I’m now in Icaria, Greece. I should probably explain why and how and what for before launching into a post about an Icarian experience I’m currently having. But, as you will soon learn, everything on this island is topsy-turvy. So an introduction will have to wait.
Since arriving in Icaria I’ve been getting looks from the locals. And comments. Knowing comments and looks, like they know something about me that I don’t. Yet.
Photo by Rachel de Joode
Eventually someone said something. It was Elias. He said to me one morning, after a hard, tortured night of no sleep, “You’re here for a reason. Icaria will change you.” He then told me that if I didn’t sleep that night that the next day I was to join him goat herding for the day, that we’d drink a litre of wine watered down with water when it got hot in the afternoon, eat some cucumbers and goat and then come home late. “And then you sleep…we do it the Icarian way,” he said
Icaria is changing me. And I asked for this. And so this place found me. Or the other way around.
If you’ve followed my travels via my social media outpourings you’d be under the impression I’m having a Fabulous time with a cap F over here in Europe. Don’t get me wrong, I am, but not just in a cap F Fun way. Often in a cap F F*ck This is Full On way.
Icaria is a truly strange place. Everything you thought you knew about life is turned on it’s head here. The locals drink a lot, eat a lot, eat at odd hours (lunch can be anytime between 3pm and 7pm) and they sleep…whenever (some villages head to bed around 5am, with the shops open all night, shutting at sunrise). And yet they live longer and healthier than anyone else on the planet. I’ll write more on this paradox shortly, but for now I need to share what this can do to a girl. Especially a rigid, fearful girl.
It breaks you down.
There’s also a strong energy here. Someone else said something. It was Thanai. She said Icaria will either embrace you or spit you out. “If you fight the energy, it will win,” she said. Others have shared with me how the first time they came they couldn’t handle the energy. All their issues suddenly surfaced and they had to leave immediately. I’ve heard this over and over. People have almost drowned. The National Geographic team almost lost a team member last time they were here. The camera guy fell and had to be rescued via a CNN-funded jet from the bottom of a cliff. The team tell me he’d been pushing way too hard in the lead up. Connected, perhaps?
I should say, though, that all who talked to me about this came back and went through big shifts when they did…for the better. The island did it to them, they say. The locals confirm it. They’ve seen this phenomenon a lot.
It breaks you down.
Me, I didn’t sleep for my first six nights here. I felt I was going insane. I couldn’t find an escape from the torture. The heat, the late nights, the disorientation and the sense there was no respite left me in tatters. But there was more.
Icaria tugs a perfectly good, ambitious Plan For the Day from your grip and tosses it to the pigs. Then it laughs at you.
Plans don’t work here. Time slips past in odd ways, like no one looks at watches, like no one cares how long something takes. People stop to talk in the street and they don’t keep it short. They talk for as long as the sparkle remains in the eye. No one darts from a conversation onto the next thing. They allow pauses in which they smile kindly in understanding. If they stay awake late, they don’t worry how they’ll catch up on sleep tomorrow.
I know much of Greece is a little like this. But even the Greeks marvel at the “Icarian Way”. It’s taken to a new level here.
I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s really rather beautiful, even when every part of you is screaming “CAN WE STOP CHATTING, WE’RE RUNNING LATE?!”
I tried to go for a walk yesterday. I aimed to set off at 11am. I’d studied the hiking map. I was excited.
It was 4pm before I set off. I ate lunch at 7.30pm.
Seriously, everywhere I went (to eat breakfast, pick up water, fill up my moped) I ran into someone who talked to me, slowly, with happy interest and care, and about great stuff. I was sucked in and my Plan was tugged from me.
I was loving the chats. I was loving the warmth and the relaxed company. But I also had a jumpy knot of anxiety in my gut. My Plans!!! I had somewhere to be! The day was going to get away! I’m usually a gun at breaking a chat to say, “Sadly I’ve got to dash”. But here in Icaria I just can’t seem to find a way. I get sucked in.
The Icarian Way – it breaks you down because it forces you to confront your ways.
It probably wouldn’t – their Way could be easily dismissed as irresponsible, unworkable – were it not for the fact that it seems to… work. The people here live long, healthy and very happy lives. It’s a fact.
The whopping great reflection that bounces back at you is this: perhaps the way I’ve been doing things isn’t right.
As I say, I asked for this. I’ve written about it a lot…my desperate need to know what life can be like with less rigidity, with looser plans, without my happiness depending on what happens next.
It’s funny, when I really want something, I get it delivered, but not always as I anticipated. I’m getting what I wanted, but it’s uncomfortable. But discomfort always alerts me to the fact that something is shifting or being broken down.
Someone else said something. It was Thea. She said to me when I described my knot of anxiety and my panic about not getting things done. “Ah, in Icaria we say that’s why God invented tomorrow.”
