Life as an Adventure & New Beginnings
Pavla Borg 
What a cold March, Mexico and ancient wisdom taught me about doing your best
May is called the month of love in my homeland… a celebration of connection, tenderness and the heart. Just ask our poet Karel Hynek Mácha. Interestingly, May is also increasingly associated with mental health awareness, a reminder that connection, love, community and feeling safe in our bodies are not luxuries… but part of wellbeing.
Last Sunday, we had our own kind of celebration. Not of romance… but of Life as an Adventure.
And when I think of love, new beginnings and adventure, my mind always goes back to Mexico, 1999.
The first March I spent in Malta, in 1998, I was freezing.
Not the romantic kind of cold… the damp, stubborn kind that gets into your bones. It was a rainy winter (we even had hail!) and without central heating, I was completely unprepared. Our villa had windows you could literally feel the wind coming through. Insulation was not really a thing on the island back then.
I barely left my room with the fan heater working overtime.
And I remember thinking very clearly:
I am not doing this again. Next March, I’m out of here.
Dramatic? A little...
A Month With No Plan
And a year later… we did exactly that.
No plan, no itinerary and no structure. Just a direction: March in Mexico.
We moved the same way life sometimes invites us to move… open, curious, without needing to control what comes next.
We climbed pyramids, swam in the ocean, drove across mountains with no GPS and no air conditioning. Every day felt like something was unfolding. And somewhere in the middle of that journey… life changed.
The Moment Everything Shifted
It didn’t happen on top of a pyramid or in some dramatic, cinematic way. It happened quietly.
In Puebla, the “city of tiles”, full of colour and life, I found out I was expecting. And suddenly, my own life was about to become much more colourful, too. Just like that: a moment that reshapes everything… and yet arrives so simply.
Suddenly, the adventure wasn’t just about where I was going.
It became about who I was becoming.
Life Doesn’t Follow a Plan
Looking back, I can see how little of that journey was planned…
and yet how perfectly it unfolded.
And that’s something we forget, isn’t it? We try to control everything, plan everything, optimise everything. But life doesn’t really ask for that.
It asks us to step into it and just do our best.
Raising children without a “village”… in a country I didn’t fully understand… that was a different kind of ice bath. I didn’t always get it right. In fact, there were many moments I felt like I was failing.
And then just this week, my neighbour called my children an example of “good mothering”. I had to smile because she didn’t see the doubt, the mess, the uncertainty. She just saw the outcome.
All I ever did… was my best.
When “Doing More” Takes Us Further Away
And that’s something I’ve been reflecting on again recently, through The Four Agreements, a guide based on Toltec wisdom by which to live your life. They include Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions and Always Do Your Best.
There’s a story about a man who wants to transcend his suffering.
He asks the master:
“If I meditate four hours a day, how long will it take me to transcend?”
“Ten years,” the master says.
So he asks:
“What if I meditate eight hours a day?”
“Twenty years.”
And when he asks why doing more would take longer, the answer is simple:
“You are not here to sacrifice your joy or your life. You are here to live, to be happy, and to love.”
The Same Lesson in Cold Water
I shared this at our recent ice bath meetup for a reason.
Because I see it all the time.
People often come into breathwork or cold exposure thinking they need to stay longer, push harder, prove something.
But the cold has no interest in your performance. It meets you exactly where you are.
Some days, your best is strong and steady.
Other days, your best is stepping in… taking a breath… and stepping out.
And some days, your best is simply saying: Not today.
And all of that counts.
What “Doing Your Best” Really Means
We often hear “do your best” as a call to do more... but it isn’t.
Doing your best means being honest with yourself, respecting your capacity and staying present.
Because your best changes with your energy, with your life, with the moment you are in.
The Power of Simple Rituals
Mexico will always have a deeper meaning for me… and since Cinco de Mayo was only two days away (commemorating the unexpected victory of Mexican forces at the Battle of Puebla... yes, the same colourful city I mentioned earlier!), I brought a little of Mexico into our gathering.
Before entering the water, we passed around fresh aloe vera.
Simple, natural, cooling... a gift from a kind man at Vincent Eco Farm (one of my favourite shops on the island).
It grows abundantly here in Malta, yet most people still look for it in a pharmacy. It soothes the skin, supports healing and even has benefits for digestion… but in that moment, it became something else. A way to arrive. A way to turn the ordinary into extraordinary.
After the cold, we shared food inspired by Mexico.
Just simple, intentional nourishment because as the old proverb goes: 'when diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need'.
Warm horchata with cinnamon, dates and tiger nut milk.
Popcorn with olive oil and herbs.
Corn taco wraps with sweet potato and chickpeas.
Cacao tahini cookies… with a hint of chilli because where there is Mexico, there is cacao.
Food as a love language. The Mexicans truly understand that one!
Adventure Is Not What We Think
We talk about adventure as if it has to be big but sometimes adventure looks like something much smaller.
Stepping into cold water when part of you wants to stay warm.
Listening to your body instead of pushing through it.
Allowing an experience… without trying to control it.
Final Reflection
There’s something quietly powerful in the Toltec wisdom behind the Four Agreements:
You are not here to exhaust yourself trying to become better.
You are here to live, to love and to experience fully.
To show up… and do your best.
And sometimes, your best is not more effort.
Sometimes, your best is taking a breath… and trusting what comes next.
Life is an adventure.
Not because we control it… but because we are willing to step into it.
Que siga la aventura...
Categories: : Breathwork & Meditation, Cold exposure, Travel