Lessons Learned While Traveling Abroad in Vietnam
Written by Dr. Suzanne Tang
January 14th, 2024
Happy New Year! I hope you were able to pause and connect with yourself and your family during the holidays. Thank you so much for your patience while I was away on an extended vacation with family in Vietnam over the holidays. My parents, who immigrated to southern California from Vietnam over 49 years ago had a life-long dream to take their children and grandchildren back to their homeland. The dream was actualized and the trip was beautiful, bonding, and fun.
As you can imagine the lessons are abundant when traveling to Southeast Asia with twelve of my closest family members, ranging in age from 5 to 76.
Ram Dass, the spiritual teacher, once said: “If you think you are enlightened, go and spend a week with your family.”
Here are some of my top lessons and gifts of traveling abroad in Vietnam with family:
I am so very grateful for the “little” things that I have taken for granted in the US, such as toilet paper and good plumbing. As we traveled by bus throughout many different towns and cities, we quickly realized that toilet paper is scarce and unavailable at most pit stops. Functioning and flushing toilets never brought me so much joy. Whoever remembered to pack a spare roll of toilet paper, shared it with the rest of us. Sharing is truly caring! Gratitude changes everything, even your neural pathways.
When stressed, fatigued, or triggered, especially after the first week of travel, old coping patterns tend to show up. I observed the patterns in others and myself and did my best to practice staying in my peace rather than getting hijacked by the behavior. If emotions show up, feel it and see what’s being triggered and what needs to be learned. I can handle impatience, irritability, negativity, and anxiety in others pretty well but my kryptonite is without a doubt when my kids argue and bicker with one another. It literally feels like nails on a chalkboard. I noticed the feeling and how I was venting about it. The trigger quickly passed, along with the kids’ argument. Whatever you need to practice will be given to you as a lesson, over and over again until you get it.
Not only were the lessons abundant but so were the viruses and bacteria when traveling in a foreign country with a large group of food tourists, who love to eat and share delicious food. We kicked off New Year’s Day with several of us getting hit with food poisoning and a stomach virus. Talk about letting go of what is no longer serving us. Our travel dispensary of probiotics, antimicrobial herbs, charcoal, and hydration packs came in handy and fortunately, we all recovered quickly. The biggest lesson here is to listen to your gut and be patient. The gut will revolt if a normal diet is resumed too quickly. Thank goodness for the Vietnamese version of the BRATT diet (bananas, rice, apples, tea, and toast) for diarrhea, which is rice porridge and pho made with bone broth. Trust the body and give it what it needs for healing. The body knows what it needs to do.
Go with the flow with boundaries. Although my dad had such good intentions and planned a very full trip filled with many fun activities, our collective endurance, including him, just couldn’t keep up.
We voiced our opinions about the importance of a balanced pace, relaxation, and rest and he was willing to be flexible with the itinerary. Learning to speak your truth and communicate with kindness, yet not sweat the small stuff, allows for greater flow, energy, and joy together.
Life can be short so enjoy it fully and be present for yourself and your loved ones. On New Year’s Eve, we sat around a bonfire in the beautiful mountains of Da Lat sharing what we wanted to create and manifest for 2024. We all agreed that we wanted less stress, more purpose, fun, creativity, work-life balance, and time with family. I intend to create more freedom, which will allow for more ease and flow with work, greater health and wellness for patients and myself, and time and presence for family and friends to play and have more adventures. I am so grateful for the focused, quality time with my family on such a memorable trip filled with family history and nostalgia, and I hope to experience many more moments of family connection and fun.
Wishing you an amazing 2024, abundant in wellness, peace, and adventures!
Yours in Wellness,
Dr. Suzanne Tang
www.inspirenaturalwellness.net
OC Whole Family Wellness
Whole Body Health Team
