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Part two of Betsy’s trip to Iceland. Betsy shares where she went and what she did during the first part of her trip. She points out that we put our own parameters of time on things, things can happen really quickly when we want them to, and she shares some realizations that came from her experiences while on this journey.
>>> Find Betsy’s itinerary here: https://betsypake.com/alb292/
>>> Connect with Betsy on IG @betsypake
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Art of Living big podcast. My name is Betsy pake. I’m an author, a speaker and a trainer of NLP and hypnotherapy. And I’m focused on helping you understand and design your life with the power of the subconscious. This podcast is designed to help you think differently about what could be possible for your life. Now,
let’s go live big. Hi, welcome. Welcome to the Art of Living big Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the show. So I talked your ear off last episode about Iceland, it was like the prep, it was all like the behind the scenes stuff I feel like you needed to know. But just a reminder, if you want to get the downloadable of my entire itinerary, go to the shownotes. For last week’s episode, it will just be Betsy pake.com/a lb for Art of Living big, and then the episode number. Okay. So just if you want to have it is it is like the entire itinerary with photos of the stuff, photos of the places where we stayed all of that good stuff. So it really gives you like a full overview of the whole trip. You know, I have and I’m going to share like a mini kind of trip that I would make. I did the whole entire loop the whole ring road. And it was amazing. But it took 20 days. And I think there’s a lot of amazing things you could see with a much shorter trip. And honestly, the things that I loved the very most, for the most part, were in one centralized area location that you could really do in a week. So anyway, all that just to say, just to prep to say that if you have if you’re here, and you haven’t heard last week’s episode, that would be a good place to start. And you can download the itinerary if you’d like so. Alright, so we’re dove in. So last week, I kind of gave like the overview kind of what was happening and kind of how that whole thing happened. Right? Seeing I give you a date, I want to just refresh the dates. I saw the Tick Tock on January 21. On January 22, I saw the invitation to go on the trip. Okay. Now it is February 11. And I leave. So it’s only been a few weeks, okay. And what I did was I flew I had Delta points. So I flew to London. And then I took a flight from London to Reykjavik. But if you are going to go, you can go. I mean, depending on where you live, you could probably go direct, but also you could go through New York City. I know there were a lot of flights that went through New York. For me, it was way less points for me to go through London. And it was like 30,000 Delta points to go through London. And it was like 90,000 to go to New York. So I was like, well, I’ll just go to London. So that’s why that happened the way that it did. When I got there. I got there a few days before everybody else because there were some things and some experiences that I wanted to have before everybody, not before everyone got there. But that weren’t on our itinerary. And I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to do those things. Because at the time, I was thinking I’m never coming back to Iceland. But now I don’t think that I think I’ll probably try and go sometime in the summer. There were so many times where we would be walking around and we would say to each other. This would be really awesome in the summer. Like it was beautiful, but like the wind was whipping in the snow and the whole thing. So lots of cool things to see there in the summertime. Okay, so I fly in. I stayed overnight, I’m going to tell you, let me pause, I’m going to tell you some things that you’re going to be like, Why is she even telling you this? And if you are one that’s traveled a lot? The things that I say you might be like this, like why was that a big deal to her? It? It’s okay. It’s some things were a big deal to me that maybe wouldn’t be to you. Or I want to give you like a I don’t know, I kind of just want to bring you along the journey and and have you know, the things that I was thinking because there were some things as someone from the United States and I have been very lucky and privileged enough to be able to travel some. You know, I’ve talked on the show before about how I have been to Finland and Sweden and Norway, and I have been to Iceland, I have been, you know, to Mexico. I’ve been to Belize, I’ve been to the Dominican Republic. I’ve been to a lot of Ubuntu Bermuda, that’s where I ran my marathon. You know, so I’ve been to a lot of other places now. Not necessarily Europe. So if you are listening in you’re from Europe, you might not think that’s very much but if you’re from the United States, those are countries that are around us. So I’ve been to Canada so just Simple, easy places to get to from where I live. Okay. So some stuff that I say, you might think is kind of funny that I thought that was interesting, but I’m just going to share it because I thought it was interesting. So I get there, I get to Reykjavik.
