After just 6 weeks in Cambodia, good things just keep on coming. In this latest video, I tell about my new teaching job, as well as my new apartment. Then, to finish, I describe the three main things that I am the most grateful for, but I won’t ruin the surprise by mentioning them here. So, you’ll just have to watch the video in which the backdrop is a walking tour around my new neighbourhood, a loop that starts and ends at the Phsa Kraom markets. I hope you enjoy this even small glimpse into what real, everyday life looks like here in Siem Reap, as opposed to the more glossy, tourism related things.
So, here I am, in Cambodia … but why? Last Christmas, together with my mother and daughter, we decided that it was time to move on from life in Finland. A key factor in making this decision was my daughter’s desire to experience life in Australia, the country of her birth, after graduating from IB High School in Helsinki. The initial idea was to go directly to Australia, but over the next few months, my mother and I started to feel like it was still a bit too soon, even though we definitely wanted to leave Finland, and Europe for that matter, but the reasons for that can be left for some other time.
My mother had gotten sick of living mostly in the faux comfort and safety of a senior citizens’ apartment complex; and with very little interest in venturing outdoors, except for a few months during the summer time, her mobility levels were really starting to suffer. As for me, I had reached the point of being faced with the existential question of, ‘So, what should I do with the rest of my life?, as I approached early retirement age. This conundrum was further enhanced by the fact that I no longer had a desire to pursue my previous professional work in education. Well, at least not in the same way. Over the past few years of my self-imposed, 7 year long Prince of Darkness period, which commenced precisely the moment my 18 year marriage ended, I started to finally emerge out from the shadows, and into the light of the new possibilities of a completely new life paradigm; but what would, and should, that entail? And where?
After many lengthy discussions with my mother, we decided that we both wanted, nay we needed!, a major cultural shift, something that would be sufficiently far removed from a western type of existence, where so many aspects of life, such as political, employment and financial, as well as general societal and value-based issues, were already clearly headed in the wrong direction, and at an alarmingly accelerating pace. To cut a potentially very long story short, we finally narrowed down our destination to Cambodia, due to of a few integral factors, including Buddhism being the fundamental moral foundation for Cambodian culture, one in which people appear to be mostly happy and content, yet possessing so little material wealth, a fact that’s in stark contrast to the increasing dissatisfaction of people residing in the so-called ‘advanced’ countries of Europe, despite the relatively high wealth they possess in comparison to the Khmer. Finland has been voted the ‘happiest country in the world’, I think actually multiple times now. Well, I beg to disagree … strongly! … and I’ve got the receipts to prove it from working as a student support and substitute teacher for the last 3 years in a few Finnish junior high schools for 11-15 year olds, as well as through my general life coaching activities with adults. Those numerous and intensive, real life, in person interactions and experiences have really opened my eyes to the incredibly slippery slope the western world is currently on. Rome crumbled under the suffocating weight of its own decadence, and I fully believe the same fate awaits many of the world’s richest nations, where there seems to be an almost manic focus on the pursuit of performance and achieving financial prosperity at all costs, all of which takes priority over the wellbeing of the people. In the end, the only human pursuit that actually matters is that of happiness.
In a nutshell, the mission, during My Cambodia Adventure, is to immerse myself as deeply as I can into the culture, to get to know, understand, work, share and celebrate with the Khmer people, and to learn what it means to be truly content and happy. Through that process, while I myself will (hopefully) evolve into a better human being, I also hope to be able to use the knowledge and wisdom I absorb, in order to keep helping others even more deeply through my teaching and coaching work, wherever that may be in the future … and something tells me that I won’t be short of clients, especially given the massively accelerated speed of technological and societal change, which has been unleashed on the world, particularly now through the AI revolution. Who knows what the world will look like, even in the next half decade? However, and as sure as shit, I’m going to make damn sure that I become a part of the solution, rather than the problem.
So, here we go! I welcome you to follow My Cambodia Adventure, starting here with this video of my very first days in Cambodia, in Phnom Penh.
In this video, I answer the third of the series of seven questions, which was done during a personal coaching and guided, deep meditation session, which also incorporated techniques of hypnotherapy. The session was, in fact, conducted by Aragorn himself. Further, this session was held on the same evening following my promotion to purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after almost 7 years of training, and during the final month prior to my departure to the Camino de Santiago, while I was living temporarily in a country home located outside of Turku.
About your tattoos. Not particularly what they are, but rather, why. Why the tattoos?
I hope you find this video (which is the first of my two part answer to this question) both interesting and thought provoking. Even more, I hope that it inspires you to go within yourself more deeply, so that you can more carefully explore and consider your own thoughts, actions and dreams.
run for your life 