyone. I could just disappear and then the next day I could wake up in a whole different country where they speak a whole different language that I wouldn’t be able to understand. I’d only be able to understand by observing.

And that’s the most powerful language spoken in the world anyway. Observing. It’s the same no matter where you go.

Observing is the first part to understanding. Sometimes even if you speak a language you won’t understand what people really mean. You understand their words but you don’t really understand what they really mean deep down inside.

And only by observing their faces, their bodies and everything else will you be able to understand what they really say. What they really mean. Only then will you be able to look past the masks we put in front of our true selves every single day because we’re afraid of getting hurt. Because we’re afraid of being ourselves.

So when is too little too little?

I don’t know.

But over the past few years I’ve been to many different countries. Some of the poorest countries in the world. And some of the richest countries in the world. And what I saw there is that most people who seemed to have nothing (according to my Western standards) didn’t really care about it that much and seemed very happy. While people in the richest countries seemed not very happy.

And the only difference is that the ones who were happy realized that they had enough.

And despite what many of us tend to believe, most people who seem to have nothing are happy with what they have. That’s one of the most important lessons I had to learn myself. Sure, some people out there really don’t have enough.

But what is enough? Who decides what’s enough? I don’t know…

And yes I’m privileged. And I’m grateful for everything that I have in my life. Everything.

That’s why every time before I fall asleep I try to list the things I’m grateful for. The food and every single dish I was able to buy that day. I’m grateful for every bottle of water I was able to buy. For every conversation I had that day. For my readers. For everything.

And at the end of the day I usually end up listing more than 20 things I’m grateful for. And that’s when I realize that I have enough. Every single day I realize that I have more than enough. That I live a life of abundance in a world of abundance. No matter how many or how little things I possess.

So what do you really need in life?

When is too little too little?

I don’t know.

But I think the moment you lose your curiosity for life itself, when you lose your creativity and stop working towards your dreams, when you give up on finding out who you really are deep down inside and when you stop believing in yourself and your mission, then you’ll probably have too little.

And it doesn’t matter how much or how little money you have. Or where you come from. Or which country you live in. When this happens, when you stop believing in yourself, when you lose your curiosity for life, when you’re constantly belittling yourself, then that means that you have too little…

Too little of what?

Of life…

Find out more about what I’m up to by visiting my blog or this site right here. Books I wrote are here.