So i have been looking a lot into GoPro videos and photographs from adventure and extreme sports since getting my GoPro in Boston. It is such an inspiration watching human beings push the boundaries of what we think is capable and confronting fear head on. It led me to this video which is an old one but is an absolutely amazing example just that. I wanted to share it in case you hadn’t seen it seriously worth the time. Get inspired!
My Jet-pack Ride over California
This is the Video Footage of my Jet Pack Ride over New Port Beach, California. It was an incredible experience which i cannot wait to experience again. Thank you to JetPack America and Lesley Carter for making it happen
Going to California with a Feeling in my Heart
California reminded me once again of one of the greatest gifts of travel. Meeting people.
For me, the time spent in California was all about meeting up with old friends and making a few new ones along the way, California was an adventure.
The White Belt is Now on Instagram!
http://instagram.com/traveling_whitebelt
The Traveling White belt is now on Instagram so please follow check it out and share!
The Day I Flew!
Sitting by the window as I watched the California coastline rush by from the top carriage of the Cali’ Surf-liner, I still couldn’t really believe it. Today, I was going to fly!
Over a week ago now I was overwhelmed by the generosity of a fellow blogger and inspiration of mine, Lesley Carter from Bucket List Publications; I noticed a competition she had been running about winning a jet-pack ride over the beautiful sun-kissed beaches of Newport, Southern California.
The Great North American Road Trip Part III: The Video
Check out the story here:
This is the GoPro video i finally finished about the road trip with my two Danish amigos. It is my first attempt at something like this so hope you all like it.
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Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments
If You Want to be a part of the Adventure You can Like, Share or Follow bellow.
I’m Feeling Inspired & Generous
I have been following Lesley’s blog since i first started blogging way back in December right before i started on this crazy adventure. She has been an inspiration to me achieving so many of her goals in life and proving to others that happiness is possible.
I can hardly express how much this means to me, not just the jet pack ride, but to be acknowledged and told you’re doing it right, that’s what really means the world to me.
Check out her blog and her amazing experiences they might make you jealous but hopefully they will inspire you to go for what you want in life.
Girls, Hope and Mountains
Today I leave Colorado, I leave Boulder a town at the start of the Rocky Mountain range that feels as much like home as anywhere.
A lot happened to me in Boulder that shaped my experience from the people, the mountains, the smiles, the infectious open mindedness and some of the greatest nights partying in my life. But two things In particular gave me a renewed sense of clarity on who I want to be and what makes life so beautiful. The first was a psychedelic experience with LSD under the stars up in the mountains, and the second was a girl.
I planned on staying a couple of days in Boulder but that soon turned into a couple of weeks. The town seems to embody the adventuring spirit and maybe its the 300 plus sunny days a year, but you cannot help but feel happy from the moment you wake up to the time your smile hits the pillow. I felt a connection with Boulder that I hadn’t felt since Colombia or Australia.
An Impossible Moment
A moment that feels infinite
A dream with an open end
If you believe in the impossible
Perhaps Happiness is possible to defend,
The Great North American Road Trip Part II
There is a strange allure to the life of a vagabond. With no where in particular to be and all the time in the world to get there, life is a constant adventure. Every heartbeat, every breath, every experience is meaningful. When the numbness of existence is countered by the flow of the blood through your veins you awaken to a broader perspective of life. You can not help but smile and be happy for the chance to be alive and appreciate the moments that create your story so far. Continue reading
The Great North American Road Trip Part I
The road trip is over. We travelled almost 6,000 kilometres (roughly 3,800 miles), we stayed in Mansions, in student housing, in tents, in the car, in hostels and strangers houses. We visited over 20 major cities and small towns over two countries. We partied, hiked, chilled, walked, talked, got high, swam, worked, got naked (I can explain!) and had the time of our freaking lives. We did it all in just over a month and finally I can breathe again!
Detroit, Motor City They Don’t Make ’em Like They Use To
My original plan was to write a post after this one-month road trip had ended. So I would have plenty of stories to tell, lessons learnt and even a GoPro video I have been working on. But, I couldn’t not write about Detroit. I was so in awe of the city and felt that it deserved its own separate post. That and I just needed to share my experience in Detroit right away. Continue reading
New York, Now I Can Make it Anywhere
New York, New freaking York what can I really say, I never expected to be here in this stage of life and it has made quite an impression. Honestly, though I was not expecting the culture shock I would get from America, and the land of the almighty dollar.
