AUNG
Meditating
It hasn’t been long since I started meditating for a few minutes every morning. Although I’ve been praying every night for years, I didn’t consider meditation until around June or July of last year. When I first began, my mind was uncontrollable – it wandered to thoughts about exams, the future, and sometimes even what I was going to have for lunch. But lately, I’ve noticed that meditation helps calm and relax my mind. During meditation, I try not to think of anything and simply focus on my breath. It’s still difficult to control my thoughts, but it really does help soothe my mind and reduce my stress. I’m still practicing, and occasionally, my mind still drifts, but I’m getting better at it.
A person from your childhood
When I was young, I used to read a comic book called Bo Bo and ET. Bo Bo was a human boy, and ET was an alien from another planet who lived with Bo Bo’s family. ET was very helpful and creative. He would always assist Bo Bo whenever he faced difficulties, like school exams or homework, by inventing machines that could do the work for him or help him memorize for exams. This way, Bo Bo didn’t have to put in much effort. Sometimes, when Bo Bo was bullied, ET would invent a machine to take revenge. From my childhood perspective, Bo Bo’s life seemed so easy and carefree. I really wished I had an ET of my own to handle everything for me. Even now, sometimes I still wish it would be nice to have my own ET to help me overcome difficulties without putting in so much effort. I know it’s a silly or immature thought, but I can’t help but wish for it sometimes.

to find myself. . .
As Sylviane said at the end, she didn’t like to be alone and she wanted to travel around the US to find herself. For these reasons she went to the retreat. I think, she thought that this event could be helpful for her to get some new feelings, experience and emotions, plus to develop her own personality. However, it didn’t work out.
She dreamed of something exciting and adventurous but she couldn’t concentrate during the retreat, so it became a real challenge for her. I suppose, even she didn’t know what it meant to find herself at that moment.
As for me, to find myself means a combination of many different things in my life: family, career and peace of mind. Now I have only one of them, my family (me, my husband and daughter) where we are trying to support each other every day. Also I hope to return to my career as an engineer, but this time in the US, because I had passion and really enjoyed working in the construction field in Russia.
In the end, strong relationship with my family and building a career will bring me peace of mind.

Some people meditate. . . and some do not
Indeed, the meditation may be considered as a way to relaxation. However, it may not suit everyone. Some people can “switch off” the mind and just feel a relief, while the other will start to think over and over again if the brain is not occupied by something.
I think that I am more like Sylviane. If I try to meditate, I will just be disrupted by the things that happen around.
The following may sound absurd, but this is true.
In my native country, I was visiting my dentist every several months for teeth cleaning. For this procedure, I was always ordering nitrous oxide (N₂O), or so-called laughing gas. These 30-40 minutes were always like a total refreshment. For me it was a feeling while you are sleeping and are awake at the same time. It was a moment of complete relaxation, when you can think about anything and can think about nothing. I was always joking with the dentist that I was coming for the cleaning just for relaxation.
Some might say it’s a kind of addiction. Well, I will not argue. But as soon as it works and seems not to do much harm, I don’t mind being addicted.
Just a little bit of Frenchness. . .
Je veux parler l’Anglais aussi vite que mademoiselle Sylviane parle le Français.
Je pense qu’elle avait beaucoup de raconter, et ce pourquoi elle parlait si rapidement.
Enough for the jokes. In fact, I do think that Sylviane was very expressive, emotional and choleric person. Besides that, she had to remain silent for a longtime. This silence is like a hole in a shipboard. Once it appear, a lot of the efforts are needed to shut it.
No wonder that when the silence seal was over, Sylviane just blew with the speech and told everything to Jack not even thinking that he may not understand a word.
So many different thoughts were expressed. So many feelings came out of her. As she was alone not just in a foreign country, but on another continent, the loneliness was just crushing her out.
Just a little remark. I did write the above without seeing the movie for the second time. Once I did, I realized that my feelings about Sylviane were correct. She was indeed afraid of loneliness.
And finally, she expected a bit more from Cette Grande Voyage a L’Amerique. But what she was seeing in fact were rest stops and McDonald’s which seemed to be everywhere. She’s a poor little dreamer.

What Sylviane said. . .
She wanted to break free from solitude, so she decided to come to the USA in search of new opportunities to face her biggest fear: being alone. However, the plan didn’t work. She had a vision of what America could be, inspired by Thor Heyerdahl’s journey. Unfortunately, she didn’t find extraordinary adventures on her trip – she only found McDonald’s everywhere. She felt like she was standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon with no one to share it with. When her retirement ended, she had the feeling that she hadn’t completed her search.
Believing in Her Own Story
In my opinion, after watching and mixing it with the original version, I think she believed in her own story. She took her time before starting a relationship, and after building a family, she decided to try again to achieve her goals. Finally, she found herself enjoying being alone after she separated from Clark.
About McDonald’s
I think maybe she was on a road trip around the country, and all along the way, she only saw rest stops and McDonald’s. She imagined America to be different.
Finding yourself
I think she wanted to be happy by herself. Maybe she didn’t have healthy relationships and didn’t know what true relationships were. She needed time to think about what she needed to do, and retirement was the opportunity to organize all her thoughts and decide who she wanted to be for herself.
For me, finding myself during this period has meant taking action in small things, like cutting my hair. For a long time, I straightened it and used extensions, but now I enjoy wearing my natural hair. I’ve learned not to let others’ decisions affect me and to understand that the actions of others are not personal – they are just their choices.

