New Zealand Weekly Update #76

01st of April to 07th of April 2024

Approximate reading time: 5 minutes

Lets get it started

Happy sunday fellas. My only day off this week. Sunny. Silent. Precious. It has been a great day so far. I went out in the morning to go for some swimming in the pools at the recreational center in Wanaka. And as I arrived, heaps of people would be already waiting in front of the center, just before 8AM. The plan was 100 lanes, 20 at a time with some breaks in between, But as usual, things are going a different way when you have a plan or you assume you are having a plan. So I ended up doing 152 laps in total without a single break. Because I was in kind of the zone from the very beginning on. A feeling people would have while being very productive, very creative, very sporty. Being in the zone comes with no thoughts, not a lot of emotions. It just flows. Naturally. You do not doubt. You do not think. You just do. You just exist. You are in the moment. In each and every moment. And you keep going. You enjoy it. From the very beginning until the end. And you can still tell that you are in the zone. Have you havd that feeling or experience before? Did you know about this? How does it make you feel afterwards and maybe also in between?

Because usually the zone is nothing you can force. It comes and goes. It has its own ways, its own rules, its own timing. Its own purpose. I have been in the zone a couple of times, mostly while biking or swimming. Sometimes for a couple of moments while running when everything just comes together and I would enjoy every single step, every little pressure on my feet. Every bump. Every breath. Every single moment. But today the zone lastet more than just a couple of moments or minutes. And it was just one moment, that took me out of the zone and got me distracted. This one guy, who was way too fast for our lane. And who would pass me, turning around and being in my way. And while I tried to keep focused and to pass him, he would grab me and hold me. And he would tell me off as in his opinion I am way too slow for this lane. Funny, since I was here for already 40 minutes with 3 more people, and we have been in our flow. And you are just showing up and distract everyone. And even worse, after two more lanes he would stand in the middle of the lane and trying to block me. Happy days, grab yourself some coffee and have a walk by the lake instea mate! Thansk to the lifeguards, he left the pools quite soon since he was told off. Back to business and the zone 🙂
After having some delicious breakfast with my good friend and collegue Anna, we went to Northlake to catch up with our friend Kat and her little baby bubba Fenix (love that name). And we just went for a little walk, a drink in the sun and some chats. What a great day to spend your time with some friends out in the sun!

Fantastic Fungi

While staying at home the other day, I decide to watch some documentaries instead of the same old stuff over and over again. I am kind of a comfort zone person when it comes down to movies and series. I would usually watch the same stuff over and over again. For example Monk or Big Bang Theory, I have watched both a couple of times. Instad of watching something new, unknown, probably something very exciting. Why? Don’t really know.
So I watched this documentary about fungi called „Fantastic Fungi“ (can be found on Netflix at the moment as well). Mushrooms. And it was mind blowing. They are everywhere. They are around us. Underneath us. Above us. Even in us. They are colorful. They hide. They build huge networks. They communicate. They can be used to treat so many different issues. They can be used for depression. To reduce anxiety. To get your mind blown up. To enhance your horizon. To give you new ideas. And you can find them literally everyhwere. In the woods. Next door. By the lake. A couple of years ago I would have never been able to express how interesting the world of fungi sounds and looks like. How exciting this documentary was and is. How mind blowing. I reckon, usually we would just block our minds from those things because we do not know them. We think about toxic fungi. About people abusing them. About shrooms. And about getting high and just using them to escape the reality. But what if they could help us enhancing our reality. Our thoughts, our emotions, our mental progress? Fungi to be used in a medical way? In a healthy way? In a way they already have been used thousands of years ago and we just forgot about their advantages and how to use them in a right way?
Well, after just watching one documentary about this topic, I do not have any clue at all about this topic. But it catched me. And the experiences that have been told in this documentary by heaps of people catched me as well. Quite mind blowing 🙂

What else to say?

Different views, different thoughts, different ideas and perspectives. Why not? In the end it comes down to something I was talking about last week. Change. Progress. Moving on. It all comes down to not be stuck. To move on. To become a better version of ourselves. A more grown up person. More open minded. More reflected. With trying to see the world in a different way as yesterday. Or as a year ago.
And some exciting news at the end of this weekly blog – a sample of my printed book has arrived in Germany. And I asked two very good friends of mine to read the book and to check it for any mistakes, for improvement and some opinions. And afterwards I will get back to business, implement everything and I will finally publish the printed version of my Camino book. Published author, sounds pretty cool hey!
See you next week fellas!

Your DingyInternational
Felix