The Pace of Life
This is probably my favorite post in the series because it's the one thing I cherish the most in Mexico. During the first year we lived in Puerto Vallarta, I don't think I've ever felt more at ease. There was no constant rushing, no endless schedules, no feeling that every hour had to be productive. One of the biggest lessons I learned was, "Today is Monday... and that's all it is. I don't need to worry that tomorrow is Tuesday." Some Mondays I did absolutely nothing. The same happened on Tuesdays. Weekends were simply weekends, not two frantic days to recover from the previous five. Somehow, you recharge a little every single day.
After 35 years in the corporate world, that feeling was incredibly strange at first. Every morning I instinctively reached for my phone to check emails. There weren't any. No meetings. No spreadsheets. No presentations waiting for me. It took time for my mind to accept that this was my new reality. The moment I realized something had truly changed was when my sleep changed. Back in California, five or six hours of sleep was normal, usually interrupted at 3:00 a.m. because I suddenly remembered I had forgotten a slide in tomorrow's presentation. In Mexico, that simply stopped. I started sleeping seven or eight uninterrupted hours, waking up rested instead of already stressed.
Life also moves to a different rhythm. Don't become obsessed with exact times or expect everything to happen on your schedule. If someone tells you they're on their way, they probably are... but it may take a little longer than you expected. And somehow, that's okay. What's the rush? Sometimes things happen slower. Sometimes they're surprisingly fast. What many people call mañana isn't laziness. It's a different relationship with time, priorities, and stress. It was one of the hardest adjustments for me at first, but in the end, it became one of the greatest gifts Mexico gave me.
