As soon as I arrived in Singapore I was told: here we DO NOT
chew gums
throw things around on the streets
use bad language
I said: alright, that is fine with me, I was not planning to do that anyways!
This welcome hit me just like the heat. The heat is locking you inside a boiling pot but soon your body will adapt.
Singapore is a state not a “city” , thought I should mention that from the very beginning.
And what a place!
The futuristic architecture does give you the feeling of being on another planet. And the need to hold on something more familiar.
A country on a isle which has very well defined rules. I like that.
Let me go back in time and remember our way, as we drove through the night, from the airport to where i was going to live...
Just like all the other palaces I had the chance to be and work in, Singapore was again a mental space more than a physical space for me.
I was very preoccupied with surviving and making it a success, therefore here are the lessons I got from there. These came to me in form of questions this time.
Who do you trust ? What is trust?
Having spent my youth alone among strange people, people I had no personal relationship with, I learned to mistrust and also to trust.
Trust is a state of mind that is so soothing where it exists and so draining when it does not, because you have to generate it yourself in order to exist. Living without trust is impossible or an ordeal.
Having to be on guard at all times, even at night, is even more draining. Well, in Singapore I had to relearn trust and understand that I am the only person I can trust. If I cannot do that, all the other people I have around will feel that they have the permission to step over and take control.
Who are you spending time with?
People around you determine how far you can go.
If those around you are playing a shady game, you trying to grow and develop and even choose differently will fail. We are all connected at different levels, mentally and energetically.
If you spend a lot of time with someone who is overpowering, not knowing how to create and recreate a healthy emotional and mental space- you might fail to grow if your desire is not strong enough.
You might become a victim or a victor - this is a choice but also the circumstances do determine it.
If you have no access to information and other healthy people- you might never know.
Where to go when there is nowhere or nobody to go to ?
Yeah, what do you do in that case? Is there someone whom you can call or go to and just be in your raw human state? Someone who loves you and sees through the pain with the knowing that this is normal ?
Extreme work (non stop) is debilitating not empowering, why do we do that?
In Singapore I worked non-stop. This indeed ensured my survival and also a certain level of approval from the people who were driving the boat but outside of those periods, I was not existing and my survival instinct was at a very high level of alertness.
I needed to learn again how to feed myself, which was not very difficult given that the fruit there was incredibly tasty, but starting this again and again after periods of non stop concentration- is hard.
I had to find the way home again and again in a strange place and to keep my spirit up to even want to do that.
Taking detours from the main streets I discovered incredible places like this park:
But there are national reservations and many other parks i did not have the chance to go to.
I often ask myself "What is this power I have in extreme situations ? “
Where does it come from? I think by now I know - it is the soul.
Goethe Institut Singapore - a lifesaver
I went there to search for books in German to read and keep myself sane.
The mind needs something to snack on at all times, it is better to choose the right kind of snack.
Goethe Institut is an institution with offices all over the word and their library is open to anyone who is registering with them. I did so in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur but not in Korea. The process to register is very straightforward.
I will forever be grateful to the founders of Goethe Institut. Knowledge and awareness of reality are the only viable ways in life, I find.
Knowledge is hope, at a mental level. Trust and love is hope at an emotional level.
Thank you Singapore and people of Singapore for all the hard but so useful life lessons!
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