My sister called me last night to tell me a mutual friend (someone she loved deeply and I knew and loved) had died — alone and quietly in his house just steps from the beach. 

Those of you who read this blog and the magazine will know that the beach is my favorite place in the world.

To me, “the beach” is not necessarily a warm tropical place with white sand and palm trees (although I do like that particular scenario). To me, the beach is a real place — winter or summer — hot or cold — it’s where I find peace of mind. It’s where I watch the ebb and flow of the tide and think about the ebb and flow of life.

I was at the beach with my sister on Sunday — an unseasonably warm New England afternoon we could not resist as our “last chance” this year. We ate lunch, walked for nearly an hour, basked in the sun and even dipped in the ocean. It was cold, but I was determined to set a personal record of Oct. 21 - last day of the season in the water.

Our friend, who was loved by more people than he ever understood or accepted, may have been gone while we were savoring our last day of summer. He died because he succumbed to his own demons – demons he couldn’t push away even though he was buttressed by the love of too many people to count.

His death will leave a hole in my life, but it will forever affect our mutual loved ones.  I’ll remember the good times - dancing at a party (my bad knee collapsed and he was mortified); offbeat singalongs (he declined to take center stage, but always sang along); and a kiss on the cheek the last time I saw him — in mid-August at a gathering where I was assembling an antipasto — he picked at the plate and gave me a hello kiss as I swatted his hand.

I realize my fellow GT bloggers write about travel. I seem to be drawn to reflections on life. Thanks for indulging me.

Energy balancing. Channeling through chakras. Feng Shui. Where I travel, I always look to see what aspects of the trip, or culture, I can bring back with me and apply to my daily life. In the Gulf, I had an energy balancing session at the Six Senses Spa in Doha.  I appreciated the spa treatment before I started because before we began, I was told to take everything in with a grain of salt - my natural rule of thumb.

The treatment began with a consultation to figure out what part of my charka, or aura, needed to be “balanced” (and here I didn’t know energy needed balancing)! When talking, my stress factor screamed to the spa therapist and we chose to channel the treatment towards learning to say “no” to more people in order to take some time for myself, instead of overextending myself. Having decided on the focal point, we got to work.

We were in a beautiful, circular room in the spa and I laid down on a mattress in the middle of the floor and closed my eyes. The therapist went into her own meditation mode. I figured I stayed conscience for about 15 minutes and fell asleep for the remaining 45. Before falling asleep, I felt my left arm tingle and go numb, my eyes felt like they were popping out of their sockets and my chest gave a jolt.

When I woke, we went over what the therapist felt through my Chakra’s. What amazed me most was how she hit on points of my life we didn’t discuss. My left arm tingled, as I understood the explanation, because the left arm is for the taking and the right arm is for the giving. Not taking enough for myself caused my arm to tingle.

My stomach, or relationship chakra, was empty and my heart was deeply hurt. She said she spent a lot of time on my heart and that is probably why I felt it jump, even though she did not touch me.  Little did she know, I just had a bad breakup. My eyes went crazy due to the stress I was feeling. The good news was that she said I was grounded with a pure heart!

Of course, I took this with a grain of salt, but nonetheless, it opened my eyes to how important it is to listen to yourself and to focus on your own energy. For me, this will help me to not allow stress to rule my life and react more calmly in challenging situations. Of course, this is all said more easily than done!

Fast forward to this week in China, I had a fascinating conversation on Feng Shui and how it can be applied to persona, or professional lives. I learned how multi-million dollar businesses and businessmen in Hong Kong have their own feng shui consultants that can cost up to ten thousand dollars. Many Chinese, when entering a new office, often bring a Feng Shui master to set up each office for the personnel or help a top executive when business starts to take a downturn. Feng Shui is taken very seriously and often does the trick. Learning about one business today that turned around after listening to the Feng Shui master can be seen as the workings of the spiritual world, or to others perhaps it was just a boost of morale and confidence - good mind over matter theory.

Whether is was mind over matter, or a higher power at work, it’s fascinating to know how different people and cultures handle similar situations - after all, isn’t that what Globility is all about?

-Alexandra Young, vice president and associate publisher