3 Life Lessons I Learned From Moving To Costa Rica

Life Lesson # 1: Slow Down

I still find it funny that even though I grew up in the city, I have always loved doing things that were very much about enjoying nature, solitude and going off the beaten path.

One of my favourite things to do is to go for walks.

And I mean, I could go for HOURS & HOURS. I love to explore, I love to hike and I love discovering new places. I love breathing in the fresh air, seeing wildlife and feeling that oneness with everything around me – not always easy when you are walking across a busy intersection, with car fumes and loud noises without even a tree to be found.

When we got to Costa Rica, I discovered a world that seemed opposite of everything I had known – the best way I could describe it is, there is no “outside” versus “inside.” At every given moment, no matter where I am – whether inside our place, walking to the store, or taking a ride in the city – I feel surrounded by nature – I feel planted right in the middle of it all and I am constantly fascinated.

I can take a deep breath, and being a “stop and smell the roses kind of gal”, I have found a life here that could pretty much be summarized by that statement.

I have completely slowed down and feel like this is the kind of life I have always been seeking – a life where I am not rushed, a life where time seems to stop and a life where I feel so connected and grounded in this world.

Many of these things though, I did not come to realize until we got here – Costa Rica has taught me to stop rushing, and to always appreciate the moment.

Life Lesson #2: There is an Order and Flow to Life

One thing that instantly surprised me was I noticed that there was an order to life here. When I say order, I mean even something defined as a schedule to nature.

I remember the first place we stayed was in the mountains of Atenas and I remember instantly seeing patterns emerge on a daily basis.

We would be woken up by a bird, EVERY morning, at about 5am by its incessant tapping at our window.

Certain bugs and wildlife would emerge at specific times of the day.

For example, every day at about 5:30pm, as the setting of the sun would approach – the Cicadas would start their loud “announcement” of the sunset to come. They would make their “Cicada” noise – almost like lawnmowers going off EVERYWHERE, and then they would always very abruptly stop, then the sun would set, and there would now be the “night noises.”

Then, when we stayed in Quepos for 5 weeks, monkeys would appear at specific times of the day – monkeys travel far distances daily and would pass through our place to stop and eat the mangos that grew near our house.

It was strange and so wonderful to start to see these patterns and it’s made me realize that there is a flow to life and we sometimes miss that flow by entrenching ourselves into a life of stress and feeling rushed where we don’t even stop to notice these natural patterns.

Which also made me realize that once we unplugged and started doing what WE loved, on our own schedule, natural patterns emerged in our life as well – there was an ebb and flow to our creativity, and a flow to the way our body functions and responds to the environment.

Upon realizing these patterns and flow, it’s been a process of allowing them to happen. I would constantly struggle and fight them with my old ways of thinking sometimes overtaking and convincing me that “I should do this, or thing should be this way” but as soon, as I accepted the flow, everything would again begin to move with ease.

I’ve had to learn to surrender to these patterns, and learn to work with them – rather than struggling and fighting against them.

It’s a huge lesson and distinction that I learned since moving to Costa Rice – and seeing these patterns in nature daily, help me to again, stay grounded in this flow of life.

Life Lesson #3: Let Go of Fear

As I mentioned at the beginning, I was very apprehensive about moving to Costa Rice because of the many things I was afraid of and letting go of my fears has probably been one of my biggest life lessons so far.

Moving here made me very aware of ALL of my fears – fears that I grew up with, some of which were very suppressed and some of which ruled me entire life.

What I have found truest is that if there is a fear I faced, it would keep appearing in my life until I let go of it.

I can give one example, which may seem very trivial but it it the best example of this last life lesson.

When we stayed in Quepos, we lived in a place where lots of creepy crawlies always got into our place at night – and so every morning I would wake up and go out to “check” what was out and about. And one morning, Romeo and I were cooking breakfast, and I remember feeling very anxious all the time about the bugs.

I literally felt anxious ALL the time for the first few weeks and I was constantly “scanning” everywhere we went for bugs.

If you are not afraid of bugs, maybe it sounds ridiculous – it sounds ridiculous to me now too but that’s how I felt.

All of a sudden, I felt something on my back – and I turned my head and saw a giant spider on my back – I screamed, went into total panic, jumping and batting at my back, my heart rate shot through the roof and I almost had a panic attack.

Romeo, calm as always, LAUGHED.

And I was just so upset and mad, I was like “Why don’t they EVER jump on YOU??”

He smiled and said… “Because I’m not afraid of them.”

And it was that very distinct moment of a lesson on fear in my life.

I didn’t get over it and let it go immediately, but since that moment, made a very distinct decision to always face my fears and so I began getting close to bugs, sometimes holding them and slowly this constant apprehension and “scanning” stopped.

Now, I don’t notice them very much – although, to be honest I have yet to see a tarantula – we’ll see how that goes!

This fear of bugs is just one of the many fears I have faced – it may seem crazy but I have also faced a fear that has ruled me for a long time and it’s the fear of death.

We have been in quite a few situations actually where my life has flashed before me eyes and I also continuously see death in the circle of life within the wild.

Animals hunting other animals, no matter how big or small – and it’s just shown me something we don’t normally see in the city.

The most prominent one that stands out in my head is when we were taking a long hike one day in Playa Brasilito, and we saw a dead horse. He seemed to have climbed a high cliff and gotten trapped – seeing the size and magnitude of such a huge animal decomposing was sad, horrific and also very jarring.

It definitely left an impression on me. I have begun to live with a constant state of awareness and gratitude for my life.

You know the saying, you only live once? Well, what would make more sense is ‘you only die once’, we live everyday – there is a difference between merely existing however, and truly living. Moving to Costa Rica, changing our lives and going after our dreams has given me an experience of feeling that I am truly living my life daily.

Let me know in the comments what you think of these life lessons.

Much love,

Kat 😉