I’ve been here 10 days now and I’m starting to ease into this way of thinking. Slowly, slowly, as the Icarians say. It makes me laugh to watch myself grating against time. I’m checking the time less. I’m letting the day pass as it needs to.
Tell me, would you invite this kind of looseness into your life just now?
Wow. This sounds like quite a place. I feel I’d want to invite it in on the basis that it must have been given to me for a teaching. This new looseness is probably life being shown to you in a new way, like you’ve been given new eyes and if you are there, you are meant to be there, let it gather your fears and dreams and spin cycle you back out of yourself.
Look forward to hearing more! xo
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Ha!!! I studied 3 unit Greek in High School and one of the texts we had to read was indeed the Dreamers of Ikaria. Loved it.
Didnt appreciate it til almost 5 years later when I was travelling the world solo – and my plans also changed against my own whim..
Enjoy your time – let yourself be healed here..
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July 25th, 2012 at 9:58 am
Same thought popped into my head – perhaps it’s all about healing.
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July 25th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
Oh it is, it is!!
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Oh my goodness that sounds kind of terrifying! I have noticed that a recurring thought pattern I have is “I’m running out of time”. Both in a meta way (think of all the things you need to do by the time you turn thirty – you’ve got less than a year! Hurry!) and in a micro way (quick! you have to blog, exercise, meditate, prepare a healthy meal and relax all in the next two hours! Hurry!)…
It’s something that I need to address (let go of expectations, maybe?)
The Icarian way sounds like an absolute ‘baptism by fire’ way of learning this lesson. Terrifying but brilliant at the same time?
Really loving reading about your travels, Sarah…
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Wow what an amazing lifestyle the Icarians live. Do they work Sarah? I guess the cynic in me questions whether this is symbolic of why the Greek economy is in such trouble.
But put the cynic to bed.
Incredible to think an island has such a “force”… sounds like a good plot for a movie.
Change, transformation usually is painful isn’t it. I too could do with such “looseness”. Being the control freak & ordered person I am I’d probably drown in the waters off Icaria.
Can’t wait to see the Sarah that comes out the otherside… enjoy(?) the journey knowing something magical is taking place even if its a little painful. Ian x
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July 25th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
It’s probably a fair comment to say that some of Greece’s economic woes are due to this kind of attitude. Icaria seems to be the extreme of a typical Greekness that is counterproductive to the modern world. I find myself blaming my Greek heritage for my habitual lateness, and many friends and family jokingly speak of being on “Greek time” when they are running late.
Having spent some summers in the land of my ancestors, I completely understand Sarah’s revelation that plans are out. They don’t work here. The Parthenon was built without one (true story) and life goes on all over this land nonetheless.
One wonders if the end of the world will really come if the global financial systems come tumbling down. What will happen to poor Greece if the Europeans kick them out? Well, they will probably go and have a glass of wine or two, a late night dinner, get home at dawn, and live to be a hundred.
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July 25th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Alex – thanks for the added insight. Intuitively it makes sense that less pressure, stress, less pushing but still living with purpose aids longevity. I expect there’s less anxiety, etc etc and hence, less illness… sounds like the life. Wonder when the next boat to Icaria is leaving!
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July 25th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
As a person of Greek heritage I completely agree with Alex. The exact attitude that is used in any situation is usually, “**** you, we’re Greeks.” It worked quite well for the Spartans, but very badly economically in recent times. My family all seem to be an anomaly though, for they aren’t relaxed at all and have a myriad of health problems (mostly stemming from obesity.)
My sister, who was in Greece last month, found it incredibly frustrating – she’d be told a bus would be along in 5 minutes, wait nearly an hour, and then be told by THAT bus driver that he didn’t go where the last person said they would. There is only so much you can justify with a laisez faire lifestyle – personally I prefer to have some work ethic, to have pride in what I do, and to have responsibility to others who may be affected by my actions. It isn’t a way I would enjoy living for long, that’s for sure.
July 25th, 2012 at 8:15 pm
I’ll add to this… the Icarians are far from idle. It’s not a place where people are sitting around drinking ouzo all day. They’re farmers and work from 7am-11am, then work around the house in the shade, then back to the farm 6-11pm. Then they party. They just do their work in a different way. Most people have 3-4 jobs and diff seasons they do diff things.
August 14th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
I live on the island of Ikaria for six months a year. I find the people to be very hard working. They may not start when you would like, but once they get going they’ll outwork anyone I know anywhere. They’re also filled with humor and genuine warmth.
The lifestyle is wonderful. We grow most of our own food, harvest olives for oil and eating, and swim every day from May until sometime into November.
