Monkey’s Everywhere!

Today was blissfully restful! After getting the hell out of my ‘shed’/resort I booked in to a new hotel which was, well, a hotel! Prachuap is famous for its buddist temple Thammikaram Worawihan and its innumerable monkeys! There’s something like 350 steps up to it. So after having a coffee and egg sandwich at a ‘Coffee and Bike’ cafe I hit the steps. Made it nearly to the top before the mother of all monsoons came in. Within seconds I was soaked and it was dangerous with the winds sooo high. But it was definitely worth it to see the views and watch the monkeys 🙉!
Other than that I tried to refuel and just rest. The weather today has been persistent rain and it’s set in for the next three days so it’s going to be a very wet and windy ride tomorrow. But it’ll be a bit cooler so that’s a fair exchange!

I’m not a fan of fridge magnet pop psychology, not least as it takes most of its declarations from the Ancient Book of Old Wives Bollocks (thanks Lee Evans for that delicious phrase!) but I am someone who loves simple (not simplified) one liners that just capture a complex idea in a few words. I was listening to Gabor Mate last night and something he said really jumped out at me – how a ‘temporary state becomes a trait’. Those ‘temporary states’ might be fear, rejection, pain, abandonment, for example, from childhood, but they get locked in as traits (often disorganised, unhelpful, counter productive, defensive traits) in our adult behaviour. And then he posed a question – what is a ‘trigger’? He explored it in terms of a gun and how it simply causes a reaction, but the ammunition is inside the gun. His point – stop paying attention to the trigger and find what the ammunition is within me. Find that and disarm it, the trigger is disarmed to. Pay attention only to the trigger….the explosives remain intact! It’s really thought provoking. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to not be riding and freeing me up to think about my inner explosives which are being activated, provoked or ‘triggered’!