Novosibirsk - The Spirit of The Journey
We are in Novosibirsk for three days. I feel a little silly now, but I had no idea that it was such a big city! Apparently Novosibirsk is third biggest city in Russia in population. We got lucky with the weather and our hosts who had lots of free time to spend with us.
It's a very special and unique experience to see the city with the locals, to stay with locals and talk with them. You get a completely different perspective than if you just stayed in a hotel and saw the city on your own or went on guide tours for tourists. Maybe it's just me, but if I'm in a new place, I very warmly welcome a local to take me to a good cafe or restaurant. If they didn't I would find a restaurant on TripAdvisor (and thus miss many great places that TA doesn't associate with) or go to McDonald's to be very sure of what I'm going to get.
I had several wonderful and exciting experiences in Novosibirsk, like buying a great book (The Shack by William P. Young and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold) , watching a great movie (Hayao Miyazaki's Tales from Earthsea) and having some great talks with the locals. Our host Anton happened to have same interests as I do and we talked a lot about meditation, enlightenment, astral projection and spirituality in general.
Once again, I ran into an old spirituality problem that I have written about here (in Finnish). The problem is that I have plenty spiritual practices that I do in an attempt to become more spiritual: more patient and aware of my own thoughts and emotions, calmer and more loving, and get valuable information about life and death and our universe. I have all these practices that I have found online or whatever, but they're not working.
I already had a realization about what I should do about it but it didn't stick. So it was good that Anton reminded me of it once again. It is not necessary to mediatate in order to get enlightened. In fact, it is not necessary to do any formal spiritual practices at all (although Anton did recommed yoga). These things are tricky. Spiritual practices can help you or they can hinder you. I guess you just have to try it out for yourself, because you're not going to get a ready map from anybody.
Even though you can become enlightened anytime and anywhere without doing anything, in practice it probably won't happen to you. Unless you get lucky, like Eckhart Tolle, you're going to have to do some kind of spiritual seeking to get enlightened. Our current society isn't ideal for this.
Anyway, I'm spiritually lost again. I'm trying to remember to do self-loving practice, but it's really hard sometimes.
The energy of Novosibirsk (or at least the Ob river's right bank side) is like St. Petersburg but more down to earth. Is every place in Russia more down to earth than St. Petersburg? Novosibirsk certainly is. Its energy feels quite light-hearted for a Russian city. Compared to Irkutsk it's almost jolly! Novosibirsk has had an opportunity to grow and even thrive in places. It has become modern. People in Novosibirsk are better off financially than many other places. Many of them enjoy life but they have retained that connection to the earth that is missing from St. Petersburg. Anton told me that new age spiritual practices are also common hobbies which is usually a sign of quite well developed place.
In the middle of our Novosibirsk stay Aapo and I discussed the best things about our journey and travelling so far. I was surprised (why am I always so surprised?) to say that I enjoyed new and different challenges that travel gives people. When you travel, you run into different problems than at home. Maybe they are not different at the core, but they are different at the surface, and that offers a new perspective on the core problems, which makes it easier to accept them.
I was also surprised how smart, beautiful, lovable, charming and generally great I am when I'm travelling. I just like myself more than at home, much much more. I feel alive. I feel like I'm doing something I love. I feel like I'm searching for my life purpose. At home my thoughts go in circles and new ideas come too slowly. When I travel my energy moves quickly, which makes me a match to new and exciting thoughts and insights much faster. I feel like I'm moving instead of just standing still. At home I feel like a loser – I can't do anything and no one likes me. When I travel I am suddenly capable of so many cool things! I start to believe in myself and feel like I can do anything I want. And then I find it to be true.
When I travel I write much more. Which is good because I am a writer. I am also generally more creative. I draw, read interesting books and make videos. I am constantly learning new things and becoming more conscious. It is very difficult to raise your awareness at home when you do the same things day in and day out.
I wanted to go on this journey to find myself, and even though I know that I can never really do that, I'm still happy with how fast the energy is moving and how much easier it is to leave all the sadness behind than it is at home. I think that most people want to go on a long journey at some point in their life. I've read about that in countless novels. The hero's journey.
This is mine.
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| Photo by Aapo Oinonen |
I had several wonderful and exciting experiences in Novosibirsk, like buying a great book (The Shack by William P. Young and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold) , watching a great movie (Hayao Miyazaki's Tales from Earthsea) and having some great talks with the locals. Our host Anton happened to have same interests as I do and we talked a lot about meditation, enlightenment, astral projection and spirituality in general.
 |
| Photo by W A T A R I on Unsplash |
I already had a realization about what I should do about it but it didn't stick. So it was good that Anton reminded me of it once again. It is not necessary to mediatate in order to get enlightened. In fact, it is not necessary to do any formal spiritual practices at all (although Anton did recommed yoga). These things are tricky. Spiritual practices can help you or they can hinder you. I guess you just have to try it out for yourself, because you're not going to get a ready map from anybody.
Even though you can become enlightened anytime and anywhere without doing anything, in practice it probably won't happen to you. Unless you get lucky, like Eckhart Tolle, you're going to have to do some kind of spiritual seeking to get enlightened. Our current society isn't ideal for this.
Anyway, I'm spiritually lost again. I'm trying to remember to do self-loving practice, but it's really hard sometimes.
 |
| Photo by Dan Roizer on Unsplash |
I was also surprised how smart, beautiful, lovable, charming and generally great I am when I'm travelling. I just like myself more than at home, much much more. I feel alive. I feel like I'm doing something I love. I feel like I'm searching for my life purpose. At home my thoughts go in circles and new ideas come too slowly. When I travel my energy moves quickly, which makes me a match to new and exciting thoughts and insights much faster. I feel like I'm moving instead of just standing still. At home I feel like a loser – I can't do anything and no one likes me. When I travel I am suddenly capable of so many cool things! I start to believe in myself and feel like I can do anything I want. And then I find it to be true.
 |
| Photo by GoaShape on Unsplash |
I wanted to go on this journey to find myself, and even though I know that I can never really do that, I'm still happy with how fast the energy is moving and how much easier it is to leave all the sadness behind than it is at home. I think that most people want to go on a long journey at some point in their life. I've read about that in countless novels. The hero's journey.
This is mine.
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