I had scheduled a transport from the airport to the hotel. Now, I’m self aware enough. And I’ve traveled the limited amount that I’ve traveled enough. And just from knowing things about how the United States is perceived, okay, so I already have this viewpoint, I get to Reykjavik, I get to the airport, there was some issues, like I said, you know, you had to have the COVID test and all of those different things. So I had a few issues, just hold up, hold up. So you know, like waiting in line and things like that getting through and my transport was at 430. And I walked up, and it was 430. It might have been like, 431. And the woman said, The bus just left. So you’ll have to wait for the next bus. It’ll be in an hour. And I was like, how did it just leave? Like, it’s just barely 430. Like, I looked at my watch. That’s when I was like, it’s just 431. So I’m thinking my head, I walked up here at 430. I think that this is an American thing. To think that it should wait for you. And that might make you clench a little bit that I’m saying that. But I thought that even at the moment, so even before I had anything else, just from what I know, I was like, I think I’m acting like an American by saying, Why did you leave? It’s only been a minute. And she kind of looked at me and said, because it leaves at 430. So I was like, Oh, I’ll have some thinking to do about that. And it is funny because I messaged a friend about that. And I said, I think I was just very American by expecting, but everything runs late here, right? Like things on time. I didn’t think being one minute would cause that. But it did. And so I waited and it actually took like an hour and a half there was nobody left at the airport. But me and I took the bus, the transport to the airport or from the airport to my hotel, and I was the only one on it. So like I it was the end of the day. I got to my hotel, and I stayed at the Hilton Nordica there are several Hilton’s in Iceland. And at the time that I went, the Hilton that I stayed at was actually the least expensive Hilton. But in my opinion, based on conversations I’ve had with other people and things that I’ve seen online, the one that I stayed at is the best one. So I’ll tell you why I think that so I got there, they upgraded me to, um, they upgraded me to a suite, which was amazing. I go to Hill, I stay at Hilton’s a lot, so I’m have the points or whatever. So they upgraded me to a suite. So I had when I got up there. First of all, if you’ve taken a cruise recently, then you know how cruises the lights work that you have to put your key in. I have not taken a cruise recently. So I literally could not turn on the lights. And by that point, because I had missed the bus. It was dark. So it was completely dark in the room. I couldn’t turn the lights on it. I knew it was this beautiful suite because I could like see shadows and stuff. I actually ended up having to get on Instagram and be like how do I turn on the lights? Someone asked me guy that listens to the show that I love. He was like have you tried clapping? Like, oh my god, I’m about to I will try anything. But what it turned out to be was just like the cruise ship where you have to put your key in the little slot, put your key in the slot and that turns the lights on. So anyway, I felt very untraveled at that moment where I was like, Oh my gosh, what am I doing? I’m all alone in Reykjavik and I don’t even know how to turn on the lights. Like it’s about to be a really bumpy ride, you know? So, um, I lights came on, I can see and I opened the blinds and it was like, floor to ceiling windows and this view that I felt like that was the first time I felt like I’m in The Truman Show. You guys remember that movie with Jim Carrey? And it’s The Truman Show. And it’s basically like this fake. I might have talked about this on another episode, but basically like this fake world, right? Like that’s being created and he’s in a reality show. But at the end he ends up like cutting through the sky and realizing that it’s all fake, right. So seeing that having the windows open I was like, Is this true? Heat like actually had that feeling like, this house is real. Like it was so beautiful. It was so unbelievably beautiful. Um,
the beds, they the beds there, all of the beds at every Airbnb were amazingly comfortable. And I have a really comfortable bed at my house. And that’s one of the things that I always get a little worried about if I stay at an Airbnb because if you get a crappy bed, like, that’s really hard. So hotels, usually you can count on it being a pretty good bed, right? These beds are so comfortable in the way that they do it is like let’s say it’s like a queen size bed. They have two twin comforter and do vase. So they’re folded in half the long way. So on each side of the bed is like a folded in half long way, twin size comforter. Does this make sense? So you look at the bed, and there’s two twin comforters folded in half the long way on the bed. And at first I was like what is this? And then I remembered because when I was in Finland, I remember that, that the duvet was in the sheet. So they don’t have a sheet. The sheet is the duvet, it’s all one piece. And I remember when I was in Finland, it was like 89 When I was in Finland. And I was so enamored with that, that I bought some of the sheets. You know, they’re long gone now, but it’s the best. And I’m going to do this at my house because it was seriously the best it was, I don’t know the down that they use, you know, it was all so comfy cozy. And I think that when you’re in a place like Iceland, where it’s so