Alive

In January I wrote about doing a whole month of challenges. A couple of people laughed at me, ‘yeah right, get a life and stop dreaming, you won’t do that anyway’. You know what? I did it and it was fantastic! Regarding those encouraging comments, I'm reminded of a sticker I have on one of my guitars: "Those who say it cannot be done shouldn't interrupt the people doing it."

The challenge consists of doing every day one of four things, for a whole month. The four things are: 1) something you fear, 2) something you’ve been putting off, 3) something you’ve never done and 4) something selfless. If you want to feel really alive, I highly recommend you to do it! Here are a few reflections which you may find helpful:

• Write a list – it’s a good idea to prepare a list of possible challenges BEFORE day one. Try to have at least 10 things on the list, or even better 20.
• Value both big and small – it doesn’t always have to be a massive challenge, there’s no need to jump out of a plane every single day! Sometimes simple things can be great too, like helping a neighbour taking the shopping in or trying some new food.
• Be patient – my challenge started rather slow, at the beginning I didn’t do many exciting things and I had to really think about stuff that I could do. But as the month rolled on, the challenge picked up speed and became more and more intense.
• Stay open – always look out for spontaneous opportunities to challenge yourself. Life is full of them!

I’d like to give thanks again to Jordan Lejuwaan from HighExistence.com who inspired me to do this challenge. And in case that you need some more inspiration to start yourself, here are a few of the things that I’ve done in February:

• I’ve donated blood
• played a 100-year old cello in Berlin
• re-designed my photo website – fotomikosch.com
• one month no alcohol and no cannabis (ongoing)
• started working on my new book
• I hosted a one-hour radio show without any preparation – Miedo (in spanish)
• collected lots of rubbish from a dry riverbed
• wrote a new song – Immer Richtung Meer
• quit smoking (again! I’m getting good at this...)
• planted five trees
• did a brand new DJ mix with only Spanish artists – Mr Mikosch - Espana
• overcame superstition and got on a plane without prayer (much harder than it sounds)
• went busking in Málaga, singing consumer-critical songs in front of a big shopping mall
• cleaned out my room and gave lots of good stuff to a charity shop
• added reviews to the website of my Ayahuasca book – A call from the unknown
• told an old friend the truth about a silly thing I once did
• visited Barcelona for the first time in my life (loved it!)
• took some important decisions regarding the food I consume – Eating people

And then, with a few days left, thinking that it was going already pretty well, I received an email which provided the biggest challenge of all: for February the 27^th a place had been reserved for me on a Vipassana course. It’s a 10 day meditation retreat, you have to remain silent for the whole time, no distractions allowed (ie no books, no music, no phone, etc), getting up at 4am and meditating 10 hours each day. I had been wanting to do it for almost 15 years, but somehow I had always managed to avoid it… Needless to say that this time I didn’t have any excuses and so I travelled to the Catalonian countryside and faced this last challenge on my list. More about this incredible experience in the next blog. For now just this: 

With all its pains, hardships and broken dreams – life is beautiful! And I’m grateful for being here.