When they overthrew the Turks, Ikaria became an independent nation in 1913 for a few months. They even released their own postage stamps.
I’ve just written a book about going back to the land in Ikaria. If you want to know more about it you can find a blurb on my website. http://www.alexmortonwriter.com. It’s in my agent’s hands at the moment, so this is not an ad to get anyone to buy the book.
Ilaria has changed my life and without question lengthened it.
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July 27th, 2012 at 11:50 am
The fact that Greece’s economy (built on greed and capitalism) is breaking down first is probably an indication that they are way AHEAD of the rest of us!
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Wow! What a crazy experience! I suddenly feel very rigid and I usually think of myself as a go-with-the-flow kind of girl. Definitely not compared to the Icarian way! I hope you find some peace in their ways!
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Ooh I love that kind of thing – letting go of everything and becoming disoriented. I’ve been through a few “revolutions” in my life and they have done well by me.
The whole longevity thing is undoubtedly a tangle to unravel. There was a study a while back of tons of North American data and the conclusion was that those most likely to live to age 100 or more were females born on farms to mothers under the age of 25 at the time of giving birth. You’ve undoubtedly got a mix of genetic, lifestyle, nutrition, pre-natal nutrition, etc. etc. contributing. I do love the Mediterranean food and lifestyle, generally, so I want to believe that there’s something specific to that, but I suspect that a lot of it has to do with keeping things uncomplicated. This is not an easy thing in the world we live in, but yet possible with commitment.
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July 25th, 2012 at 10:06 am
PS I read your linked piece and wondered if you had also read Pico Iyer’s column in the NYT, as part of the Happiness Blog series, in 2009: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less/
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Hi Sarah,
Isn’t funny how life seems to go by faster when you are always rushing toward deadlines? Now and then I also like to take breaks to slower placed places. After the initial aggravation and frustration I think the best choice is to let go… and it is incredible how difficult and how many issues come up when you are facing that!
On another note, thank you for sharing your journey with us. I have dreams like yours, and you are brave to do it and an inspiration for me to let go of my own fears. Cheers, lovely!
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Oh wow! This sounds so wonderful to me. I love when a place forces you to slow down, to learn about another way of life, to help you see that your way and your parents way and your society’s way isn’t THE way. It’s kind of refreshing, a relief. I think I need to visit Incaria. Maybe you are being broken down so you can be rebuilt as a more truer you?
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The question is: No matter what happens you there, will you be able to hold on to that?
It is easy when you are there and when you’re surrounded with that energy, people and physical location. Yet back here in Australia, it has its own energy, dynamism. You are part of the urban lifestyle that’s why there is that rush, looking for the next thing, multi tasking, trying to do more etc.
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July 25th, 2012 at 11:38 am
This is interesting, and I’m looking forward to how Sarah communicates this experience when she is back (if she does come back!)
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July 25th, 2012 at 8:15 pm
good point…I’m thinking the same!
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Oh my gosh. This would be very challenging for me…I’m all about running on time and I hate being late. When I’m running late I have to remind myself “No one is going to die, it’s okay to be a few minutes late” otherwise I completely stress myself out. Perhaps my next holiday should be to Icaria?
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Abso-effing-lutely! It sounds wonderful and just what I need! So sick and tired of being sick and tired, running around, doing a hundred things at once, working so hard and never having a chance to just enjoy life and my loved ones.
I’m planning on taking a year of LSL and travelling back to my birthplace (Greece) living on Santorini for an extended time and doing just that…living (and finishing my novel set there).
It’s been fantastic following your travels and experiences via Instagram as well.
Thank you for reminding me of what’s important.
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This is my favourite post!!!!…as I was reading, I felt like I started to relax and smile, just thinking about how nice it would be to live in such a relaxed carefree environment, and to stop and appreciate everything, to stop worrying and not be ruled by deadlines!
It reminded me of my early twenties going on holiday was like this…we didn’t have mobile phones, didn’t bother wearing our watches, didn’t plan anything and had the best time EVER!!!
Thank you for reminding us to slow down and appreciate life and the people around us. Letting go kind of excites me!!
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Hey there Sarah…very interesting post. I loved it actually. It seems like where you are is a meridian point on the Earth. There are many, many places that are similar but affect people in different ways. Sedona, Arizona will bring out the stuff you need to work on up and out…sometimes in a big way. It’s hard to live there for a long time. The native indians used to go there for retreat and renewal but didn’t stay. I think it’s the place you need to be to push you to the next level. I’m happy for your evolution. To be here is to reach for the stars…for there is our real home. Keep reaching!
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July 25th, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Thanks Lisa, very insightful. Byron Bay (where I was living) also has some kind of energy thing going on and the Aboriginal people say the same – don’t stay too long. I’ve been to Sedona…I loved it. The dryness, the heat….
