The links in this article will take you to the sites of the places I went in Brazil.
In December 2015 I couldn’t get the definition of insanity by Albert Einstein out of my mind: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For the previous three years, I had chosen to spend New Year’s Eve by myself, meditating, writing, reflecting on the previous year, and creating a vision for the new year. Since some of the key aspects of my life I wanted to change, didn’t, I decided it was time to stop the insanity, and spend the eve of December 31st in a new way. I still see the value of what I used to do, I certainly experienced much growth and opportunities I hadn’t considered, but it felt like I needed a drastic change, to create deeper change.
I said yes to spending the evening at a friend’s home, who was hosting over 20 people I never met, and it was wonderful. Then, on January 1st, I drove her, one of my sisters and another friend for a couple of hours to a beautiful waterfall. My sister and I swam close to the waterfall, but I felt shortness of breath and swam back. We decided to try again, and we met a lifeguard in the water. He showed my sister where to hold and where to stand right underneath the waterfall, and she did it. Then, I did it. It turned out to be a wonderful experience, and I took it as a sign that there were great things ahead in 2016.