Health

The Unfortunate Consequences of Travel: Reverse Culture Shock & How to Deal With It

Posted on by Mathew Polowitz

Originally published on Elephant Journal. Find it here.

Culture shock: the mythical state of adjustment most travelers never want to admit they’re experiencing.

“It’s just jet lag,” we say. Or, “my stomach is still getting used to the food.” So easily written off. So frivolously downgraded.

And don’t even mention returning home, to a place we already know. There’s hardly a chance for contention.

At least, there wasn’t for me. After spending seven months abroad, I wasn’t ready for the rigid strangeness of it all. Streetlights telling me when to cross. Passer-bys rarely gifting me a glance, much less a smile. Everything seemed to be moving so fast, and yet it all felt so confined. And I felt confined inside of it.

Travel is a transformational process best characterized by opening ourselves up to staggering newness and then trying to flow with it as best we can.

We constantly meet so many personalities and encounter so many ways that are so completely and mind-bogglingly different than our own, that it’s natural to get swept into a paradigm of moment-seizing and transience. After all, this is the essence of travel.

And after living for so long in such perpetual flux, it’s not easy transitioning back to the comparatively stable life we lived before. It may look as it once did, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Something is different.

Remember, it’s not just a place that we’re transitioning back to, it’s a lifestyle. And we’ve changed.

Here are four of the most prominent things I confronted upon returning home after my time on the road, along with some humble suggestions on how to turn these obstacles into opportunities to integrate all that we’ve learned along the way. Read More

Own Your Brilliance

Posted on by Mathew Polowitz

There’s a special light that we all carry. Maybe it’s our soul. Maybe it’s our potential. Maybe it’s what makes us ‘us.’

For now though, let’s just call it our brilliance.

It’s that thing inside of you that drives your innate desire to create and initiate change. To be your original self while also pursuing the best ‘you’ possible, and then aligning all of this up with your highest purpose. It’s not simply survival. It’s excellence.

Which is why I’d like to present to you Own Your Brilliance. OYB is a collaborating website, started by a dear friend of the Jester’s by the name of Ryan Llewelyn-Williams. His goal is to inspire and educate people on how they can become a force for change while also living up to their most genuine potential.

It’s a beautiful concept fueled by education, sustainability and love. You’ll find great resources on healthy living, responsible consumption, and a ton of progressive initiatives that you never knew you wanted to learn about. It’s practical. It’s encouraging. It’s bold.

And it’s quite brilliant.

 

You can reach Ryan at:

OwnYourBrilliance.strikingly.com
Facebook
Email

Photo: Wallpaperswide.com

The Red Road

Posted on by Mathew Polowitz

It’s always refreshing to meet people who have the tenacity to do what most only talk about. Back in February, I spent two weeks building a school in rural Cambodia with a group called The Red Road Foundation. They bring that quote to mind – you know, the one you hear all the time and probably disregard – about being the change you want to see happen. As far as I could tell, they’ve become that change. And for those few weeks, they allowed 20-something other volunteers to become it, too.

The concept: An ‘earthship’ school, built out of sustainable and recycled materials. Something of an educational sanctuary for one targeted community nearly an hour outside of Kampot. There, youth and adults alike will be taught a variety of subjects – in both Khmer and English – which extend beyond the classroom, onto the adjoining farm, and into the realm of personal and communal development. Read More