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July 30th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
I agree Lisa, I was going to say: The power of place. In my studies on Geomancy, I have read about sacred places all over the world that bring on opportunities for consciousness expansion, simply be being there. Repeated behaviour over time by a community of people also strengthens the effect, which sounds like the case in Icaria.
It gives ‘be careful what you wish for’ a whole new meaning, doesn’t it. A good friend of mine always used to say ‘Growth is uncomfortable’! Too true.
How wonderful for you, Sarah, what an experience.
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Yes please! I had a similar experience four years ago – Italian islands though. Made big plans and everywhere I tried to go the words “piano, piano” kept coming at me {slowly, slowly}. I fought it at first, in the end it became me. But I’m still learning to glow slowly, and gently too. Like you, when I ask the universe for something I get it, but in the asking I often forget the emotion {and uncomfortable feeling it brings} that has to shift for me to get what I want, become the me I want to be. It’s all good though, in the end! Great post Sarah xx
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It’s not looseness .. it’s another take on reality
Just hope some of it rubs off ..
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July 25th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
.. and most importantly .. thanks for sharing !!
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I went through the same thing in India. Some places just have this metaphysical affect don’t they? At the time, as I was desperately trying to figure out how to escape, someone said to me that being there was sort of like a course of antibiotics; you need to see it through right to the end to get the healing effects. Don’t run away from the torture half way through! And it’s true, I now look back on the experience and marvel at the healing affects on my psyche but man, it was hard at the time.
Love this post, thanks for sharing. xx
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July 25th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
And I had the same experience in Vanuatu, there they call it Island Time. Everything moves much slower, much more organically, and less structure on Island Time. The locals just get it – they know everything that has to be done (feeding yourself, sleeping, etc, the actually essentials) will happen, and everything else just fits around it when it can. Not done this morning? We’ll get to it later, promise! It apparently clashes with Western tourists though, who are used to being picked up for their tour at 8am when it said they would on the brochure! But I found it was fantastic – I spend days just wandering around markets and chatting to people in Port Villa, not actually doing anything or ticking off ‘tourist activities’, and it was brilliant.
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July 25th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Oh, I crave ‘Island Time’.
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July 27th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
I loved Vanuatu. Don’t forget that to live on ‘island time’ you also need to live in ‘island conditions’ which include dirt floors, lots of people under one roof, limited prospects for education and travel, and regular challenges to the immune system in the form of unwashed hands preparing food. That’s an observation, not a judgement. I don’t know if we can have island time without ditching most of the other things we accept as ‘normal’ such as going out to work, having a house with more bedrooms than inhabitants, owning motor vehicles, etc. Lovely for a holiday or extended travels. Very challenging to adopt as a total package.
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This sounds incredible to me and I bet they can eat sugar in moderation unlike the rest of us that eat the whole packet of timtams. This post actually makes me crave rest. My biggest question is how to they earn money?
How do we strike a balance in our Aussie lives to incorporate more rest and soul time and still live in our culture?
That’s my question…
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Recently, I had a bit of a ‘light bulb’ moment about the concept of time in that I sort of got the idea of it being non linear. Without calenders or clocks to record time, we become less fixated on where we were, or where we are meant to be and our focus turns to the moment NOW. Sounds like Island is pulling you into the present, where time is irrelevant and being is of more importance. Letting go of the concept of time as linear allow for much more space, in the moment. Perhaps your struggle with the Icarian way, is your struggle against the NOW? Sounds like the Icarian’s have their priorities sorted, choosing relaxation and release over stress and stuggle, even if they work around the clock. In my morning meditation today, in the far off distance I heard a soft voice inside me say, ‘Loosen your resistance’…
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July 25th, 2012 at 6:49 pm
I like that non linear idea. Being ‘in the moment’ is so stress free and opens you to what’s there right now. To avoid aimless drifting, spend 5 mins planning your day, sure, then live it as it comes after that. Works for worry and anxiety too – allow some limited wallowing then move on to noticing that – hey – that was yesterday! Mind you, that self-remembering – remember to remember yourself – very Gurdjieff way to be in the moment – is not as easy as it ought to be. We try to let it come with ease! Lisa
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July 25th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
I was going to write about time, when I started to read the comments. This is the problem, I think, we covered it in culture anthropology classes. There seem to be two ways of perceiving time: linear or circular (or chaotic, or plural, really, when there are many times not connected to each other). The linear time cultures (monochronic cultures) seem to be obsessed with schedules and plans and making one thing and then starting another. The polichronic cultures are more relaxed about that. They usually do many things at once and have absolutely no problem with that.
There even used to be an Indian tribe that didn’t use any verbs in their language. They were describing state of things with nouns instead of telling what the things are doing.
