Detour ahead

Caution: mowing down demons

I’ve added another layer to the science experiment.

Most recently, I wrote about the importance of meditation in the morning, and how getting up early enough to ensure that other people don’t impose on the flow of my day was a non-negotiable. That’s been ticking along quite smoothly and there is enough wiggle room in my approach to it (sometimes 4am, sometimes 5am, sometimes 6am) that I still feel a sense of ‘mystery’ about how my day will begin. But the primary challenge I was facing with this reidentified non-negotiable was sleep. I would climb into bed at 9:30pm or 10pm and look at the roof until midnight, only to cancel my alarm, curse the world, and accept that tomorrow I’d be getting up at 8am with the rest of the ‘normal people’. The jackhammers and anglegrinders would start my day for me, and that would be all she wrote.

So—surprise, surprise—I added meditation before bed. I am a lot more fidgety, my mind is still ticking with relative rapidity, and it’s not exactly a deep exploration of the cosmos, but it serves its purpose. It signals to my body, and my mind, that it’s time to sleep, and when I climb into bed I fall asleep within 15 minutes rather than being stuck keeping track of every sound, every change in air pressure, and every fleeting thought that comes my way.

It is still early days, so I can’t put my hand on my heart and say ‘This is my new way of life!’ but it is really nice to climb into bed and go to sleep. It’s equally nice to know that I will wake up before the cacophony of industry, and that I’ll have rested sufficiently. So, assuming my willpower remains, it may well be my new thing.

The other thing I’ve changed in the science experiment of my life is my exercise timing. I find it very difficult to train first thing in the morning, and in Vietnam it’s a thousand million degrees after 9am so you’re basically imprisoned indoors/out of direct sunlight (if you know what’s good for you) until 4pm, when EVERY MAN AND HIS DOG appears. So I have the same problem with fitness as I had with coffee. I want it, I enjoy it, and I need it, but I don’t want my enjoyment of it to be ruined by the TikTokkers and general run of the mill individuals that get about at that time. So, I’ve started going for a run in the morning.

I’m not trying to break records or train for a marathon, but I do want to sweat and get the blood circulation doing its thing. Today I clocked a lazy 5km. Totally acceptable. And it achieves the goal that I am looking for: by 9am I’ve had fresh air, sunshine, and exercise, and I can happily let the day tick along without the sense of agitation that bites at me when I don’t train. I also managed to transfer my membership for that place filled with westerners (ugh). (A self-hating westerner, deal with it)

Oh doesn’t it all sound so wonderful and lovely? Adding new routines, taking care of my health, generally making sure that the physical, mental, and spiritual health of the animal is nurtured and taken care of—amazing! But, like everything in life, there’s a price tag. And it’s a positive price tag, because I’ve only added things of benefit, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy price tag.

The price of adding things which nourish your health and wellbeing to your life is that you become painfully aware of the things that are in your life that don’t nourish your health and wellbeing. Things that, even though you might enjoy them, are destructive to your overall state. And once you’ve got enough of the good juju in the system, it demands you to cleanse the bad stuff. Which, more often than not, means facing down demons that you’ve just not had the time, energy, or intestinal fortitude to deal with before then.

Which is where I’m at now. There’s a couple areas of life that are still hankering, tugging, and tearing at me in a way that is destructive to my overall wellbeing. Despite being consciously aware that I can and should be doing better, the changes will require giving up things that I enjoy (even if they’re not healthy, you can still enjoy them). Until now, I’ve sought workarounds and detours, but the workarounds and detours just mean I have to meet the demons further down the road.

I imagine it like this: you meet a demon as you’re on your path, so you take a detour in order not to deal with it, then you keep going along a path that isn’t yours and you realise that you’re getting further and further from where you wanted or intended to be. So you course correct and begin the journey back to your path, and when you’re almost back on your path that very same demon is waiting there for you. So now you can either drive right over that motherfucker and take your vehicle to the repair shop a little further along your path, or you can go around it again and take your in-tact vehicle in the wrong direction. You can avoid the collision and deal with the consequences, or you can have the collision, and deal with the consequences.

When you avoid the collision, your fuel tank leaks, your navigation system deteriorates, you enter climates and environments your vehicle wasn’t designed for, and you constantly need to repair your vehicle as a result; when you drive over the demon, you glance at it in the rearview mirror where you leave it, behind you, and take your vehicle in for the necessary repairs, but the only damage is a mild scrape to the fender (ego) and other superficial things. The vehicle itself runs now better than ever because it’s running in terrain it was designed for. (Even if the cost of fuel has doubled since 28 February…)

But I LIKE my fender, and I LIKE driving through unfamiliar terrain, and I LIKE solving all the problems on the fly that navigating unfamiliar terrain necessitates. Sadly, my vehicle does not, and I live in my vehicle, and as much as I like all of the above, I much prefer keeping the place in which I live well-maintained and functional. So I have to run these motherfuckers over, repair my vehicle as required, fall in love with my new fender and the new as-yet-undiscovered unfamiliar terrain, and all the problems that I will have to solve driving through mildly familiar terrain instead.

And I will do it fueled by a good night’s sleep, a stable meditation practice, and adequate exercise, all the while avoiding the nomads who are out in force in Da Nang at the moment. Turns out Da Nang has been rated THE TOP DESTINATION FOR NOMADS FOR 2026 which means a) it’s trendy as fuck, b) I was ahead of the game and, c) it’s looking more and more like my vehicle is going to have to drive me to yet another destination in the not-too-distant future.

But I digress. It’s one thing at a time. Time to mow down some demons. Enjoy the Aries New Moon and run with this fiery energy!