Get lost
I have a problem with getting lost. Not because I get lost, but because I can’t get lost enough. Before I even knew what getting lost meant to me, I used to drive around purposely taking turns and streets having no idea where they would lead.
My first solo trip to California as an adult was for a job interview. I hadn’t been there in probably over 15 years, and had not spent time in Los Angeles or San Diego either. Once the interview was over I still had the day before me so I decided to check out Muscle Beach. I know now that I wasn’t terribly close, and as the highways in California are pretty big, I was nervous driving there. I found out they had moved Muscle Beach down to the other end of Santa Monica, to Venice Beach, and again, not knowing how far it was, I walked the 3 miles each way.
Now, I wasn’t lost, but I was in a place I had never been, seeing things I had never seen before, and slightly scared due to the unfamiliarity. By the time I walked back the last .5 mile, I trekked over the sand and passed out on the beach. I spent the last day there traversing other unfamiliar territories, and even had a celebrity sighting.
Once I got home, I have to say I felt kinda like a bad ass. In the rear view mirror, I was able to see how brave I had been to venture there in the first place, let alone the continued exploring once I arrived.
That experience made me fall in love with Santa Monica-oh my heart!!! That was only the first of many, many adventures I took in the 10 years I lived there. On my drives home from Los Angeles to San Diego, I always felt like I had been in immersive therapy and had come out a new person. I never stopped exploring the State of California, even doing more scary things like driving the Pacific Coast Highway, alone, from San Francisco back to San Diego (oh those hair pins turns killed me)!
Now I know better what was happening. And why I continue to seek getting lost. Our brains thrive when exposed to novel experiences. It lights up the parts of our brain that gives us all the good feels, and increases our capacity for memory and learning. Free rewards!!!
If you’re familiar with AA, you’ve heard about the ‘geographic cure’, which I think gets a bad rap. People don’t move just to run from their problems. There’s something innate in all of us that suspect heading to those unfamiliar places and spaces just might help us start over.
I found a trail across the street from where I live. I had been afraid to go into the woods because snakes and murder podcasts, but wanted so badly to take bathe in the forest I finally worked up the nerve. That alone, made me feel like a bad ass again. What really fired me up though was having to decide which way to go when the trail split into two directions, which it did often. I thought I had some clue where I was and where I was headed, but when I really questioned that, it was awesome. I’m hooked. Just knowing the endless possibilities of getting lost in the woods (cue Frozen 2) is enough to ease the rough spots in my life. I know I have a tool to assist me in seeing things in a new way. Fresh view> fresh thoughts> fresh emotions=better me :)
Take a different route home from work than you normally do. Wake your brain up and make it use those critical thinking skills to get you home. Take in the sights of the houses or shops you’ve never seen before. Or take a walk some place you’ve never been, without a GPS, and challenge yourself to use your senses and boy/girl scout training to find your way back to the car. Even if you truly do get lost, you’ll feel brave (cough cough dare I say bad ass once again) for having tried!
Big smiles and Happy Thanksgiving!
Elisha