If I stop and think about the people I admire the most on this planet, the image of an adventurer whose beard almost reaches his navel comes to my mind, a wanderer, a soulmate who just like me decided to put all his belongings in a backpack to go very far, to get lost and thus try to find himself. Our paths cross again, it seems that we are destined to meet at the extreme north. This time we met surrounded by ice and fire in Iceland, where the sound of elements and the majesty of nature give free rein to imagination, and let us fantasize and explore different perspectives, this is a big opportunity to know a little more about this humble master: Kike Arnaiz. I don’t think I do it on purpose, but from the outside I look like a very calm and very patient person, and I am, but since I was a child I have a short attention and I’ve been very calm, but inside I’m too active. Sometimes I tell people “woah I feel so excited” and I look super calm, but inside I feel an unbelievable energy. I don’t know whether I do it naturally or if it’s something I learned working the land or because I’ve always lived surrounded by nature, I grew up in a village on the mountains, surrounded by trees in a very calm environment; I feel that in order to maintain my harmony I need to be in that place, when I stay too long in a city I’m not myself, when I stay too long in a big group of people I’m not myself, and when I’m in places like this one I feel fully myself, I feel that this is my peace, that this is my body and that this is my true way of being. But as I told you, everything is not what it seems, and although I look so patient, there have been many conflicts inside me, and something that really helped me to be like I am now and to live like I’m doing now is therapy, for many years of my life I’ve been going to therapy with a psychologist. I felt lost many times. It’s good isn’t it? I like feeling lost, I need it every now and then, I almost live feeling lost and I often find myself in a state of continuous meditation. Eventually meditating is not thinking, going with the flow, and I believe I do it unintentionally, many times I feel like I am in another world. If I started meditating right now, I believe I will fly somewhere else almost immediately. I don’t know if this occurs to you too, but I believe that feeling sad from time to time is good for you, sometimes I need it and when I feel sad I embrace it and think “now it is time to feel sad” and I feel good in my sadness because I know that there are ups and downs, and you have to accept it and live one’s own sadness every now and then. I suffered from severe depression many times in my life, and for years I suffered from anxiety too, when I was 15 or 16 years old I sometimes couldn’t breathe and I didn’t understand what was going on, I thought I had some sort of physical problem, I went to the doctor and did radiographies and they didn’t know what I had, and what I really had was depression and anxiety; I want to send a message to the world and tell that psychologists are fundamental doctors, when you have a headache or a stomach-ache you go see a doctor, and when you have a mental issue you should do the same, they are necessary and they helped me a lot, I went to therapy for years and now I think I am a better, happier and healthier person, I can control my emotions and feelings. I suffered from severe depressions, when I was 15 or 16 I didn’t know what to do with my life and I was feeling lost, too lost, and speaking of disorders, I spent a year with really serious thoughts, but in the end time heals, and psychologists too. I have chronic Lyme’s disease, or at least I think I do, because it’s a very controversial disease, which sometimes not even doctors know, and there are also people who deny it because it’s an illness you get from tick bites, and if it’s not treated in time it becomes chronic. It happened when I was in the US, and in Europe I spent a lot of time trying to know what I had, and this was the worst thing, I spent years looking for a diagnosis while I was suffering a lot because a pain that wouldn’t go away, and living with this “secret” has been very painful. Now I just think that the bacteria chose the wrong body to settle in, because I learnt to live with it, I live with pain, a very intense pain, every day my ears, my throat, my body hurt, but it is a part of me now and I think I’m doing my best to live normally without thinking about it. Right now I truly feel lucky, I believe I’m very happy and if you ask me where do I see myself in five or ten years from now I just don’t know, I don’t even have plans for next week, can you imagine ten years? I like change, I think it’s one of the things that make me happy, experiencing continuously new things, having new adventures, new inputs, therefore for sure in ten years I’ll be living something different, perhaps I’ll be doing the same thing, travelling all the time, but for sure I’ll be doing something that at least makes me happy. Faced to the idea of dying, of disappearing, I believe, and I only can believe because I can’t know for sure, that death is the end, and it seems to me like a good thing because we live in a world in which everything has a beginning and an end, and we should have one too, and