Part of me wants to proclaim it the greatest city in the world, the modern Babylon a testament to human achievement, and in many ways it is. A city that never sleep,s a beautiful, diverse, quirky metropolis where there is a place for anything and everything.
Colombia, The Country That Made Me Cry, and Laugh, and Smile, And Cry Again
How do I even contain this in such a small platform? Where do I start? How do I finish? Colombia was the best thing that ever happened to me, period.
I went there with expectations, ideas of how things would go, worries, pressures from myself, from back home, nervousness, and negative beliefs. And absolutely nothing went to plan.
Psychedelics, Life Decisions and The Other Side of The Rabbit Hole Part III: The Journey
It is nightfall now, the group has just descended from the mountain where we sat, talked, joked and meditated. We sit in silence, huddled in a circle surrounding the fire, anxiously awaiting the instructions of Maestro Adonias our Shaman.
Without warning the Shaman speaks, he tells us to not be afraid, to trust in the medicine, trust in him and you will be fine, that we may confront our fears, our deepest problems, even death but we are safe. We are all starving, weary, but ready. We introduce ourselves formally to the group along with our intentions for the night. We eagerly follow the Shaman over to a table supporting a bottle of a thick dark brown liquid.
Psychedelics, Life Decisions and The Other Side of The Rabbit Hole Part II: The Diet
No sex. No masturbation. No Alcohol. No drugs of any kind (even coffee). No salt. No sugar. No chili. No dairy. No pork. No red meat.
For the past week this has been my life, more or less, in preparation for the Ayahuasca ceremony tomorrow night.
This week has been tough to say the least it was my final week of exams whilst on exchange. Many of the friends I have made over my last 6 months in Colombia are heading home. My family is pressuring me to come up with a return date for next year, to attend a wedding. And to top it off I have all but ended a relationship with a girl I have been in love with for over two years.
Psychedelics, Life Decisions and The Other Side of The Rabbit Hole
Last Tuesday I had a truly profound LSD experience with my friend in Bogota. Two days later I am still riding the afterglow of the experience. It came on rather slowly and we laughed and talked to our other friends about girlfriends, love and “let’s see” decisions and were just thankful for the life we are living right now.
We were lucky enough to be offered an Ayahuasca ceremony earlier in the week with a highly respected and recommended shaman from Peru who is currently working in Colombia. We will start the diet next week and have the ceremony Saturday the 31st of May. Naturally our conversation turned to this ceremony.
You Are Not Your Mask
The truth is, it is hard to be honest, it is hard to trust in who you are, it is hard to guess how others will feel about you and it is hard to overcome the fear that the truth will not be enough.
You are having a conversation with a friend, a stranger, a girl you like, and they ask you a question, your opinion on something. Suddenly you freeze. What should I say? What if they think I am weird? How could they understand what I actually feel?
If You Cannot be Happy, then What else is There?
I am always looking for inspiration and advice on how to be my best, how to squeeze every bit of experience out of a situation and most importantly how to be happy. This youtube channel has some great content, compilations of talks from some really intelligent thinkers like Tony Robbins, and Leslie Brown. This video is my favourite, it reinforces this idea that pain, failure and defeat are both temporary and necessary. On your journey to be the person you want to be you can not sit still, you need to move towards what you want. Happiness is working towards something that means something to You!
Are You Prepared to Die?
Steel Workers Have lunch on top of a New York Skyscraper
What would you do to experience something truly Beautiful?
To touch, see, hear, smell and breathe in a moment, a single moment so intense and full of Awe and Wonder that you could cry. An experience that challenges what you thought it meant to be alive and your understanding of real.
Would you leave your home, your family, your friends, that one girl whose very name fills you with Joy and rescues you from sorrow? For just a chance at something greater than yourself.
Would you be prepared to die?
