The most important lesson I learned from Balinese locals

A friend of mine sparked a thought in my mind about coping with life in general. My thoughts on this gelled on a recent visit to Bali.

We’d spent a lot of time up there and noticed that, although life for the locals is hard, they are happy and courteous.

They have rich lives despite juggling more problems than many Australians have to deal with.


I asked a local friend why the Balinese seldom seemed stressed out and he said it’s because they deal with what’s happening now and don’t waste energy on what doesn’t exist.

Read more: How we survive without planning our holidays

He said that the future and the past don’t exist … one did and one doesn’t yet.

He pointed out that there’s nothing you can do to change the past, however the future will depend on what you do now, so now is the thing to focus on.


He said, “There’s a villa being built over the road so look … see what’s happening? The site is not swarming with activity.

“There’s just two men who are doing a small job, then another thing will be done. One thing at a time and next year there’ll be a villa and no one has had a heart attack.”

Read more: Revisiting a treasured holiday favourite

What a great way to live. 
So that’s how we do it. That’s why we divorced ourselves from city madness. We travel. Have done for seven years.

No plans … just handle this moment and it is life-giving. Big heartaches are easier to handle, the future will stem from how we do the now, things will get done and no extra energy is wasted sweating about things that we can’t change.