I’ve travelled to Brazil many times in my life but only couple of years ago when I was in Rio de Janeiro I started to see life in a different way. In this post I want to share with you 3 moments of clarity I had and why I recommend this place to everyone.

First of all I need to tell you I love Brazil, it’s one of my favourite countries in the world. I’m fluent in Portuguese from Brazil and I like their culture so much that I travelled at least 10 times. I remember when I was younger I was selected by the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires to give a speech about my experience learning Portuguese and interacting with locals.

Before I forget, I’ve also made a video about this in case you want to check:

1. See myself outside myself

You’ll all be familiar with the Chinese proverb that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. So I wanted to disconnect to stay connected if you see what I mean. We’ve become so focused on that tiny screen that we forget the big picture, the people right in front of us. I decided to do something different to see the big picture. And I literally mean the big picture.

Have you heard of hang gliding? This is probably the closest we can feel in terms of being able to fly like a bird. I’m not gonna take the credit here because it was Kristina‘s idea but I said Yes straight away because that’s exactly what I needed. This was not just about seeing the big picture but also resetting my comfort zone. I do believe that if we feel comfortable for long time, then something is not right.

The minutes before taking off were scary as the day was cloudy and we didn’t even know if we would be able to fly. We waited for hours and guess what? The sky started to clear and I was the 2nd in a group of 20 people. On other hand, I was excited as I was going to see Rio de Janeiro from a brand new perspective. Fantastic views of Tijuca Forest National Park, Sugar Loaf Mountain and Chris the Redeemer to name a few. I don’t consider myself a thrill seeker but here I felt I needed to do this.

2. Energy flows where attention goes

This is about people. Natives of Rio are known as cariocas or in portuguese “cariócas”- and there are a lot of them!  Rio is Brazil’s second city in terms of size, after São Paulo. The population officially stands at 7 million approximately, although the real figure for the metropolitan area could be double that.

From experience Cariocas are very friendly people and love making new friends but sometimes if we don’t understand the culture we might misunderstand few concepts. For example when someone says ‘vamos marcar’ (in English…let’s meet!), it doesn’t necessarily mean this will happen anytime soon. So even though they are super friendly, just be aware of that and manage your expectations.  It is, however, important to be aware that time-keeping, particularly in social situations, is not a strong point – it is quite normal for Brazilians to arrive at an event later than the time specified on the invitation. There’s no sense of urgency here, alright?

One of the key questions to ask when you’re not Brazilian is “horário brasileiro?” (in English… Brazilian time?) just to understand if we should arrive a bit late to the meeting or not in a polite way. And I think I mentioned this in one of my previous posts / videos about Life in London vs Buenos Aires. It feels like time management is certainly a cultural thing.

Also just to clarify, Brazilian people in general they are friendly and have a big heart. They hug a lot and in some regions they even kiss up to 3 times. Literally every Brazilian I’ve ever met had such an amount of energy. The fact that people remain so positive when things don’t go the way we expect, it’s incredible. I expand on this here.

3. Identify resistance.

Steven Pressfield said once that Most of us have two lives: the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.

The way we read this quote is: Do we daydream about writing a book, taking an exotic trip, or starting a business, but nothing happens? How many times we started a project that’s really important to us, but never finished? Well, we might have hit a wall called resistance. And we will always face it whenever we want to change. This resistance can be fear, guilt, uncertainty, timidity or just call it the way you want. It’s just a bunch of excuses and the #1 thing that stops us from making a change.

I remember there was one day I was having a Caipirinha in Copacabana Beach, laying down, enjoying the view, breathing some fresh air and listening to bossa nova. I was so happy that I was thinking I wish I could share everything I’m seeing and all my experiences with more people than just my family and friends. Straight away after that trip, I took the first step and created my blog/website. Then my weekly newsletter and few months ago my YouTube channel.

So when we feel resistance, then it’s a confirmation that we should proceed. To push through resistance, we need to challenge our fears and doubts, focus on your aspirations, and do the work.

Final Thoughts

No doubts, Rio de Janeiro is a place that really helped me find a way back in those tough moments that I guess we can all have at some point in life when we bite off more than we can chew. I’m not saying that we should all go to Rio tomorrow to reinvent ourselves. It was good for me at that point in time.

Hang Gliding was about doing something different, taking risk, stepping out of my comfort zone, feeling that freedom that only birds can experience and in addition to that appreciating that life is beautiful.

Brazil is a big country and very diverse, but what’s clear to me is that every place I’ve ever been to in Brazil and every Brazilian I’ve ever met I felt this energy, this joy, this happiness and just an interesting way of seeing life.

Finally, I have this idea that reinvention is a process. It’s not a quick fix or an overnight solution. It’s a conscious and intentional practice, day in and day out, until we realise who we want to be.