Peace and Contentment

I wanted to share this story with you because I didn’t think it was possible, but one year later I have proven myself wrong!

In February of 2012 I was feeling overwhelmed with all that was going on in my life and I felt a calling to go to Hawaii and I knew I needed to go by myself.  So I booked a flight and arranged to stay at a yoga retreat in an isolated rain forest.  The whole experience was amazing (although sometimes challenging J), I spent a week by myself at the retreat and then my husband joined me for the second week at a resort on the sunny side of the island.  When I returned to regular life, I felt recharged, peaceful and content, with so much clarity.  Two months later I felt I was losing this wonderful feeling and by August it was only a faint memory (I had yet to learn how to recognize my needs and get them met in a healthy way).  When I first started working with my life coach a year ago I told her about my Hawaii experience and how I wanted to return to that feeling.  At the time I didn’t think it was possible to recreate it while living in my everyday life, I thought it was something that was only available on vacation. Well I am happy to tell you that one year later, I have found a way to get that peaceful feeling in my everyday life!  I am not saying that I feel like I am on vacation everyday, but there are pockets of time, days, and sometimes a whole week where I actually do have this same vacation feeling.  How did this happen? I am sure it has all been a process, one step at a time and many of you have been there with me along this journey so are familiar with it. Definitely embracing personal growth and learning to love and accept myself just as I am has been a huge contributing factor, but so have all of the self care rituals I have instituted.  We often think self care is selfishness but that is totally wrong, it is absolutely necessary to create the peace and balance we all need.  For me it was taking time every morning to enjoy a relaxed cup of coffee and a guided meditation.  It was being aware of when I needed time alone and then making sure I took that time to relax and recharge.  It was knowing when I needed to have some fun, enjoy a concert, dinner with friends, time with my children. It was starting a gratitude journal and making it a priority to write in it every day and it was above all else pursing my passion by sharing my experiences with all of you through this blog.

 
Give it a try yourself, find something you like to do when you are on vacation that you can implement into your daily routine.  Bring that fun, relaxation and peaceful feeling vacations provide into your everyday life, one small step at a time. . .  you can do it!