Moving to Goa was sort of inevitable. I knew I would live here one day, is the simplest way to put it. Every time I’d visit I had the feeling that I wasn’t meant to just stop in, but to live here. I’m grateful that through all the lunacy of the last three years, the stars aligned enough that I was granted this one wish in full.
I thought a lot about the changes a move from the country’s capital to countryside would bring to both life and work, but I didn’t anticipate how much life would shrink. Life gets much smaller in smaller cities (a fact that is both lovely and a little disconcerting if you’ve always lived in big, noisy cities, as I have. It’s funny what you miss: Infrastructure! Uber and Ola! But also, hustle.
On a recent visit I discovered how making reservations in Delhi is now a whole new world. To get a table at Lair in Basant Lok market one must have at least 5 people in their party. To visit Dirty Jungle in Bhikaji Cama you can have no more than 6. You’d think I’d have found this annoying but I found it v.exciting. You cannot ever experience all that a city has to offer, but you can certainly try.
Nothing brings me more joy than massage. It is the ultimate in learning to receive: you literally just lie there and do nothing while someone does nice things to you. Name a greater (achievable and within-reach) indulgence, I’ll wait.
In Delhi I was spoiled by the unbelievable convenience that is Urban Company’s at-home service. That service doesn’t exist here in Goa, and a lot of the ones that do are both overpriced and underwhelming BUT, thank god and all the angels for Sofia Wu.
Chinese by birth and now living in Goa, Sofia is a skilled bodyworker (’masseuse’ just doesn’t do her skills justice) who just seems to intuit what ails you and couples these insights with a vast repertoire of tools and techniques like gua sha and heat and moxibustion. Hers is a fascia-focussed treatment. For the uninitiated, fascia is a thin layer of connective tissue that’s wrapped around everything inside you, muscles and joints and organs. (It’s that thin, white, stringy layer you see on raw chicken when you’re cooking.) Healthy fascia is slippery and smooth, but most of us, thanks to stress, injuries, posture, emotional patterns or lack of rest, aka LIFE, end up with fascia that’s tight, dense, or generally a bit unhappy.
This is obviously anecdotal—the lowest form of evidence—but I’ve felt the knots in my quads and shoulders unfurl when no amount of physiotherapy, traditional massage, or self-administered foam rolling even made a dent. It’s worth mentioning that I’m definitely one of those people for whom pain and pleasure are in a continuum; if you’re more gentle aromatherapy-leaning, you might not enjoy this quite as much.
The science around the benefits of fascial manipulation is still in its infancy, but these are ideas that eastern medicine (whether Ayurveda or Traditional Chinese Medicine) have espoused forever. Whatever the science says, between an assortment of tools from her TCM arsenal, and as much heat and swaddling and moxibustion as it is possible to endure, Sofia’s sessions have me totally converted. I feel…reshaped. Like she’s working through adhesions and gnarly bits that I really thought were with me for life.
Follow Sofia on Instagram to know more about her gua sha workshops and pilates classes. If you’re in Goa, you can message her on WhatsApp +86 133 9222 2667 to plan a visit. Please don’t go over the weekend because that’s when I like to monopolise as much of her time as possible, thanks.
Simple, powerful, and needs nothing more than pen and paper: Julia Cameron’s ‘Morning pages’ exercise has been revelatory and requires no investment (I’m certain you own a pen?). Sometimes it’s not the seismic shifts, but the simple ones.
Is the act of sitting down to write a few pages in the morning pleasurable?
Okay, no. But let me tell you, having a clearer head when your day really kicks off is a fucking delight.
Daunted? Doubtful? This podcast episode (yes, it’s mine) has a follow-along exercise that can help get you going.
Have you noticed how western wellness traditions centre around cold? From cool salads and raw foods to ice baths and cold juices and smoothies… while on the other hand, eastern traditions tend to favour warmth. In Ayurveda you’ll be prescribed warm, cooked foods and khichdi, warm teas and infusions, hot poultice massages, steam baths.
Heat is, when you think about it, a fundamental teaching in eastern nutrition and energetics. Look to nature. Cold slows. A river in winter freezes. Both TCM and Ayurveda posit: consuming cold things slows digestion, and being cold slows the flow of blood and causes ‘stagnation’.
I’m finding that suddenly, despite living in a year-round warm climate (or maybe because of it?) my body seems suddenly to really thrive in heat and sweat and warmth. I’ve done the juicing and smoothies and salads and found, actually, that instead of making me feel better it fucked up my digestion and made me more anxious. I still drink fresh orange juice and cool coconut water, but overall I’m choosing cooked foods and warmer temperatures and guess what: I feel great.
The Flame Store White Sage and Saffron incense is divine. If you’re in Goa, head on over to any of their outposts to sniff and pick your favourite in person, but if not, they also deliver nationwide…if you ask nicely.
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Stop your scroll and do this right now
01
Breathe in through your nose as you count to 4 in your head:
1-2-3-4.
02
Breathe out through pressed lips as you count to 8 in your head:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.
03
Repeat twice.
Congratulations, you've just stimulated your vagus nerve. Do you feel more calm? Less anxious? Clearer-minded? That wouldn't be a coincidence—according to scientists, activating the vagus nerve can slow down your heart rate, decrease levels of cortisol, and release calming chemicals into your system.
And all it takes is a couple minutes of deep breathing like the 4:8 exercise above. So when you've got a little break and you're mindlessly scrolling through Instagram (which can be stressful in its own way), use it as a reminder to stop and BREATHE.
This isn't the only way to get into the parasympathetic state, however. You can take a hot-and-cold shower, hum your favorite song, or meditate with your eyes closed.
Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.
Real life is cool. Leave your phone at home.
*easier said than done but goals should be lofty