cold and so uncomfortable, that they have perfected cozy. You know what I mean? Like things were just cozy. Anyway, at the Hilton Nordica it was cozy, and it was a beautiful view. And it was amazing. The other really cool thing there was the breakfast. You know, when you go to a hill in the United States, you get like a sugary waffle and yogurt and like boiled eggs. thing, but this was like an insane spread. I put, I put Instagram stories with the food. Because like seriously, I was like so excited about it, especially after traveling because I basically been up for like 30 hours I slept that night. The next morning, I wake up and there’s this amazing spray was like having like I had just entered having this gorgeous view, and all this food. So I’m going to tell you about the food in a second. But I want to just tell you if you want to, if you’re listening to this, and then you’re like, I want to see all the pictures. If you go to my Instagram, you know how you can save the stories. You know what I’m talking about how you have stories that disappear in 24 hours, but you can save the stories to the little circles. So there’s Iceland one and Iceland too. So start with Iceland one end, you can probably pretty quickly see food photos. If I say I think I saved them on there. If not, I’ll go back and add them. But the food was it reminded me so much of Finland very Nordic, right? Like hard breads, and they they had tons of meats and cheeses and like I don’t it was just sliced cucumber. And like, it just reminded me of breakfast and Finland, which was just a really good time in my life like that. Good. That was a good trip. And so it was just I don’t know, it’s yummy. And it was good. And I just wanted to tell you about that. So if you ever go to Iceland, stay at the Hilton Nordica that’s the best one. My guess is that in the summer, maybe it’s more expensive. But when I went it really was not very expensive. I think it was like 17,000 Icelandic. I think it’s Kronos or something? I don’t. It was. It sounds like a lot for 17,000 Just stay there. But it was like 100 bucks. You know what I mean? It was awesome. And you got the breakfast and the whole thing. Okay, here’s another thing. Don’t tip in Iceland. I tipped everywhere until I got with my group. And then I left like a huge tip. And someone was like, why are you leaving a tip? They don’t tip in Iceland. So I wasted a lot of money on tipping or i i got to share some extra energy with people that served me well. That’s how I’m going to look at that. So I was there. spent that night at the Hilton Nordica and then I had gotten a transport to the Blue Lagoon. So if you’re one of the 1000s of people who messaged me and said you have to go to the Blue Lagoon. I did. I went to the Blue Lagoon I spent the day I got there in the morning and I did the I’m telling you all this in case you go. You could do just the basic package or you can do the Premium Package. I don’t know one’s like 50 bucks. One’s like 90 bucks. I don’t know, I was like I’m premium. So I’ll get the premium. I was like, I’m not sure what the difference is. But what the difference is, is that you get a bathrobe. And you get like a free drink at lunch or whatever. So I ended up going, I did the premium, which gave me bathrobe, which turned out to be really nice. I had lunch there at the restaurant called lava, which overlooks like the lava fields. And you can wear your bathrobe to lunch. So it was actually really worth doing the premium so that you didn’t have to get out of your wet sweat swimsuit and into your clothes to go to lunch and then get back into your wet swimsuit. Do you know what I’m talking about? So doing the premium allowed you to get the bathrobe, I went to lunch, which you also got like a free thing of champagne because it was premium, and I had lunch. And then I went back into the Blue Lagoon. Now. The Blue Lagoon is my favorite place. It is so amazing. Like, I’m not kidding you. It was like one of my very, I went to a lot of hot springs while I was there. It was really one of my most favorite places. The water is blue, like a like not like the ocean. But it’s more like
thick looking, you couldn’t see through it. So it was cloudy blue, like a pretty blue. From all this silica in the water. And the hot springs, it’s huge. But it is constantly being regenerated from geothermal water, like 1000s of feet into the ground, and re, like, pumped. And every 40 hours, the whole entire thing gets pumped in with new water. So that hot water coming up from the middle of the Earth, right or from deep in the earth. And that’s what makes it hot is that it’s coming. It’s this geothermal water. So there are places all over Iceland that are hot springs, we have some in the United States, you’ve probably been to a hot spring, but this one in particular. And like I said, we went to several, but this one was unlike any of the others. It had the silica in it. So it was this beautiful, amazing color. When I went it was, I mean the whole time I was there, it was very snowy. So the snow was piled up. And the juxtaposition of all of the snow and melting glaciers looking things. And this blue water and the steam and the beautiful mountains in the background. I mean, it was insane. I had only I mean, I had only been there 12 hours or 15 hours when I went. So I was like, What planet Am I on, I kept feeling like I was on a different planet. Like it was so different. I was in love, like completely in love. And when you go into the Blue Lagoon they have like, inside as you walk around, they have like a little bar where they had like