Simply Living: Who looks inside, awakens.

"Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow." ~ Quoted by Paul H Dunn We often find ourselves searching for happiness-- like it's a bus stop we can just get off at, concluding our travels through daily turmoils. But when we're too busy waiting for the bus to stop to get off, we miss everything along our journey. And what I've began to realize lately is to not only appreciate the beauty and the scenery I witness out of the window, but also the destruction or the bumps in the road. Too often we're always searching for the happiness we feel can be reached and kept, like the happy endings we watch in movies. We don't see what happens after the movie is over; all we're left with is the final scene of the happy, smiling couple or the disputing family finally reconciling their differences. That...

Recently there has been a multitude of changes in my life. There was a point where my positivity went running and dove into hiding, no where to be found, leaving me feeling completely unbalanced. I've always uncovered the light in any dark situation, but could not for the life of me find the "on" switch.. for weeks, maybe even months. But in searching for what I couldn't regain, I found something I would have never discovered about myself if I had not been put into the recent situations-- I found enlightenment; enlightenment I hadn't experienced before. It wasn't that previously I always found the positive in every situation, it was that I just subconsciously chose to ignore the negatives. For years, and even through my father's death, I pushed away anything that caused me to feel badly. In my mind, I was looking at the bright side by not letting it effect me, but truly all I was doing was preserving it for a later time. And with each ignored feeling, I...

Frequently we find ourselves going through life on what could be considered autopilot. We become too consumed in our own thoughts, not that focusing on ourself is negative, but we tend to engulf ourselves in our own conundrums and internal conflicts. This causes us to pull the blinds down over others which are also faced with the same worries and thoughts. We forget that others have the same emotions, and no matter the severity, we should treat them with the same tenderness we treat ourselves. Every person is and feels differently than the next, meaning some may handle their emotions differently, taking what may seem minuet to you a bit more personally and on a different level of consciousness.  Some could argue, "we should never take anything personally." But what about those of us who are still working on that trait? Personally, I have read and scanned through The Four Agreements  multiple times, the second agreement being, ' Don't Take Anything Personally ....

I read an article called  But Will It Make You Happy? , a few days ago that really caught (and kept) my attention. Basically it's about an average couple (Tammy and Logan) who shared a two bedroom house, two vehicles, and the normal household amenities. Even with all the "stuff" they had accumulated over the years and their good paying jobs, they weren't satisfied in their lives. So one day the couple decided to live by the "100 Things Challenge" and any excess "stuff" left over after the chosen hundred was either donated or sold. Read more about their journey to simplicity on Tammy Strobel's blog  Rowdy Kittens . (I really enjoyed her post on a new way to use baking soda). They had a combined debt of $30,000 but after selling most of their stuff, their two cars, and home, they were able to pay it all off. Not only are they now debt free, but are living in an adorable studio apartment in the eco-friendly city of Portland, Oregon, comfortably...

Pianist, Ludovico Einaudi has captured my heart. His nonverbal melodies have spoken to me louder than any poet, self-help guide, or spiritual leader has preached. Einaudi's music has been on repeat in my itunes for days, and I cannot get enough-- specifically his piece called "I Giorni". I've been fortunate enough to have three days away from work, aside from a brief meeting on Monday. During my extended weekend, I explored more into my sense of "self". Friday night after work, and an even longer work-week, I was a scattered mess, feeling a little misunderstood and unbalanced. I put on Einaudi and simply listened. I felt what it was like again, for the first time in a long time, to have a quiet mind. Given, before hitting play on his album, I jumbled together my brutally raw emotions and put them in a long (okay, 7 paragraphs) email to my mom in Costa Rica. I typed each word without looking back; cried, laughed, and cried again, I wrote. After, I felt refres...

There is undeniably a certain part of me that I've habited to ignore, or push to the side. I have (very much so) a restless soul. My moods change back and forth, similar to a traffic light: Red, green, yellow, then red again. In my previous post, I mentioned blaming myself for my faults and past mistakes. I think from a souls prospective, we forget that we're human. We beat ourselves up for something that has since happened, and by our dwelling on it, what good does that do for us? Absolutely nothing. We are meant to make mistakes and have faults in order to understand the good in ourselves.  In part, I believe the restlessness stems from my being a daydreamer. I have all of these ideas on traveling, or visions of new places around the world, but haven't actually visited them physically. I sometimes feel as though I'm being shaken at the edges of my shoulders by my inner-self; It's trying to tell me that it's possible to do all of these things, I just hav...

If I could characterize myself in one word, that word would be daydreamer. I build entire empires and scenarios in my mind, and watch as if I were a 10 year old glaring at the Cartoon Network channel on a Sunday morning. I'm very much a thinker, often times to a fault. That aspect of my personality builds on my sensitivity which gets the best of me, but has eased as I've grown older. (I've contemplated adding a photo, but I'd like you to visualize this scene yourself. Everyone's visualization will be different, which is absolutely beautiful.) As a daydreamer, lately I've had one scene on repeat as if it were a movie I keep watching and rewinding: I'm standing in an open field, trees, wildflowers, pollen flying all around, and I'm directly in the middle of it all. The sun is shining with everything it has left as it's setting under the hill directly behind me. I'm wearing a vague colored orange sun dress, spinning with my arms in the air towar...