Meditation
Nowadays people are often speaking about meditation. I understand the reason – stress. When a person is meditating it contributes to relaxation, calms down the mind, and breath control. All of these actions contribute to the stress reduction. I don’t meditate and never tried. I think if I’ll try to meditate it’ll come out like Sylviane. Even when I’m trying to sleep my thoughts don’t let me relax. As I said before, the movies and videogames help me to relax my mind, because I’m concentrating on something specific.
Maybe it can be considered my meditation.

Meditation
Listening to light music, reading, working out and traveling help me to relax.
Finding yourself
Finding herself means discovering the true meaning of her life. She needs to reflect on what kind of life she truly wants to live. In the beginning, none of us really know who we are or where we want to go. We often make mistakes, such as choosing the wrong jobs or getting stuck in unhealthy relationships. It’s important to think deeply about these experiences, learn from them, and realign our thoughts and actions.
Finding ourselves is never easy, but by continually trying and making adjustments without fear, we can eventually reach a place of self-discovery, not perfect, but without regret.
As the Chinese saying goes, 人生如棋,落子无悔: life is like a game of chess – once a move is made, it cannot be undone.

Meditation
Unfortunately, I can’t meditate. I tried, but I can’t! Maybe it’s because my brain isn’t calm and I can’t stay quiet a long time. I have a few ways those make me calm:
• the first and the best of them is to go to a sauna. I love to warm up my body really hot and then pour ice water over it. I read research of processes occurring in the human body at this time and know that at this moment, opioid-type hormones are released in the brain. This means that I can already be considered an “addict” of this process. This studies also determined that this hormone is destroyed within 15 minutes. Since I steam for 2-3 hours and repeatedly douse myself with cold water, the opioid lasts a long time and it relaxes me.
• the second way is to turn on dynamic music and start moving (dancing, cleaning the apartment…). After I get tired I will calm down too and can relax.
Finding yourself
As for me, although I lived according to the patterns of society (got an education, started a family, raised children, found an interesting profession), but at the same time I tried to develop, work on myself. I did not get lost in life and consider myself a realized person.
My immigration at such a mature age was given to me for further self-realization, and I will definitely find myself here too!!

Meditation
For the past few years, I’ve been trying to practice meditation. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes not so much. The most challenging part was at the beginning – my mind and body resisted. It’s better now, but I still struggle to make it a consistent habit.
I want to practice regularly because meditation helps clear the mind of imposed ideas, false values, and unnecessary information. It allows me to understand myself on a deeper level, focus on my true desires and priorities, and find harmony within. Meditation is also a way to restore energy and replenish strength.
At the same time, it’s always a challenge for me, as looking deeply within myself can be difficult and requires courage to face the truth. Most of the time, we live in the routine of our days, surrounded by an environment we’ve built ourselves, and there’s always something to lose. I believe this fear – the fear of losing what we already have – comes from the uncertainty of what might happen when we meet our true selves.
Given how fast life has become over the past couple of decades and how overloaded our informational space is, I think it’s crucial to dedicate time to ourselves and look inward more often.

Childhood heroes
In my childhood and youth, many heroes from novels impressed me. I loved to read about discoveries, adventures, and love stories. Of course, I felt for my favorite characters, admired them, and cried with them. I am sure they all left a deep mark on my soul and my view of the world. They all shared qualities like incredible courage, strength of spirit, nobility, and fearlessness.
In my childhood, characters like Robinson Crusoe, Captain Nemo were my favorites, and they showed the powerful qualities of survival, exploration, and the desire for the unknown. Later, there were heroes like Osceola and Martin Eden, whose stories inspired me. I dreamed of sailing around the world like the first great navigators and explorers, overcoming storms, scurvy, pirates, and dangers.
From what I’ve read recently, I was deeply impressed by Annie Sullivan from The Miracle Worker, who managed to overcome huge difficulties and achieve the impossible thanks to her incredible persistence.

Meditation
Indeed, Meditation is one way which helps people to relax. Different people have different way to relax. I do not meditate even though for long time I have always plan to meditate. In fact, when I was freshman a classmate told me about meditation.
He explained all the benefits you can get from meditation. I can not remember off the top of my head all the benefits. However, I do remember telling him me to try meditation at least twice a day – in the morning either when I wake up or before leaving home and before going to bed at night. I always promised him to do it but I have not done it.
Even last year, I met an immigrant like me with whom we were sharing our issues and she was telling me how much meditation helps her to relax and overcome some issues. I took the resolution again to start meditation but so far I have done one session.
Hopefully this story will inspire me to join a group of meditation or to start alone.