fancy, like themed drinks, you know what I mean. And then on the other side, they had like a mud mask bar. And there were four different mud masks. And you would go and put your hand out and they would put this mud and you put it all over your face. And they’d say like, wait 10 minutes, or come back in 15 minutes, and then you’d wash it off in the water and go back and get the other one. And I’m telling you, I wish I bought all the stuff from the Blue Lagoon. They sell all those mud masks, but they were like, terribly expensive. And but my face was like a baby’s butt like this perfect and beautiful. And so glowy and shiny. Like that was really fun. So if you go do all the masks because it was really fun. The other cool thing was that I met a lot of people there. You know, I was all by myself. But I was like meeting people. I met a woman and her fiance. They were about to get married. And they had their families with them. And they were I wish I could remember exactly where they were from. I want to say like Minnesota or something. And they came, they’ve never been to Iceland, but they wanted to get married in Iceland. And so they came with their families. And it was like just a cool like trip of a lifetime. You know what I mean? And so that was really fun to get to get kind of hung out with them for a little bit in the excitement. You know, they were so excited. It was really fun. And then I met a woman we were talking there were certain spots that were right around where the pumps were that were pumping out the hot water and those spots were hotter than other spots. And so I was kind of gravitating towards those spots because I liked the all the heat and it was so cold out. And there was a woman that was standing there and I was like this is the place to be and she’s like it totally And she said, I just came from the airport. So if they have tours that will take you to your hotel, but it’ll stop at the Blue Lagoon, and they will hold your luggage there. So that’s what she had done. And she had come all by herself. She was super cool. She was from Florida, and she’s a nurse. And she, um, she came for like four or five days or something like that, and wanted to come and couldn’t find someone to go with her. So she came by herself. And I just thought that was so cool. And then I was sitting, there’s like an area where you can sit and kind of overlook everything outside of the Blue Lagoon. And I met this group of girls that had come and they were super fun. And I talked to them for quite a while. And they had come together just to have like a long weekend adventure. And I followed them on so on social media on Instagram, and got to see their adventure. So a lot of different kinds of people, you know, get your girlfriend’s or go by yourself. Like it really is, like, doable. So many people in Iceland speak English, that it felt really pretty easy to get around or to ask questions. So after the Blue Lagoon, the next day was where I was meeting my group. So in the morning, I did some work. And then in the afternoon, I met the group in the parking lot. So I had a taxi cab, pick me up and bring me to a parking lot. And I said, this is the parking lot. And the parking lot was like numbered. I just told him the number and he knew where it was. So he brought me to the middle of Reykjavik to this parking lot. And he was like, so you, so I’m just dropping you off, like, you don’t know anybody that’s picking you up. And I was like, nope. So he dropped me off. And within just a few minutes, my group arrived. So one by one people started showing up. And then the two people that were kind of running the thing showed up with the van. And as soon as they came around the corner and saw everybody, they started like honking the horn. And I just knew this is about to be like a really crazy fun adventure, right? So we all got in, you know, got in the van piled in with all of our stuff, and set off to our very first place our very first Airbnb. And this is this was a house that is in an area called the Golden Circle. Now, if you come in to Reykjavik, they will have loads of tours to take you to the Golden Circle. So if you think of the whole island, the whole island of Iceland, and I took the ring road is what I drove, which is a whole road that goes around the entire coast of the whole country. But the golden circle you can take that actually brings you just a little ways outside of Reykjavik. And then it’s a little circle in of the country right there. Like it’s a little, it’s called the it’s called the Golden Circle. And there’s like a little road that you can kind of travel and see lots of different things. So a lot of people come. So when I talk about like the mini adventure you could have in Iceland, it wouldn’t even be Mini, I mean, it would just be shorter than my one. But coming into Reykjavik, go to the Blue Lagoon, and then get a tour to the Golden Circle. So if you download the itinerary, you’ll see all of that. So we ended up going to an Airbnb that was in the Golden Circle. On like the edge of a lava field. It was the place that had the sauna. So it was really fun, especially since we work so cold since we had just gotten there. We at certain places, we shared rooms, sometimes we had a roommate, I got my own room a couple times. I was old. Another guy that was my age, but for the most part, everyone else was like late 20s, early 30s ish. And so um, and I don’t know that our age had anything to do with it, but you know what I’m saying so they all stayed up a lot later than me so it was nice when I got my own space and I could go to bed.
