Four Lessons from Living in the Sahara Desert for 9 Days

By the third day, my tolerance for flies was inconceivable. That’s mostly because when there are 20-30 on and around you all day your priorities change. I’m still reeling from the Amara Alchemical Journey in the Sahara Desert. 

The crew was mostly PhDs and academics in the field of adult development and group relations, executives, and consultants looking to build leadership capacity and self-awareness by way of deep silence and solitude. 

The Sahara desert is a fitting location. 

Here are four things I learned from my time in the ancient desert:

1. CLARITY TAKES WORK. It took thousands of miles of distance, days of increased social detachment, and brilliant academic minds creating transitional structure for the group to move out of modernity and into a chamber of self-reflection and insight. It’s maddening when you consider how much of our field of awareness is heavily clouded by the distractions around us. What would you hear if there was nothing else to listen to but yourself?
2. BRAINS ARE NOT COMPUTERS. Despite what most neurophysicsists of old used to think, our brains aren’t taking in information, crunching numbers, and spitting out emotions and actions. In reality, we’re creating our perceived reality around us to match our internal needs. Luckily for us, this perspective includes much more agency than the latter. And, it’s up to you to create an internal being that will create the external world that you wish for. 
3. WE RIDE ALONE, TOGETHER. A paradox of the human experience is our need for connection and the fact that only we can walk our path. No one is coming to save you, so I urge you to dig into your personal path because no matter how many loved ones are around you.. they can’t do it for you. 
4. UNIQUE EXPERIENCES KEEP US GROWING. Not only does time speed up when we live the same days, weeks, and months over and over again, it’s important to continue to expose the adult mind to diverse environments if growth is your aim. The expansion of consciousness is largely connected to accumulating experiences that deviate from your mind’s desire to predict the future. 

There’s so much to download from this experience both large and small, but these four nuggets are a wonderful start. If you’re considering exploring something new, do it. Do it early and often.