 Hi everyone, Scott here. Depression to expression from Barbados. Can you believe it? When I left Canada a few days back, we had 30 centimeters of snow. I'm on a plane for five hours and then I'm in 30 degree Celsius weather on this beautiful hilltop looking at the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, the world is nuts, isn't it? So I've recently discovered something on this trip that I really want to share with you. That's why I brought the tripod and I'm reading this book called Becoming Zen and I'm going to share a little story with you and it really relates to this trip. That's why I'm really doing this video because the book somehow related perfectly to what I was experiencing on this trip and then I'm going to do a little exercise with you that I've learned and that's really helping me on this trip while I'm meditating and hiking and just really trying to lock myself into that present moment to really experience things, to really soak in the sun, soak in the moment and when I go back home to work, I'll really realize and I'll have a real vivid memory of my place here because I was really experiencing it really in the moment. That's when you get really vivid memories and you can look back. So here's the story guys. In this book I'm reading and I know you can relate to this because I struggle with this and I get emails and see comments. We all struggle with this. It's you're always thinking of the future. You're always thinking of the past and you always have these expectations and a lot of the time, most of the time, our expectations never fit with our reality. So what I mean by that is here's a perfect example of the trip. Okay, so I come to Barbados. I booked my Airbnb. I think it's going to be a two second walk from the nice beautiful beach and there's going to be resorts and palm trees and margaritas and coconut water and people serving me drinks all day and everything's cheap. So I get here, go to my Airbnb and I am in a very, very poor part of the island. I'm surrounded by locals. I'm surrounded by the different kinds of drivers. They're on the different side of the road and they're just honking and the roads are this narrow and there's a billion people in these taxis that I'm taking. They're blasting this music and the beaches are far away and food is way more expensive than I thought because they have to import all of these things to the island. So what do you think my expectations were? Do you think that my reality fit my expectation of Barbados? Absolutely not guys. I was in shock and therefore disappointed and the thoughts I was having was this shouldn't be this way. I booked this trip. It shouldn't be this way. I was planning to do this. I was planning to do that. I was supposed to see something else. This shouldn't be like this. Those thoughts and what happens with those thoughts is you're trapped back in your mind. You're full of regret and you just feel uncomfortable. You feel disappointed. You feel like you've strayed from the path and purpose that you're supposed to be on. Raise your hand and say aye if that's happened to you before and you think about that all sorts of times in your life. Your first day of high school, your first day of university, all these expectations and your thinking of what it's going to be like in your mind and you set up this reality in your mind and when you actually experience it, it's usually most of the time completely different. Completely different because how can you actually know what an experience is going to be like? So I hope that makes sense to you guys so it's creating a better relationship between our expectations and reality. That's the book I'm reading. That's a lesson I have learned on this trip because it's about living with what is and not with the what should be's or the could have been's. So I realize now that me being with all the locals and learning about the culture in a deeper sense is actually honestly a blessing in disguise here because that's kind of what I wanted to do anyways but it's more in line with I guess what I wanted to do for the trip but that's been said but I'm now focused on this being my path. This is how the trip was not supposed to be but this is what it is. It's about living with what is. I can't change anything now. The Airbnb is booked. I've been experiencing things this way. This is the way it is so now it's about locking yourself in the now and really feeling and experiencing what this time now has to offer I hope that makes sense so I know I'm a little in the shade here so the exercise I want to do with you is again something that's in the book it's called Becoming Zen and the definition of this whole chapter this whole chapter is about the definition of experience. What does experiencing something actually mean? Because let me tell you the experience changes based on your expectations so think of this whole trip if I would have been oh it shouldn't be this way it shouldn't be this way this is shit this is shit this is terrible I should be on the beach getting served drinks for free how would that affect my experience it would turn into a negative experience a regrettable experience and somewhat of a waste of time now let's take that back so let's say I have really no expectations before the trip and I'm here now I'm living with what is how am I experiencing the trip now how are you experiencing life now well I'll tell you the exercise experiencing in this book to this Zen master is about mindfulness it's about experiencing all the senses and being locked in the present moment so here's an exercise you can do you can follow it with me you can watch and then you can do it yourself it's really not difficult in theory but but the more you try it you'll see that it gets a little difficult so I'm standing here I'm going to close my eyes and it's called the three by three and the three by three is focusing on three sensations at the same time for three breaths so I'll repeat that you're focusing on three sensations at the same time for three breaths so I'm going to focus on my breath that counts as one okay I'm going to focus on how I'm standing in my posture okay and the third sensation I'm going to feel is the wind on my body and the air and how it touches you know my hair and my my skin so those are the three things I'm going to focus on for three breaths okay let's do it together and you'll notice that it's really hard to clear the mind but the more you focus the more you can let go of these thoughts and really be locked in and this is what is called really experiencing and you can do this with your eyes closed or your eyes open so we're going to do this now I'm going to inhale and exhale inhale and exhale and remembering your posture remembering the air on your skin and inhale and exhale and there's the three by three now if you did focus on three at the same time well done if you could only focus on your breath or you couldn't focus on anything and your thoughts were automatically sparked and nothing happened and you were just you know into that cyclical thinking that's okay you get so much better with practice and experiencing and this this zen meditation and this locking into the present moment and really experiencing is a daily exercise that I would really recommend okay it's I've been doing it this whole trip um and it's about living with what is okay because as I said in the beginning this trip isn't what I expected at all and if you want to know more details um I'll be doing I'll be doing more videos when I get home talking about the trip and more videos here going to the wildlife sanctuary in a second but um let's just say this is this is the most impoverished country I've ever been to and not that that's wrong but it's just not what I expected and I wasn't ready for it so now it's about locking myself back in to the present moment and dealing with what is so try the three by three try to do it every day takes literally three breaths you can do it multiple times a day and focus on three sensations hope you're enjoying the view from Barbados I'll see you guys soon back in Canada take care