But if you download the link the the itinerary there’ll be a link to the cottage where I stayed in case you want to stay there. So it was in a place called
facts of false facts of last Iceland. Um, I think that’s what it was. There was a the next day we went but we actually got snowed in there and we couldn’t leave. There was a huge storm that came in that hurricane force winds and we really couldn’t leave the Airbnb. We were supposed to be there just a few nights so we had to stay an additional night because it was unsafe to travel. So I talked last episode about how the weather was extra. So it was like You want some winter Betsy will give you extra winter and I got extra winter. But one of the places that we went when we were there and sell Foss, that’s where we stayed cell FOSS is where it was. But there was this place called the Gullfoss waterfall. It is unbelievably beautiful. And that is absolutely a place to go. When we went there, it was so windy, I didn’t even know that I’d be able to walk like it was definitely treacherous in the winter. I think in the summer, it was beautiful in the winter. Absolutely. But I think in the summer, it would be even more so amazing place if you’re a photographer or a hobby photographer to be able to take photos. It was super, super amazing. And it was one of those things where it was so big. Like it was so big, and the wind was loud, but it was so loud. And it was like when I go to the ocean, and you feel so big and so small all at the same time. Like really, really magical. There’s also like a lot of geothermal areas in that that that area where you can go. And you can go and watch, we actually went to a geyser hotspring to watch. But there’s a lot of things right there. Again, that’s that golden circle. So you can see loads of stuff there. After that we moved on. And we did go to see another waterfall. I feel like we saw a lot of waterfalls after a little while if I’m being honest, Chris, we did the whole ring road. But after a little while I was like, How is this the same waterfall is different. I know it’s different. But it was a lot of waterfalls. There’s a lot of waterfalls there, but it’s beautiful. The scope of floss waterfall is the one that the picture was taken where I’m like, where I look so tiny, was really, really beautiful, again, like a magical place to take photos. And to just be I was thinking like in the summer, this would be an awesome place to like meditate, or there’s so much energy, you know, with the water coming down, like just the massive amounts of water falling and a lot of it was frozen when we were there. Yet still so much water, just the energy force. I just it felt really good there. You know, it felt really good. If you have listened to the show for any amount of time, you know, I’m a huge fan of the ocean. And Iceland is an island, and we were driving all along the coast. So it wasn’t the ocean I normally attend. But it was ocean nonetheless. And it was beautiful. And really, really amazing. So after that we moved on to another little town called Vic. Now, remember I said that the very first time I saw that tick tock was January 21, January 22, is when I said yes, January or February 22. February 22 is the first time I saw the Northern Lights. So from I want to make sure I get the date right 23rd. So it was one month in one day. From me seeing it and saying yes to being there. Now. To me, the speed of that is really profound. I also want to say that, I recognize that that is there’s a layer of privilege in that, that I don’t want to discount. Also, I want to say again, that the miracles that we want to manifest because that’s a pretty out there one, like Iceland is not an easy place to get to or a normal place to go to, or close by where I live. I don’t know anybody there. So for me to go from one moment of saying I want that out loud, which has a vibration of its own, to being there, looking up at the sky in this little town of Vic in the middle of the night, where it is snowing, or it has been snowing and so it’s quiet. Do you know do you know if you’ve lived anywhere where it snowed before you know what I’m talking about? It’s so quiet because the snow absorbs so much of the sound. This little town of Vic is on the ocean. And it’s nestled in this, like kind of under this like cliffie area. And we walked to the beach. And we were on this little bridge and the Northern Lights came up. We we saw them several times. And this time wasn’t the best. But it was the first and it was so beautiful and so magical. And I thought the speed in which this was able to happen. What are other things that I want know? If you’ve been listening to the show for a long time, you’re probably like, well, how come she hasn’t manifested the beach? Because I don’t really want I live at the beach. There’s A I think I’ve mentioned that a couple of times over the years, but I love the beach. There’s A component of the beach that’s out there for me. But that’s not what I want. And, and my wobbly, wobbly Enos is what’s kept me from it. Does this make sense? So I had clear, clear path, I had clear conviction, I want that even said that out loud. I want that. Right, one month. And one day later, I have not only am I there, I have that, that that scene playing out above my head of the lights, and the amazingness of it. It was just so fun. And really like, such a magical moment to be like we are in. This is not just I know that. Let me say it in this way. I know I’m explaining something that happened to me. And I know this might be like, kind of far out. This might even be like nothing you’d ever want. But what I want is for you to see that we put the parameters of time on things. And that things can happen really quickly. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time.