thanks to this we live end enjoy moments like this one, don’t we? Imagine if nothing had an end and you could live forever, reincarnate in another being or go to heaven, you wouldn’t appreciate some moments in the same way, therefore I don’t only believe that after there is nothing, I also like to think so, I like to think that we should appreciate and enjoy every second. Sadly I don’t think that future generations will see what we are seeing now, in the same way we can’t see what they saw before, because of how the world has changed since we’re here, but unfortunately now more than ever some things will cease to exist. Feeling nature so pure and close to us is already something that is almost extinguished. We still have time to change that, but it requires the whole world to be united I’m not an expert and for sure there are exceptions to this, but I think that the human being is good by nature. I think that by travelling, especially in the countries you go to with an unjustified fear, the ones people tell you that are very dengerous and that you have to be careful and when you go there people are very welcoming and willing to help you, you realize that we are just scared; sure, there are some bad people in the world, but I think it’s mostly because of a bad upbringing, bad experiences, bad life conditions. I believe that deep down we all have a good heart. I think it’s good to feel inspired by the work of others, especially by the work that had been done before you, to develop or to improve it, but most of all I look for inspiration where there is no art; after living a stressful life or working too much, or being focused on something, when you stop and let the subconscious work inspiration comes. Sometimes I spend the whole day travelling, and when I stop and go to sleep and I take thirty seconds for myself, everything comes to me, the books I’ve read, the movies I’ve seen, the paths I’ve walked, the smells I smelled, it’s when I don’t think about them that they come. It’s typical to wake up at night with an idea and feeling the need to write it down, I think that everything is stored in the subconscious and that every once in a while it knocks at your door, but I never go looking for it, I never say “I’m going out to look for inspiration”, I wait for it to come to me. -I want to know your opinion on drugs – well I don’t use them, maybe a coffee from time to time, but I’ve had a quite lively adolescence, I used to play in a band and every weekend we would go play a concert and I used to drink and I didn’t get enough rest, but it has always been quite normal. Now it’s been years since I drank alcohol, I almost never do, for different reasons, the first one is that I don’t need it, the second one is to care for my health because of my illness, every time I drink I feel that my body and my immune system get a little bit weaker, therefore I avoid it, but I respect people who do it wisely and carefully, especially with some kind of drugs. Some of them may take you to chaos and ruin, others may just give you knowledge and take you to different worlds, but always with care and respect. I love Scandinavian culture, I think I could live here, I’d like to try. For me light is life, it’s fundamental, and in this moment of the year Iceland is pure light, but in winter living in the darkness for long periods of time… I would honestly like to try, just to know how it is to have more time for yourself and to think, but I think that I wouldn’t resist long term Do I believe in god? In which god, what is god? We’re in an ancient Viking village right now, a thousand years ago these people used to believe in their gods, Odin, Tyr, Freya, and they would go to war knowing that if they died they would go to celebrate with their gods in Valhalla, and that if they hadn’t died in a battle they would go to hell, the “Hel”, and they needed this because not only they believed, they knew that they would go to celebrate with their gods after the death. By travelling you realize this: depending on where you go, live or where you’re born, you believe in a god or in another one, and this makes you think about how being born in a place influences your beliefs for instance, going back to the Vikings, we don’t call their gods “gods” anymore, we don’t call their religion “religion”, we call it mythology. What happened? Did the gods die? A god really dies when people stop believing. Voltaire said “there is no God, but don’t tell my servant, lest he murders me at night”, religion had and has a very important role in the upbringing and in the union between people, and I admire it and love reading about its history, but right now I don’t believe in any god. Everything I’m saying is a personal view, the existence of god can be proved in the same way you can prove the existence of dragons or unicorns, it’s matter of faith, but I really admire religions’ principles, historically religions have been pillars in cultures and in the union between people, and this is amazing, religions have been fundamental in our development as a society, furthermore many religions have principles like respecting and loving others. I believe that this is the most important thing, believing in something that makes you happy and that doesn't damage anybody.
