By chance I arrived in the Koh Phangan island in Thailand. Never would I imagine to have discovered a wonder world here. It’s an island of happy people, from waiters to tourists, locals to foreigners. People tell me, it’s a magical island, you come here once and you will return many times.
I came here to complete a yoga training course. However, because of the typhoon, the start date of the course is postponed. Luckily, I spent the storm day with my class mates. We were scared that the anticipated 120km/h wind would blow away the roof of our bungalows, so we found shelter in the yoga class room which thankfully has concrete walls. On the one hand, I hoped the storm would go away, but on the other hand, I wanted to experience it. To my relief, but also a little disappointment, the storm shifted north and as a result we had not too strong wind but lots of rain. I was nervous, curious, and excited, but I was not so happy somehow…
For the next three days, we had continuous rain; sometimes light showers and sometimes pouring rain. Having lived in London, rain made me sad and nostalgic. Back in my damp bungalow, looking at the moulded ceiling, I was thrown into reality that I am in a tropical island. Suddenly, beach looks gloomy, my balcony became a battle field against the mosquitos, and even wifi is so bad. Soon, I became angry with myself: I wanted a holiday, but why the hell do I put myself in this situation? Aren’t I supposed to be happy here? Why isn’t this as I imagined - beach, coconut and a good book?
On the fourth day, sun came out finally and storm is gone. When I stepped out into my lovely balcony to meet the sunlight, never was the sky so blue and the sea so lovely. I could hear birds singing, I could smell the flower. For the first time since my arrival, I was happy.
Do you need a storm to appreciate the sun? Do you need to be thrown into a desperate position in order to learn to be happy? Does happiness have a absolute standard or we need a comparison of unhappiness? In our first yoga class, we learned “yoga chitta vritti nirodha”, which means yoga is soothing the waves. I learned that sun comes at the absence of storm, but one day, storm would come, but another day, it would leave. Perhaps the secret to happiness is to not base our emotions on whether there is storm or there is sun. As a Chinese saying goes, 不以物喜, if we are not attached to the weather, we are no longer influenced by it, and then we can choose our attitude to appreciate it, let it be storm, rain or the sun.
What does it take to be happy? In the past, I would need a perfect weather, a fresh ice cold coconut, a not so crowded yet very beautiful sandy beach, an engaging book, good internet, good company, and so on. Happiness felt like a unreachable limit, you can try very hard but never be perfectly satisfied. Now I come to see the flaw in this mind set, because happiness in fact doesn’t need to take so much, but just an open mind.
Now I sound like a yoga teacher already, but I hope you don’t need a storm to appreciate the sun, om…
Picture 1: My balcony and the hammock
Picture 2: Beautiful flowers which smell very nice
Picture 3: The beach before the storm
