It is so easy to let “shoulds” plague us. Before I left to travel around the world in 2018, I had a good year to live in my new place — and I furnished it so strangely — I had a modular conference table — 4 pieces that could be combined in various ways — that served as desks, or meeting tables for hosting workshops in my home.

At times I brought my patio table from my awesome balcony inside to work as a dinner table.

For my 35th birthday, I had a couple friends buy me an inflatable couch, because it was just so strange to them that I didn’t have a couch. I also didn’t have a TV.

When I hosted workshops, sometimes it took my clients 2–3 days to realize they were actually in my home.

And you know what? It was cool as shit!

When I come back to the States in February, I’ll make decisions about how to furnish my new place. It might look more traditional than the last — but I’m going to make it my own. Virtually everything will be new — almost no old reminders, because I have so little now as I’m traveling.

Purging people is still hard for me. I find myself wanting to hang on way too long to toxic relationships at times, because I can still remember the good times.

But to move forward each day with a focus on the present sounds like a great way to be as clean and clear mentally as possible.