Life is But A…
If life is but a dream
What happens when you wake up?
if all is in perspective
When for a moment everything stops
A Responsibility to Awe
This is a video from the shots of awe series by performance philosopher Jason Silva, a man with a sincerely optimistic view of humanity. The theme of this episode is Awe and the importance of what it means to be inspired. To me the responsibility to awe underlines what it means to be human and that is to move, explore, experience and grow
Awaken from a Dream in the Caribbean
Back in Bogota once again and not long left now, roughly six weeks, until I head to New York City for a completely different Adventure. I am absolutely exhausted from my trip to the Caribbean but i’ve got another story to tell and I am happy. Once again I am amazed at this planets’ ability to continue to teach me about it, its people, and myself.
In my last update I mentioned my excitement about my trip to Providencia Island, it did not disappoint and it may of clawed its way into my top 5 favourite places I have visited. The island has a rich history of English colonisation, piracy and in more recent history the emergence of a Rastafarian culture.
It Is ok to Not Know!
What an incredible human being Richard Feynman was not only did he contribute so much to Science and our understanding of this World, this Universe but he also taught others how to learn not What. This whole series is great if you have the time to see them all but this has to be my favourite. The title Beauty is fitting i believe that Feynmans view of the world was nothing short of Beautiful. He reminds us to Question everything and appreciate the craziness of the human experience in a universe of mystery.
Why I Don’t believe in Religion
I don’t believe in religion I really don’t, not any that anyone has made up anyway, and it’s liberating! I am not a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu or even an Agnostic or an Atheist. I am a human being at the same time as “[i] am the universe experiencing itself”.
Living the Story of My Life in the Caribbean
It is good to be moving again, to be traveling and experiencing another part of this beautiful Earth. My adventure has taken me to San Andrés, a small Colombian island in the Caribbean not far from the coast of Nicaragua.
An absolutely beautiful island surrounded by the Caribbean Ocean, San Andrés is a mix of seven different shades of blue like something out of a fairy tale. I have spent my days exploring the smaller islands, snorkelling in the surrounding reefs and taking in the sun on the crystal clear beaches.
What Happens When You Give Silence a Voice?
It is an interesting thought, history’s most famous silent movie star wrote and performed one of the most profound and still relevant speeches in film and modern history, over 75 years ago. The speech is a promise we are still yet to live up to, a promise hindered by silence. Albeit a silence that seems to be breaking. Around the world for better or worse people are speaking out, united with a voice. As i said it is interesting to think what the silence in the world might say when it is finally given a Voice. Continue reading
A Finite Number of Heart Beats
Let’s talk about hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation is the phenomenon of a loss of novelty in an experience. Wake up on a beach 100 times and it will become routine. Something is lost. Some of the brilliance, the awe, why we fell in love with that beach to begin with, is somehow not there anymore.
What a tragedy that by loving something, by suffocating it with our need to experience it we numb ourselves to it. We can do this to places, to songs, to people, to relationships, anything! After all everything worthwhile is finite.
It’s You! and it Always Has Been!
wow! if you have a spare 5 minutes get your mind blown by Alan Watts as he explains the magic of existence and how to overcome your fundamental fears. seriously beautiful insight into the existential problem of death.
The Pursuit of Happiness
What i have learnt over this past year is that Happiness is a choice, a decision we can all consciously make. It is true that sometimes it is hard to Choose to be happy, but we are all capable of experiencing our own unique happiness. This has inspired me to try and understand happiness, to listen to other peoples perspectives to collaborate and grow.
So I asked some friends and people that inspire me what is happiness? What creates happiness? And what makes YOU happy? My first guest post is from a close friend of mine who recently started her spirituality and well-being blog, Meg from Adventuring Home. Meg is an amazing human being with a unique and loving perspective on being the best human being you can. She inspires me with her positivity and passion for life. I really loved reading her perspective on happiness and i know you will too.
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Return to Medellin
In an effort to escape Bogota’s cold, rainy weather I decided to yet again return to Medellin for the long weekend. After living in Bogota for the past few months it really felt like a regular holiday. I threw a few changes of clothes, my toothbrush, phone charger and my thoughts journal in a bag, I closed my front door, jumped in a cab and headed off for a regular sunny holiday.