Interesting fact – the polichronic cultures are the warm-climate cultures. Their survival didn’t depend on doing stuff on time (like gathering food for winter before it freezes over). Greece is one of typical polichronic cultures, although now in the age of globalisation it all slowly evens out.
Another interesting fact – although monochronic culture is now dominant (monochronic societies are more succesfull – get more done – even if their members are waaaay more stressed in life) there can be differences between singular people in their way of living and perceiving time. Generally, women are usually more polichronic than men. It’s not a strict rule of course.
I thought I’ll share, because it seems to me that what Sarah is going through is a problem of a monochronic person lost in a polichronic community
More about it here if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochronic
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July 26th, 2012 at 9:45 am
That was really interesting!
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July 27th, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Fascinating!
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July 27th, 2012 at 11:57 am
Wow, thanks agacz, really interesting stuff. I am going to try to be a little more polichronic within my monochronic world. Love it!
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P.S. loved reading about your adventures so far and your personal shifts taking place. It takes vulnerability and guts to go through it, let alone share it with the world! x
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Hell yes!! I doubt I could live there but I reckon a drastic change like this is in desperate order for me. Over the last couple of years the number one feeling I can’t shake is that if everyone else would just *leave me alone* I could actually get stuff done. This is a delusion; I need to learn to live with everything in the world, not against it. Perhaps having that lesson forced on me might help me see it for real, finally.
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Oh wow I’m not sure how I would deal with this. I can imagine it would be hard for me at first but I can see myself adapting… my husband on the other hand NO WAY he is ALL about routine and doing things in certain orders etc, I think somewhere like this would drive him crazy!
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Wow – what an amazing experience you’ve had. I love to hear about it! Personally, I find the idea very uncomfortable and scary – I don’t do well without regular sleep and regular meals! I think my fiance would thrive as Icaria sounds like a larger version of how he lives now. I think other commenters have hit the nail on the head, saying the simplification of life is key. Also the meaningful encounters are significant.
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Hi Sarah.
Four days ago, I began planning for a one month trip to Athens and Ikaria, inspired by your instagram.
My doctor said outright that I am far too ill to travel. But here’s the thing. I have been completely focused on getting well for almost two years now and I have become sicker and sicker. I need something positive to focus on that has nothing to do with getting well because I am going completely insane fighting and fighting this disease with no results. Time to change tact.
Also, I am 1/2 Greek Cypriot/Athenian and I have never been to Greece (or anywhere out of Melbourne except a brief visit to Thailand two years ago). I feel the strongest pull to experience my heritage and connect with the earth in Greece.
I told a couple of friends and they told me I’m nuts. Where am I going to find the cash to go to Greece when I am completely broke and trying to raise a daughter and support myself and both our illnesses on $200 a week. I don’t know how but I know that somehow I have to make it happen.
One thing I am concerned about is I am reading such contradictory advice on whether to pre-book my accomodation. I need to stay in either backpackers or the cheapest of hotels. I’d rather be free to wander as I please. On the one hand I am told that in June everything will be booked out for months in advance, then on the other hand I am told that the best thing to do is find somewhere to stay as I go so I am not restricted as to what I want to do with my time. So which is it??
Thank you again for sharing your experiences with us and for being so honest and beautiful.
Amy xox
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July 25th, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Oh Amy, I was told the same. But I’m better here. If you’re here after August, no need to pre-book. I’ll be posting info/a guide soon…stay tuned.
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July 25th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
Thank you Sarah, I know it’s impossible to reply to everyone, so I really appreciate it
I was planning on going in June next year, does that mean I should pre-book? Someone told me it’s too difficult to get around and everything is closed outside of the three summer months. But if that isn’t true I could go in May or September instead, as long as it’s still quite warm… Anyway, I am so excited to read your guide!
Xo
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July 25th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
I am in Athens airport right now, very sad to be leaving. It’s hard to tell a year in advance how things will be, but I think it may also depend on how they go here economically … & in Europe- things are noticeably quiter here for peak season, so if not much changes you should be fine.
Amy I believe July & August are the busiest months as that’s when Greeks holiday, so June might be ok? … We came from Ireland (originally Sydney), and the airport there still seemed to be busy enough for a country in a bad recession!
I see how it’s a tough call with you being ill, still, maybe you’ll benefit from taking a huge leap of faith, believing you will be looked after, no matter what comes up. On the other hand, if it means you’re going to spend between now and next June worrying about your accommodation, then you’ve got your answer, right?!
We came for a few days heat & relaxation … It’s been WONDERFUL!
We stayed at Vouliagmeni at the Westin resort, we found it reasonably priced, EXCELLENT food & service, very professional, beautiful & really clean (which I regard most highly- Virgo etc!!).
