Contemplating Contentedness

In this video I contemplate a feeling of content that I began to experience after spending one full week living the lifestyle of my dreams.

This video was shot on my first night staying alone on a remote farm in Ujire, India.

I'm still working on correcting a few annoyances with regards to making videos (for example, I say "umm" and "you guys" way too much). If you have any other suggestions for me, please let me know. I'm shooting for semi-structured clips; I don't want the entire thing planned out, but at the same time I don't want to be umm'ing throughout the whole video.

Write a Comment

Comment

14 Comments

  1. Hi Raam, glad to see you are doing so well. Some questions that popped into my mind.
    -What kind of camera are you using to film the videos?
    -The background noise is all insects?!
    -Do you miss anything about the US yet or haven’t felt that?

    I think you can play around with video editing a bit, cut out stuff.. add in photos and videos of the things you are describing so we can see it as you talk, etc. Viewers can get more information out of them within a short time frame.

    Keep up the great work!

    • Hi Jeannette! Good to hear from you!

      The camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1. I absolutely love this camera!

      Yes, the background noise is ALL insects! It’s absolutely incredible here at night. There are NO biting insects… no mosquitoes, no black flies, nothing! Back in the states, if it was this warm, I would be eaten alive!

      What do I miss about the US… hmm… I haven’t really felt that yet, but I suppose the food and the familiarity. Out here everything is unfamiliar. I hear something move in the woods and I have no idea if it’s something that’s going to eat me or just a deer. In the states, I have a good idea what wildlife exists and where. Here, everything is an unknown.

      Thanks for the suggestions on the video. I definitely want to make a couple clips with pictures mixed in, but editing takes time. And right now, I have extremely slow Internet access at the farm (and only solar for power), so I’d have to trek into town and get WiFi + power there. I’ve already shot the next few videos and they will be all uncut and raw.

      I really do love the way video can get across so much information in a short period of time. 🙂

      Thank you for the comment and for stopping by!

  2. I appreciate what you’re saying about dreams and making them happen. Unfortunately, there are certain situations in life (and in mine in particular) where your suggestions don’t really apply. Maybe it’s just me but there’s something I’ve dreamed about and wanted to make happen and, no matter what I did, it fell to shit anyway. What happens when, despite our best efforts, the things that we want most flutter away from us? Suggestions? Do we pursue new dreams even when they’re not the things we most desire?

    • My suggestion would be to follow dreams that are in your control — follow dreams that don’t have external dependencies.

      Remember that happiness (you didn’t say your dream was happiness, but I assume it is, since that’s what most everyone wants) doesn’t require anything external to ourselves but rather must come from within.

      We have but limited time in this life and we need to do everything in our power to make the most of it.

  3. Wow, Raam. You are living the dream and I can feel your energy when I hear you talk about how it feels to live that dream. I know what you mean and it’s really inspiring. Thanks for sharing!

  4. thanks for the video .. it was very inspirational.. its really making me think and get my ass back in gear for what i really want in my life.. i mean i am already too old.. ahahahah

  5. I love the ideas I’ve seen put forth on this site and your videos are great. Your words of encouragement to take action are inspiring as I’m a sophomore in college planning to take a year off to refocus and figure out a lot of stuff (simplifying, balancing, and exploring existence are good ways to put it) . I’ll definitely be checking back to see how your travels go.

    • Thank you, Miller!

      I’m happy to hear you’re planning to take a year off to refocus — I really believe doing that will give you new insight and help you avoid unnecessarily wasting time refocusing down the road!