The sun is shining, the temperature is already perfect. I step off the plane and just stand there taking in the fresh air and sun’s rays. I am glad to be back.
Experience the Beautiful
How is it that there is beauty in both the ecstasy and the melancholy of human experience? In the passion of love and in the passion of pain. What is beauty but an experience of intensity in highs and lows?
Is the Impossible Possible?
I think it is interesting this idea of impossible. Why should anything be impossible, it seems impossible that impossibility exists. A man on the moon would seem impossible to the ancestor looking up to the sky from his cave at the vast unexplainable impossible night sky. Impossible is the space between uncertainty and understanding. Impossible is temporary.
A documentation of lsd
This is an account through the eyes of the other of an LSD experience Lauren and I had some time before i left on my adventure. For me having lived it is incredibly profound but i think it still has value for anyone who cares to read it. In particular the childlike sense of wonder and imagination that appears to be squeezed out of us as we grow old is apparent in this account and proof it never leaves you. It just needs more excuses to come out.
It came on slowly, when we stepped out of the great rocky cave on the top of the hill,
Cave Rock
smelling the bark and dry soil and gumtrees around us. the heat came on gently, not in frustrated waves of sweat, but like a gradual incline welcoming us.
each step down the hill became larger and more filled with laughter.
have we turned gold? my partner looks gold but then he looks at his veins and becomes green, iron oxidized limestone.
you turn the colour you’re feeling and i turned everything earthy that was around me gold and brown and green and ochre.
smell and see everything, every detail, every stick and ant and footprint, that was unnoticed on the ascent. this is the feeling i like, right now, has it even worked?
i thought it wouldn’t, haha has it? of course! no i didn’t think so i…
View original post 1,005 more words
In Love with a Shooting Star
A shooting star burns through the night sky
Replacing darkness with light
In the moment your paths cross
So Beautiful and wondrous brings tears to the eyes,
Decision is the Difference
Life is good now, I am happy, settled, ready to experience what Bogota has to teach me in the time that I am present. It is a meditative experience adapting and integrating into a new culture, situation and perspective. Life right now is so full of that mystery we all crave, the mystery that gives life awe and wonder, and beauty. It is so refreshing living in the unknown, unsure of my destination but ready to take it on.
This video was recommended to me by a friend who assured me it was a beautiful example of human connection and communication. Tony Robbins is able to take an unresponsive crowd and convince them to listen and be inspired, by the end the entire crowd is on the edge of their seats. It also gives a profound message about decision and connectedness, something that resonated strongly with me after experiencing life the way I have these past months.
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way” – Carl Sagan
The Pale Blue Dot
I absolutely love Carl Sagan he was an incredible man, with an incredible heart who truly believed in peace. This is a video set to a passage from the book by Carl Sagan “Pale Blue Dot”. It is a message about peace about how in the scheme of things all of our problems are trivial and all that is left is for us to love one another and take care “of the only home we have ever known”. I have to admit i might of shed a tear watching this.
Moments of Life
To be a human being.
The animals that we are.
To chase and strive and be your best.
journey into the unknown.
Look upon the world we live.
The universe, the ones we love.
Stare into infinity.
Evoking awe and wonder.
Flow and twist and change.
Charging ever onwards.
Like a river, each time you fall.
Your current will grow stronger.
Everything worthwhile takes time.
Every possibility is improbable.
Only dreamer’s dreams come true.
So dream, appreciate life and its moments.
Ecuador in a Heartbeat
It is 12am and I am sitting in Bogotá international airport. My flight for Ecuador, Quito leaves in five hours. A flight that normally would take an hour and half but will take me fifteen hours via Panama City. A flight that was booked exactly twenty four hours ago, after a decision made twenty five hours ago and after a conversation had twenty five hours and fifteen minutes ago. I have only just moved in to my apartment in Bogotá two days ago, my Spanish lessons start tomorrow, I was settling in nicely making many new friends getting to know my house mates and now I am gone for ten days. So what the hell am I doing? The truth, I have no freaking idea I guess I’ll have ten days to figure it out…
Experience shared
Making new friends and missing the ones not with me, I have been having the time of my life sharing this human experience with others. One friend in particular made me so happy and proud for the people I have met and shared a connection in this world. Today is the launch of my friends new blog “Adventuring Home” (check it out here) a blog she has spent months preparing and a lifetime gathering her positive outlook on spirituality, life and well-being. I cannot wait to join the rest of the world in sharing in her message.