Yes things go at a different pace, but it kinda made me think how f*#ked up we can be!!! I think things have changed in Athens, huge improvements …. Already talking about how to weave it into another trips plans!!
Good luck Amy E, take it on girl, I wish you luck & good health!
Sarah, thanks for all your tips & photos & lovely writing, hope you get healed babe!
Yassou!xx
I can REALLY relate to this – the way you describe the Icarian appraoch to time is so similar to the way people live in Qatar. Coming from Australia it is so strange to be thrown into this culture that is the opposite of how we live. It is fascinating, like you say. And you definitely learn to just accept it. But here’s the problem – try to work a 9-5 job in a place like this. Try to work with colleagues who have spent the whole night talking, eating and smoking shisha without going to bed. Try meeting deadlines with someone who doesn’t eat regular meals. It can be challenging. Luckily you’re not working 9-5 so soak it up and enjoy! And you’re right – I also laugh at how uptight I seem sometimes.
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I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s necessary to go outside your (one’s) life in order to make a space for this. An ante-chamber to the habitual. So hard with all the scaffolding we erect, which needs its corners and its widgets attending to every few minutes. There is some solace to be had in some checking, but I suppose it’s when it tightens to the point of strangulation that it becomes a problem.
PP
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Sounds like exactly the kind of trivial, time-based challenges that would also send me into a spin! A vice-like grip on plans, and internal ‘partitioning’ of my day ultimately feeds the anxiety loop – I can relate so acutely to what you’re describing!
Sounds like a kind of rehab, for chronic planners. I’m sure once you ‘let go’ of your attachment to The Schedule, you will find wisdom in the Icarian flanerie!
Keep us similarly insane schedulers posted x
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Too risky to go there on a honeymoon you think?
Sounds like an amazing and important experience you are having. Thanks for a beautiful post.
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I had a fairly vague sense of the ‘energy’ of a place until I recently visited Ubud in Bali and really sensed it. I felt happier and healthier than I had in years and was floating on a little cloud of joy, almost in a trance. Very strange experience but extremely enjoyable! I am back down to earth now in Oz…
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July 26th, 2012 at 5:26 am
Karen, could not agree more! Although I got sick there, drank beer there and ate sweets, I felt the healthiest I’ve been in years!
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I think we could all easily follow the Icarian way but our crazy Western lifestyle prevents it. It takes conscious thought and discipline (how ironic) to relax and let time just pass us by.
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I would totally invite this into my life. I think you are so lucky to have found this place for yourself. Although it’s uncomfortable and painful, it’s the place that will change you and your life for the better. We evolve when we step out of our comfort zones and challenge our limiting beliefs. Bravo for having the courage and the patience to stick around there to see what unfolds.
I’ve been searching for a place just like that for myself. I feel like I need to be broken down in my own way. Oh, if only it was as easy as following you to Icaria. I know I will have to find this place that’s unique to me. Thanks for posting this!
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Very insightful – thanks Sarah. My husband went through something very similar in Bali recently. We were looking for a family holiday in July school hols. Flights were booking out fast and I had not been to Bali for 26 years and had no wish to return. But … my gut said “go”, 4 x flights were available on the day we HAD to leave … so we went. The place we stayed was new and unreviewed and down a long laneway but had a massage parlour at end of lane. Balinese massage therapist couldn’t speak much English & my husband speaks no Indonesian but a after a series of intensely painful massages (for him) … I guess he was “broken down” and then “rebuilt”, dropping a whole lot of shit & being without back pain & able to touch his toes for the first time in his life. He’s a different version of himself. I had a feeling the trip was “for him” and acted on it. If you always follow your gut instinct, life will take you where you need to be. Look forward to your next Icarian post xx
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In answer to your question – God, yes! To hear of the obvious change that you are going through right now, Sarah, is enviable and completely remarkable to me.
Any chance to enrich our lives and appreciate LIFE itself!!
Enjoy being broken down because can guarantee you that what remains once you have been “stripped back” will be the person you really are and the person you really want to be. And who wouldn’t want that!!??
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It all comes down to what’s important and i think western society on the whole has lost sight of what is REALLY important- friends, family, being kind and helping anyone, enjoying sunshine, wine, food rain and whatever else life has to offer. You can find beauty, simplicity and contentment in the every day anywhere but it certainly helps when others around you are surrounded by people who put these things first over ‘being somewhere’. There is a great article in the NY Times about the busy trap http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/
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‘Checking for time less’ maybe also ‘Checking for the timeless’
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Thank you Sarah for your wonderful message today. A few years ago I spent 5 months on the Greek island of Kos. It was a very similar experience & changed my life & outlook.
The closest place to heaven on earth.
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With my current line of work this place sounds like heaven to me. I’d be there in a flash if I could get away from it all here.