It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. And some things, there are physical aspects, like I had to take a flight. And there was a physical aspect to the amount of time that that flight took. But my belief, at least in my experience is that sometimes there’s things that I want. And I think add that to the bucket list. And the bucket list is so far out. The bucket list is something that goes into a list of things that I want, that perhaps I’ll never really get, but it’s on my list. And for some reason, adding it to my bucket list, makes it feel more real to me and comforts me in some way. This never went on my bucket list. This went on my I want that. And then there was no resistance to it. And so it just happened. And I purposefully made the decision to do it before I could come up with the resistance. Before I could say how I figured that out. That’s a long time to be gone. Like all of those things, which are real things. And I’m in a position in my life where I could do that. Right? My kids in college, like there’s things I want to just recognize that worked in my favor. But we all have things and whatever stage or part of life that we are at, that we can create quicker perhaps than we think. Have you been thinking about becoming a coach, but you’re not sure where to start? Are you already a coach or a therapist and you really want new ways to help your clients transform. I want to invite you into the alchemy Institute. It’s a place where we create world class board certified coaches trained in nlp hypnosis, deep streaming EFT and time techniques. With this knowledge, you can upgrade your business and create your life. Go at your own pace with our on demand trainings, or attend one of our live events. You can get more information at Betsy pake.com or head straight to the academy at V alchemy institute.co. I’ll see you there. Okay, so here I am. I’m in this little town of Vic. We didn’t stay there very long. But honestly, that was one of my favorite places. Again, really close to Reykjavik where I flew into which I want to say this when you fly into Reykjavik, you’re really flying into a different Airport. This screwed me up when I was trying to book so it’s carefully or something. I’m not looking at it. So that’s just from my memory. But KTF I think is the airport name. So just know you don’t really fly into Reykjavik. It’s it’s like a 40 minute drive. Okay, so not that far. This is my favorite little town. There are it’s the cutest in the daytime. It’s the cutest little town. We drove up to the top of this hill where there was this cute little church and I mean, just amazing views. Beautiful. So in the morning, we see the Northern Lights in the morning we decided we’re going to go to the beach and see the beach in the morning. I was with a couple photographers, and they were like we want to go and get pictures of the sunrise. So I’m like this sounds great. So we we got up and got all of our stuff on they gotta have my zipper boots, and we got drove to the beach. We is walkable from where we stayed. But all the snow, all the things, the wind is insane. Okay, so we take the van, there’s another group of people like us in a van that’s stuck in the snow. So when we get there in park, we see them they’re stuck in the snow. Just note that and I’m going to tell you, there’s more to that. So we go out onto this. It’s called the Black Beach. And it’s black sands. And there are these amazing. I don’t know, there’s probably a name for them. But in Iceland, there’s a lot of like, rock that’s like just a pillar. That’s like sticking up from the sea. You know what I mean? So like, it’s not, um,
it’s just like a pillar, kind of where there’ll be like an archway of like stone I guess. I should know this. I get I’m guessing it’s like, lava. There’s a lot of lava fields and stuff. So I’m guessing like, maybe it’s from that. But but it’s beautiful. When you see it, something about it is really magical looking. So we start walking, we get to the Black Beach, these people are stuck in the snow, we start walking the little path to the beach, and the wind is whipping. Now if you saw any my videos of the wind whipping it whips. Yes. And it also whips low. So like sand, not sand, the snow is swirling around your feet. Do you know what I mean? So there’s a lot of like, swirling, swirling, whirling snow. And it looks very cool. But it feels very overwhelming. Now. I was going to say something. And you may have an immediate reaction to it. But it was sort of a theme for me. So I want to just bring it up. So I mentioned before that I was older than some of the other people there was another guy that was 50. This is so complex. But what I want to say about it is that I know many people will say, well, age is just a number. I, I agree there is a mindset that is younger mindset. There’s a mindset, that’s a different older mindset. There’s a mindset that’s negative, there’s a mindset that’s positive. There’s also physical things that happen to your body as you