The 9-5 Paradigm and Revolution in Bogotá
Almost completely settled in Bogotá and with my share apartment sorted out, I finally have a new home for the next five months, a base from which to explore Colombia. Bogotá is a very politically active city and there seems to be revolution in the air, with images of hammers and sickles, Che Guevaras, anarchists symbols, various other political slogans and “la paz de los pueblos” (peace for the people) graffitied on every second wall. Tent cities stand as a permanent protest outside the presidential palace and coffee shops are full of revolutionaries plotting and talking of change.
Adventuring into the alone
I have just returned to Bogota after a weekend in Medellín to celebrate Australia Day. I don’t necessarily believe in glorification of imaginary lines but I do appreciate the borderless sharing of experience that occurs when people agree to celebrate together; a big party is not too bad either. This would also be the last time I would see my friends I have been traveling with for so long. The beauty of Medellín and the fiestas that followed were a fitting end to our adventures together.
Ciudad Perdida and the journey to happiness in the Colombian jungles.
Since my last post I have been constantly moving, my life has been a flurry of dodgy bus rides, apartment searching, study organising and off-course Jungle trekking. I am finally in Bogota, and though exhausted in body my soul feels refreshed. My latest adventure started one morning in Cartagena when a group of us decided to drop everything and go straight to the Colombian Jungle in search of the illusive Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City).
Sailing the Caribbean from Panama to Colombia
I have been debating over writing this post down because to do so, I would have to admit to myself that I was not dreaming. That the last few days actually happened and that now I can only revisit them in memory. That familiar bittersweet feeling of experiencing something truly great, that is both inspiring and life changing, ahh the boat…
From Mexico to Antigua to Panama goodbye Central America, for now.
I am sore, I am tired, and I am beaten. The last few days have been rough traveling from Palenque, Mexico to now arriving in Panama City. The first leg of the journey was a 6am bus trip to the Guatemalan border, a short boat trip, and another long bus until we eventually arrived in Flores, Guatemala 10 hours later.
Mushroom guide through Mayan ruins
Teotihuacan
A lot has happened and a lot has been learnt since my last post. It is a new year for one Feliz años Nuevo! And one that I’ll certainly never forget although my normal attitude of ‘leaving things to the last minute and they will work’ at this busy time of the year failed me. With hopes of going all over the country dashed by booked out hostels and buses I spent the New Year in Mexico City but was still able to see the absolutely stunning pyramids in Teotihuacan.
Life as a paradox
Everything has been happening so fast from meeting incredible people to discovering Mexico city the most alive city I have had the pleasure of seeing. I have been so greedy for new experience in this city of organised chaos I haven’t had time to properly update my blog for fear of missing something.
A Citizen of the World
Now only days before I disembark on an adventure that is certain to be the greatest time of my life so far. I feel as if I have been stuck in a limbo between wanting to squeeze every ounce of experience and fun out of each remaining second I have in this beautiful country; whilst also feeling like I could explode from the emotional cocktail of excitement, fear and sadness I feel towards my next journey. It is as if I am finally experiencing life at the right speed, each day is distinct and never too short or long.
Normality does not exist
This is something i wrote a little while ago, but i think it’s particularly relevant this week when the Australian high court has decided to overturn an equality of marriage law passed only a few months ago in the Australian capital.
“Accordingly, the ACT Act cannot operate concurrently with the Federal Act.”
Solace in Martial Arts
Exactly two week remain until my adventure begins when i’ll have my bags packed my white belt folded away and will be ready to take on an adventure of a life time. I have been finalising a lot of things for my trip, trying to take in as much as i can in my last few days of training. Unfortunately I have been plagued by injury with a sprained ankle and a missing toe nail after one of my Muay Thai sessions last week. Sorry if the image below makes you a bit uneasy.
The Traveling White Belt 