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Oh Sarah, I just arrived home from 4 weeks in Europe and I did experience that lay back, there is no timetable and no clock watching in Italy. It was a beautiful feeling …to be constantly watching the time can put us all in an anxious space.I have yet to experience Greece and it is on my bucket list.The fact that the days are so long there and yes nothing is too much trouble for anyone, the slow lifestyle very appealing.Can so relate how you are feeling though when you are on the go constantly.I loved being on holidays with no “to do list”
Keep enjoying xxxx
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Fascinating.
Was wondering how their average German cousins wld cope with this???
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Sarah
I find the same thing happens in India. I describe as you confront yourself every day. Often in the more glaring way. If I surrender to it everything flows so much more easily. I have so much more fun with them, with myself with the whole process, and I work there so there is a finite time but what’s the maxim about the task expanding to the time allowed.
Really, what do you really need to do there other than be? I met this Swiss beautiful man in India years ago who said something that has stuck ‘You can have all the freedom in the world but if you don’t have freedom in your mind then you’re still not free.’
I think the Icarians sounds like they may have this freedom. It sounds like its all churning and turning inside of you. Enjoy x
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What an insightful way of living! I need
To often tell myself to be more in the present and stop worrying about the future and plans… To do just what feels right for NOW.
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I actually don’t own a watch. I left it at home during a holiday in Queensland when I was about 13, a lovely trip where we had no sense of time and the pressure was removed, and it was a great experience. I threw away my watch when I got home and have refused to wear one ever since. You can always find out what the time is if you really need to, but if you have a constant awareness of it, I find this leads to unhealthy thoughts and an obsession with what you are missing/ where you should be that prevents living in the present moment. For me, anyway.
I find the notion of “island time” interesting, and the idea that people around the world who don’t keep track of time tend to live in climates where this is only one warm season. I find there can be a danger to spend a few days or weeks in a different culture and idealize it too much, seeing it as the “right” way to be, whereas there is no right way. Every place is different and they all have their good & bad sides. Early explorers who initially thought Fiji to be an incredible paradise wrote about finding it opressively dull after a year or two. The energy one recieves from a place as a traveller is completely different than living there.
All in all, I believe that life takes you where you need to be… and Sarah, you clearly need to be there right now. I wish you much learning and richness from Icaria.
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Hi Sarah –
Wow, I am so grateful that I discovered your blog last weekend! I have multiple chronic illnesses, and just discovered that I have a slightly overactive thyroid as well, and I have been on a Paleo diet for almost a year (as well as dairy free for a decade and gluten free for about 5 years – OMG you can’t even know how thrilled I am that your write about constipation!!!)
This post hit home so much for me – I am also really intensely reliant on plans to make me feel like my life is in control. I left my job of 3.5 years in the tech industry in May and have taken the summer off to re-evaluate my life and what I’m doing, and decided I’m going to take art classes in the fall and try and develop a creative career.
The thing is, I *should* be living carefree and riding the flow of where the days take me, since I have zero structure in my life right now, but instead it is totally messing with my head! I am paralyzed by the lack of structure – whenever I manage to create a bit, we either get visitors or go on a trip, and it’s stressing me out so much that it’s keeping me from fully enjoying what should be a wonderful sabbatical.
This post really made me realize how miserably out of sorts I’ve been feeling because of all this – just in time to take some more holidays.
Loving reading through the old posts here – you’ve got a new reader for life, thanks for so bravely and openly talking about all your health challenges. xo
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ps. forgot to say – I have been waiting months for a consultation with Chris Kresser and it’s finally coming up in a week and a half – so excited!!!
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Sarah,
I’m like this too, when I ask to be shown new ways of being, or doing something, my request is answered, but I’m often surprised by the form it takes. Sometimes the universe has to hit me with a sledge-hammer before I realise I am being given the signs I asked for. I guess that’s the reason for the saying ‘be careful what you wish for’! I hope this experience is enriching and rewarding for you. As a control freak who has very little patience for interruptions I think I’d go mad in Icaria. But then sometimes a little madness isn’t such a bad thing, is it. All the best. Love hearing about your adventures.
April
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In Central Australia time becomes polichronic – you can feel time dilate as you head out bush, things take the time they take, and you get used to waiting or you go mad. You learn to embrace (or at least be comfortable with) levels of chaos that would drive yer average control freak insane with frustration. There are people who come looking for things here – some of them find something unexpected – I found the love of my life, the last thing I expected. Some flip out, can’t take the intensity of the place, the space, the daily weirdnesses, and they have to leave. Your writing about Icaria reminds me of some of the things I treasure about living in Central Oz – the opportunity for healing, growing, and creative chaos.