get older. I think that younger people don’t understand that. And they think that it’s just a mindset, that it’s just a number, but it’s not. And here’s what I mean, specifically, is that I’ve been going through some really, really hard, perimenopause, Peri menopausal symptoms. I’ve had a lot of what I think is hormonal weight gain over the past few years. So I feel very out of my body in a lot of ways. Also, I noticed that I have a couple joints. One is my right ankle. That really bothers me sometimes. And I believe that that’s a hormonal thing. So I have been doing some things actively, to figure that out. I will share that on another episode. But here I am, with a group of people that are, you know, men and women, late 20s, early 30s. I know there is a mindset shift that is age. But there’s also a physical component that I was struggling with. There was a lot of hiking, and sometimes like for hours of walking in conditions that weren’t just like a walk down the street. And I struggled with that. And it was a really hard thing for me to struggle with that because I’ve lived my life as a pretty active fit person. And so there was an identity problem that I was having. And I use the word problem. I was suffering with that because I didn’t understand, or I was I understood. I was really frustrated with it. I was frustrated with the fact that things felt hard for me I was stressed, frustrated with the fact that nobody seemed to really understand or believe me, when I would kind of mention it.
I also think that there is something in our society that says Getting old is bad. And so people’s reaction when you say I’m older is for them to go No you’re not. But I don’t think Getting old is bad. So you don’t have to say no, you’re not you You just have to say like, what are you experiencing? What’s different for you? How do you feel like that’s different from when you were 40. Like, they’re so. So I’m having this experience, it’s very internal. We’re on the Black Beach, we’re walking, it’s winter, the wind is blowing the sand is some kind of other planet kind of concoction. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, like it’s so windy, I’m finding it hard to, like stay standing up. There would be times where I would take a step and my foot would go into the snow. And I’m not very tall and about five, almost five, one. And so the snow would come up to like my mid thigh. So I had a hard time, it was a lot of energy to pull my leg out, and then continue to walking only to have it happen again. I did buy crampons for my boots. And that was super helpful. But when I was taking this walk, I lost them in the snow because my feet went so far down, I couldn’t get it out. Okay. So then I finally made it to the beach, really beautiful. I mean, I got some of my favorite pictures, it was one of the greatest, visually the greatest experiences that I’ve ever had. It was beautiful. It’s one of my favorite memories of being in Iceland. And there was a moment where we were turning to leave, and my leg fell into the snow. And so in an effort to get out, I pushed on my other foot, and that foot went down. So now I am on like a embankment, kind of going over this little hill to get to the other side back to where our van is. So if you can imagine the beach behind me, is loud, the, I mean, the waves, it is not like go into like the beach in Florida. The waves are insane. Like they tell you don’t get too close. Because if you get caught up, you’ll just get pulled out to sea and never seen again. Right? So like, the waves are so huge. I mean, it’s so big. So
mind foot goes down, the next foot goes down. So I’m like, oh my god, I’m like, I’m like up to my thighs and start trying to pull my legs out and I really can’t get them out. I’m also getting tired. Have you ever been swimming where you’re where you’re swimming, and then all of a sudden you’re like, oh my god, I I like I don’t have like I like I’m gonna drown. Have you ever had that? Where you’re like, I I’ve had this to me once and I was shocked at how quickly I got tired. I don’t know if that resonates. But like I went from being fine to being like, oh my god, I’m exhausted and I can’t swim anymore. I had a boat years ago, and I was swimming off the boat. And that happened. And it was super scary. My daughter was little she was in a life jacket and in a floaty thing. But she was grabbing at me and pushing me underwater. And I got exhausted so fast. It scared me enough that I knew she was safe because she had a life jacket on. Several. She was like probably three or something. And so I pushed her away from me so that I could get away and get a life jacket on and then pour it I mean, she was fine. But I had a moment where I was like, oh my god, I’m losing my strength. I have that moment on the beach. Both of my legs are in the snow. I can’t get them out. So I put my hands down and I’m kind of pushing like wiggling back and forth. Like how do I get my legs out. And there’s somebody like two feet from me. And I yelled, I