In the west we tend to overcomplicate life. We spend our time living in the future.

We commit now for things that happen later, even though what I feel now will not be the same later. And by saying yes to a future event I'm conditioning the present.

We also tend to not give much thought on compromising the future. We wake up, check the schedule and our day is this accumulation of past commitments.

I know why we do that. We're afraid of boredom and we create high expectations as a society. No one wants to be alone on Saturday night and maybe your family expects you to come visit on Sunday or do certain things.

By being always busy, one loses spontaneity. That's the perfect environment for stress to happen. Stress is mostly division. You have a certain reality and you have certain expectations and those collide.

By committing ourselves to the future, we lose the possibility of doing something now that we just feel like it. Not tomorrow, not in a week, but now.

So that brings the question, when was the last time you had free time?

I'm talking about REAL free time. No commitments and the freedom to do whatever you feel like?

I've been traveling for the past few months and I'm being more aware of how being free allows much more inspiring moments.

I haven't had a scheduled event for months and have more headspace than ever. I've been learning to just be okay with having nothing to do. Sometimes it's bit boring, but you start to be okay with that and then you start noticing things you never do. Sometimes are thoughts in your head, other times is nature, your surroundings. And eventually you start appreciating those moments of boredom.

Recently in Maalhos, after dinner I would walk through the beach and watch the ocean. It happen that I was just observing the sea and met a local guy, who told me that baby sharks came at night to feed from the crabs. He's very friendly and we just started talking about all kind of stuff.

We got along and built a friendship and hang out on the following days. I learned he was an artist. He offered to teach me how to paint and I gladly accepted.

Painting was actually something that I was already interested in but never got to do it. Painting requires a bit of knowledge, materials and time to learn. And you know, back home I have a lot of commitments and lack of REAL free to time to follow what I feel like doing at that very moment.

Interesting how being free, brings you so many opportunities. Friendships, art, nature.

There is an intensity when you connect with someone deeply at the moment. Without any weight, without any commitment, just humans, alive, sharing experiencies.

When you are not expecting anything, you can just receive.

Life can be simple.

And there are some places that make that easier to happen. Maalhos is one of them.