Island life
Inspiration shot December 2024
Island life sounds like a dream: sipping fresh coconuts every day, walking barefoot on the beach, riding scooters with the wind in your hair, making friends in cozy cafés and enjoying cheap, delicious food. But there’s another side too: the intense heat and humidity, the harsh sun, mosquitoes spreading diseases like dengue, poverty, over-tourism, and pollution.
It makes me reflect: when you stay somewhere (too) long, you inevitably see the less beautiful sides. But if you don’t have to choose a place forever, maybe you can enjoy it even more.
I’m putting together a list of criteria for my ideal place to stay. Think: walkability (I like to hit my 10K steps a day), access to local veggies, fruit, and ‘happy eggs’, plus drinkable tap water.
What are your top factors when choosing your ideal spot? In this inspiration shot, a few reflections from my last days on Koh Phangan island, Thailand.
Creativity: beach walks without a phone
Even on a tropical island, being truly present in the moment is a challenge. Our phones seem glued to us everywhere we go, and to be honest, I’m no exception. A local friend told me about his morning ritual: every day, he spends an hour at the beach without his phone, simply walking and reading. His story inspired me to try my own version.
I grabbed my travel paint set and a notebook and headed out. For a few days, I followed this morning ritual. It was short but powerful. I truly observed my surroundings, spontaneous creative ideas surfaced, and I noticed I felt more present throughout the day.
Sometimes the smallest changes hold the key to greater peace and inspiration. What would you bring with you if you went offline for a little while?
The best accident that ever happened to me
November 22 marked 11 years since a car accident in Curaçao turned my life upside down. The whiplash forced me to rediscover the balance between ‘doing’ and ‘being.’ It was the start of a transformation I didn’t ask for, but am now incredibly grateful for.
As I prepare my theater show, which centers on this theme, I’m scootering without a helmet on another tropical island…😱 I feel more alive than ever and now even celebrate the accident that forced me to stop pushing. Without that wake-up call, I’d probably still be overworking myself: working harder, seeking more control, enjoying life less. Curious about my reflection? Read my FB post here.
Back to ‘Survivor island’
Exactly five years ago, I returned to Harimau, the cave on a tiny island in Malaysia where I survived 3.5 weeks in 2005 for the reality TV show Survivor: Expeditie Robinson. In the video below, you can join me on this journey.
Curious about what caused so much drama? The final episode of the Dutch TV show (with English subtitles) features a summary of all the drama that marked this season.
My buddy Marnix (who ultimately won!) will be a guest at my theater show on June 28th. Together, we’ll share all the behind-the-scenes stories, including how we managed to steal food from the camera crew every day… 😉 Will you join us?
Workshop alert
Step by step, I’m converting all my workshops into online material that you can watch at your own pace, whenever and as often as you like.
The recording of my very last Digital Nomad workshop, packed with bonus material, is already available. It answers all your questions about remote work, registering and deregistering, taxes, setting up an international business, and much more.
The Digital Delegation workshop video series is also live (in Dutch), including the special ChatGPT workshop filled with examples and prompts you can use right away.
Stay tuned for more coming in the next few weeks. My very last live workshop (Energy Management) will be in January.
Inspiration bites
QUOTE
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
– Jesse Carr (often attributed to Margaret Thatcher)
LIFE ADVICE
The most important life lessons are often the hardest to convey to others. Nabeel S. Qureshi manages to rise above the clichés with his 63 principles:
SURVIVAL SKILLS TEST
I came across this hilarious video where ‘Dr. Plants’ tests a hamster’s survival skills.
The result? Incredibly cute and surprisingly clever!
EXPEDITION
One of my DC friends organizes desert island survival expeditions on tropical islands.
If you’d like to join me on one of these adventures, send me a message—I’ll try to put together a fun group!
Did you know...?
… that I just had another psychedelic adventure? On my last day on Koh Phangan, I ate ‘magic mushrooms’ with a dear friend. In the days leading up to it, I had already ‘connected’ with the mushroom by observing and painting it. My idea was to return the sad, cultivated mushroom to the magical world it truly belonged to.
Unfortunately, the dose was a bit too low for a full journey, but I felt wonderfully relaxed.
The experience did have an unexpected bonus. For weeks, I had been trying to eat mindfully, but since I’m so obsessed with food, I only remembered my intention at the end of a meal when my plate was already empty. 😉
During the mushroom trip, we ate aged cheese I’d brought from the Netherlands. To my surprise, I spent an hour nibbling on a 1 cm piece. I took tiny bites and savored every second. Later, I did the same with half a chocolate truffle, fully aware of every bite: the taste, the texture… Suddenly, I realized I was eating mindfully!
I hope I can hold on to that feeling in the coming weeks. Have you ever had such an unexpected ‘bonus’ from an experience?
Where is Esther?
After a wonderful month on the Thai tropical island of Koh Phangan, I said goodbye to my tiny house, my island friends, and the Dynamite Circle group. Once again, I loved being part of this mini-community of like-minded people, sharing similar views on business, lifestyle, and personal growth.
The writing retreat with a beautifully diverse group was such a success that I’ve decided to organize it one last time next year. So in 2025, there will be two final writing retreats: Mallorca in June and Thailand in November. Want to join? This is your chance! For inspiration, check out this reel showing a day in the life of a writer during my writing retreat, and this one about the ritual of sending your story out into the world.
Now, it’s time to move on… I spent three days in Amsterdam to ship my olive oil and then flew to Peru for a shamanic tantra retreat. It almost feels like time travel, jumping from one ‘dimension’ to another. I wrote this post about time travel.
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