FOMOs and MOMOs

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Travelling these days has become a bit of a mental workout, mostly due to my overthinking. I’m still in the middle of a trip, but let me share some reflections from my ongoing journey. 

It started with an airport announcement: “Flight delayed due to technical issues.” Two keywords – ‘delay’ and ‘technical issues’ - set my mind on a whirlwind of overthinking. 


Delay meant potential FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) from the conference’s first day. Maybe even a MOMO - Mystery Of Missing Out. What if I missed the 1st day, and no one noticed that I was not even there? That is more intense than FOMO. (I don’t think I had MOMO at that time ). But then I realized: why not embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)? The conference would continue without me just fine—I’m not that indispensable!

 

Technical issues raised bigger concerns. My mind spun tales of in-air catastrophes and set off a FOA (Fear of Accidents) and FOD (Fear of Death). These aren’t fears I like to think about, but the whole episode reminded me that some deep fears tend to raise their heads at times like these. Jesus’ statement - “Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly,” seemed a bit far away at that point of time. 

 

Clearly, I still have some lessons to learn about living with more freedom and lightness than overthinking! Thinking of YOLO (You Only Live Once), despite knowing deep in my heart that there is life beyond this one, pushed me into FOA and FOD. 


Then came the added layer of uncertainty: “Will I miss my connection? Will my luggage make it?” That came out of FLC - Fear of Losing Control. Once again, I was reminded of how much I still need to practice releasing control.

 

As I feared, my luggage didn’t make it with me. It arrived some 12-14 hours later, much to the amusement of the conference attendees because it had happened twice before, too. 

 

One friend from Africa brought up a story summing up my overthinking and pace. He reminded me of a tale: “An American on safari had pushed his guides to march almost day and night. On the fourth morning, the guides refused to move and instead lounged under a tree well into the morning. Exasperated, the American asked why. A guide responded, ‘We’re waiting for our souls to catch up with our bodies.’”

 

With a laugh, he said, “Seems like your luggage is having a tough time keeping up with you too, like the soul of the traveller. Maybe you’re travelling too fast!”

 

It was the perfect reminder. FOMO, FOA, FOD, FLC, YOLO - they’re all matters of the soul. I need to learn to travel with soul and body moving together at a pace they can both keep. And travel with more rest and ease, overthink less, and think over these more! 

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