can’t get my legs out. But I don’t think they could hear me because of the wind. So I put my hands in and both my hands went into the snow. So now my face is up against the ice. My arms up to my shoulders are in the snow, and my legs are in the snow. And I don’t know how to get out. And I had that moment like I did when I was swimming where I was like, Oh my God, that I was like, I’m gonna die. Nobody’s gonna find me till spring. I’m gonna die here on this beach. It was just an instant. But it was it was a real moment. Right? And so I, you know, I finally managed to get myself out. And I got to the top of that thing. Everybody stayed and they took pictures. I don’t think they realize like, I don’t know what I mean. Everybody was having their own experience. You know, like I was just doing my thing. But I was like, I’ve got to get back to the van. Like I can’t wait for them. I mean So exhausted if I don’t go now, I might not ever make it. Like that’s just how it felt it felt like an emergency. Now, I don’t know that anybody I don’t even know if anybody I went on the trip with will even listen to these episodes. But if they are, I don’t think they had any awareness because they were all doing their own thing like nobody did anything. But by not noticing wasn’t weird, because everybody was like doing their thing. And I was doing my thing, which was like the quicksand of snow. I kept feeling like, oh my god all that time that I was a kid and I was worried about quicksand. It was because of this moment, places when it happened. quicksand of snow. So I get to the top. I’m like, I can’t wait for them. Which wasn’t weird, because everyone was doing their thing. And I was like, I have to get back. Now. I don’t know if I’ll make it back, you know. So I found kind of a little path that had like a bunch of rocks. And I made my way, kind of jumping from rock to rock. And every rock was icy. And that’s when I realized that I had lost my crampons, because the which are the little spikes that go on the bottom of your boots. And honestly, in the winter in Iceland, you really need them. And so I had to be so careful that I didn’t ball on my ass, like, hurt myself even more. But I finally made it back to the van. And those people that were stuck, were still there, trying to shovel themselves out of this snowy mess. So it was so overwhelming. I knew it wasn’t just us, like it was a lot going on. But one of my biggest memories forever will be that moment on the beach, both exhilarating and the most beautiful, amazing thing I’ve ever seen. And also the moment where, like, I recognized that I needed to
what’s the word? What’s the word I’m trying to think of? Or the the, what I’m trying to convey is that I wasn’t 29 I wasn’t a 29 year old man. And I couldn’t act like that I needed to have like a level of awareness about what my capacity really was at this stage in my life. And with what we were doing and where I was in my height, you know what I mean? Because the snow was so deep. And so that kind of set the tone for me a little bit in terms of the trip where I don’t want to say that I tempered myself or pulled myself back because I don’t think that I did. But I definitely made choices that would serve me instead of just choices that were like in front of me. So, Vic, one of my most favorite little places to go. And really, really cool and going to that Black Beach, which on the on the itinerary. It’s like reignest giara Beach, Rey, and i Es F. J RA. Is Icelandic is like a thing in itself. Really, really cool. Really cool. And a lot of like letters that aren’t letters I was familiar with. So challenging to Okay. Alright, so we’re at another 15 minutes all I am going to do another show. I’m going to make it now I’ll speed it up. I’ll speed it up you guys. But if you’re into this, I’ve got more to share and more thoughts and ideas. So thank you so much for being here with me. On episode two of Iceland. I will be back with a third and final episode. And we will wrap this thing up. So thank you so much. I love you and I will see you next week. Hey, thanks so much for listening to today’s show. And thank you for sharing the show with your friends. I love when you guys do that. I appreciate it so much. And thank you for leaving me a review on iTunes. I know that it matters because when I go to find a podcast I always look to see what the reviews are. So it really means a lot to me that you take a minute to like figure out how to even make that happen. Now, if you want to find me find me on social media, I’m usually on Instagram, starting out on Tik Tok. It’s just my name Betsy pake and that’s my website to Betsy pake calm and you can find out all about the work that I do, having me speak for an event that you might be helping to plan or getting trained inside my alchemy Institute. But to make it really easy, if you want me just shoot me a DM, shoot me a direct message on Instagram and I will be at your service. Thanks again for listening. And I will see you all next week.
