Since economists are predicting a severe recession and people think there’s going to be one, we will probably have one. That means a lot of people will lose their jobs, businesses will close down, consultants have no gigs. But you don’t need to get depressed or panic. There are other ways to deal with the recession: get away. What’s the point of sitting at home being depressed? If you have an apartment or a house, try to rent it out, and go to a place where the living costs are lower. Here are a few suggestions that are good for the body and the soul.
(1) Travel to cheap exotic places and have a real adventure: hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, go trekking in Nepal, backpack around India, Sri Lanka and Burma. For the Inca Trail, check out Peru Andean Experience.
(2) Go on a meditation retreat for several months. In the US, the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts has a three-month retreat (http://www.dharma.org/ims/retreats.php), as does Tassajara (Zen Buddhist retreat center) in California. In India, you can immerse yourself in a vipassana retreat in Bodh Gaya or Sarnath: http://www.bodhgayaretreats.org/.
(3) Go on a yoga holiday in Goa, India: http://www.ashiyana-yoga-goa.com/yoga-holidays.shtml.
(4) Volunteer for charity work in developing countries or for Greenpeace aboard one of their ships.
(5) Get away — deep into your mind by taking a course that develops your creativity. Take a class in creative writing, painting, photography, sculpture, cooking, DJing.
It’s nice to hear someone saying basically “don’t buy into the fear”. I think if the news would quit telling everyone how bad it is, it wouldn’t be so bad. Here’s to positive attitudes.