Travels and Learnings

I always find that my travels around the world are not only inspirational but I also learn so much more about cultural dynamics.

My trip to Egypt was no different.

I had a wonderful adventure and fulfilled a life-long dream to visit Egypt’s many ancient wonders (which I will be sure to blog about in the weeks to come) but I have decided to start the ‘Egypt Blog’s’ off with one of the less positive aspects of my trip.

The Tourist Trap

The most unfortunate of my experiences was the down-right invasive nature of the Egyptian peddlers and vendors at the ancient sites.  For those of you who have been to Egypt, you most certainly will know what I am talking about.  For those who haven’t visited this spectacular country, let me explain:

The government allows these hawkers entrance to all the major sites — they charge a kind of rent for these vendors to access the tourists.  The only trouble is they have absolutely no sense of personal space, what the word ‘no’ means, a sense of when to quit, etiquette or customer relations and don’t get me started on invasiveness!

You cannot take in the splendour of these ancient awe-inspiring monuments because you are being chased by these desperate peddlers.  They seem to see  you as dollar signs and won’t take no for an answer.  Even if you agree to purchase something off them, they try to sell you more than what you need and it is hard to get your change out of them.

Keep Your Head Down and Your Nose Clean

Our tour guide advised us to keep our heads down, don’t make eye contact, say nothing — do not engage in conversation on pain of death.  This is easier said than done, especially if you are South African.  We find it very rude not to greet or make eye-contact, never mind ignore someone if they ask you a question.

But the words of our guide were indeed words of pure wisdom.  If you even look one of these men in the eye they can follow you for miles, pushing clothes and scarves on you and sometimes even throwing them over your shoulder and demanding payment.  They become very aggressive very quickly too when things don’t go their way.

Surely the tourism board should have picked up on this by now?  I watched a Michael Palin documentary the other night, that was filmed in the 90’s where they were taking the Mickey out of these sellers for doing exactly the same thing.  Some things never change.

But enough about me venting this unfortunate tourist pet-hate, this blog has got a point.

Desperation Leads to Repulsion

After many hours of deliberating this, I realised that their desperate attempts at making money were actually repelling their own trade.

Our whole group as a whole said that if it weren’t for their pushy and annoying way of trading, that they would actually buy their wares.  So, why don’t they get this?

Well, it all boils down to the universal law of attraction and repulsion.  When you are desperate for something, your very desperation pushes what you want further away from you.

I have the utmost compassion for these traders as I know that their ‘rent’ is high and they need to make money to support themselves and their families but what they are doing is counterproductive.

But let’s take ourselves out of Egypt and apply this to any persons situation.

Lack vs Flow

The more desperately you want something the more your frequency will be that of lack.  So, your emotional body is emitting not that which you desire (let’s say money, in this case) even though that is what you may think you are primarily affirming, it is not.  Your lack will be what you are sending out into the cosmos and, you guessed it, that is what will be magnetically attracted back to you.  You will be drawing in more of your lack frequency.

So, how do you stop feeling lack when you want something?

Surrender to Divine Flow.  When you surrender to your circumstance and trust that all will be well, you no longer are fighting against the current — you are allowing yourself to be gently carried by the stream of Divine Flow.  This does not mean that you do nothing to realise a goal, do what you can and let the universe take care of the rest.

The least resistance will allow you into the slipstream of flow whereas desperation will see you struggling against the current.

What are you struggling with? 

Is there anything you are having a hard time trying to fathom or understand about your circumstance? 

Can you see how your emotional vibration is more potent than just your thought stream?