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As I read your post I felt myself tensing and feeling stressed at the idea of people talking to me when I had things to do – that feeling of itching to get going! I am also a planner and tend to stress myself out on holidays (or even at festivals) by feeling I have to get around and see everything.
I lived in Cyprus for a couple of years and the Greek localls worked incredibly hard usually 7 days a week during the tourist season, but were still laid back. The expression there is ‘Sega, sega’ (slowly, slowly). I remember being served my dessert before my starter at a taverna once. The waiter just shrugged! It didn’t really seem to matter.
Right now here in London my life is scheduled down to the nanosecond and I have lists to do and mental lists to do and lists of things to do when I’ve done all the other stuff.
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Haaaa…this is funny….this is normal & natural for us not this go go go attitude which is stressing everyone to the max that lives this way. Life is meant to be appreciated & to do this one has to slow down enough to do so, we just don’t do this no matter how much of a fitness freak we are.
Slowing down & appreciating of all around us gives us true living not this fake world of stress we have been all suckered into.
STOP & SMELL THE FLOWERS… I know a lot of fitness freaks don’t do this as I have seen them when bush walking, go go go is their answer & all they are doing is stressing themselves to death.
Appreciate your environment & it’s life forms including people to get the most out of life…..Love all Mathew
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Sounds wonderful to me, Sarah!
We have been in Coolum, sunshine coast qld for 6 weeks! And it is wonderful, beautiful! But I would love to spend time on Icaria! Turning my life upside down is what I welcome most at aged 71 (on 7august)! Enjoy every moment wish,I was there!
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Ahh .. time .. she is testing you! I’m currently reading the new book of Lama Surya Das “Buddha Standard Time .. awakening to the infinite possiblities of now”, and he says .. “this moment, right now, is pefect, the golden eternity. It’s up to you to claim it and make yourself at home in it,using it wisely.”
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Wow Sarah. What an experience you are having. Truly life changing. I sense such big changes are about to happen for you that will impact on the direction of your life.
Oh how I dream to be where you are.
Having suffered from papillary thyroid cancer in 2010, Hashimoto’s and Anorexia Nervosa I dream of this freedom, this peace.
I’m currently lying in a medical ward in one of Sydney’s biggest hospitals being refed as my health has deteriorated so much with the Anorexia. Perhaps when I’m medically stable and in a stronger state of mind/body perhaps this unravelling I need..OR perhaps I’m already broken and need to be REBUILT instead. Anyone have suggestion of where you go to be rebuilt?
You’re an inspiration and a trooper Sarah. I thank you for your honesty and for sharing so much of your personal journey. Let yourself be healed. Xx
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[...] people, eating, drinking, and eating and drinking some more (It’s called research!). And being challenged by the things I was learning and absorbing. The Nat Geo kids have now left. I’ve stayed. Because it feels good. And I have more to [...]
[...] Which mirrors something I wrote a few days ago about being broken down by the Greek experience. [...]
Wow! I just read this out to my mother who is Greek (born there, moved to Aus in 1950 as a 12 year old) and she broke down crying with how beautifully you have described her homeland. She went back for a holiday about 5 years ago, and her experience was EXACTLY the same. The simplicity, the beauty, feeling that whatever is before you is sufficient, and the mentality of making do with whatever the seasons bring you.
She so desperately wants me to experience it too, and I can’t wait to hear over there. Thank you for sharing this Sarah. xx
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[...] best explained by this very Ikarian phenomenon which I touched on briefly here. Every day on every tiny, winding road, wide enough often for only one car, Ikarians pass by [...]
Reading over this makes me smile…its not just in Ikaria this happens…its all over, little villages and towns like the one i grew up in…
Unless your Greek you may never understand their way of thinking, and I can say this because i have grown up there, and return every year.
First comes LIFE! drinking, eating, enjoying LIFE with friends and family..but in the middle they do have to work, whether its at a cafe doing a 12 hour shift with no break, or at a farm..Greeks work.
However they will never sacrifice their time to just ‘Be’ , they don’t rush through life to only enjoy it during retirement like many Australians do!
Crisis or no crisis they are happier with with what they have, and always have been!
..Because in Greece an evening dinner always ends the next day,
..money or no money, they will go out and go on a holiday,
…because when Greeks yell out brother ‘on the street , everyone turns,
…they eat their fish only fresh,
…because Greeks are the only ones who go for a coffee , which then turns into an all nighter drinking ouzo ..on a weekday,
…and because for the Greeks…. ‘Tomorrow is another day’!!..
Thank you for sharing your experience Sarah! xx
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[...] put into words.” (Source: ModernHepburn, via our-rights-our-wrongs) This reminds us of a recent post by Sarah Wilson. Sarah is an Australian writer, blogger, and TV personality. She has been [...]