On The Road Again – a confession

When you’re traveling and you’re not planning ahead aka you just go with the flow then you give yourself and your life the opportunity to flow wherever it may want and need.

This is what we decided to do. We kind of had a plan in mind but didn’t plan ahead in details. The only thing we knew was that I had to be in Chiang Mai by the 9th of October for my Thai Massage Course. We also decided not to move around a lot to save money and this way we could soak up the culture of the country where we were.

Staying in one place gives you the opportunity to settle down a bit and establish some sort of habit into your life. In Chiang Mai, we found our favourite cafe and we also made friends with the owners. A lovely Thai couple who put their heart into their business. It was a beautiful experience to see someone working with passion. I guess when you do what you love it isn’t really a job, right?!

On the other hand, you have to make sure you keep yourself busy otherwise you get bored. I mean really bored.

I’m the kind of person who has to have some sort of system to my day, otherwise I can end up basically doing nothing. My course kept me busy in the mornings until 4 but then for the rest of the day and for the weekends I was free.

My dad passed away 3 weeks prior to our trip so I left Europe with a confused heart. Shall I stay? Could I help if I stayed? I’d been waiting for this trip with so much excitement and all of a sudden it left me worrying.

With a broken heart but I decided to leave. Originally I thought of this trip as a much needed break from life, to recharge and refocus. It’s hard to admit but I was a bit depressed, life sometimes felt like a struggle. Then with my dad’s passing away so suddenly my whole world turned upside down. Many things that were so important before didn’t matter anymore. I questioned and keep questioning many things in life since that day. It dawned on me that tomorrow is not promised. The things I’ve been postponing for fear, for low self-esteem or for whatever reason all of a sudden came up to the surface with a sense of urgency to act upon.

My aspirations for this life became clearer and although I don’t know how to get to the life I want to live, I knew I had to start taking some steps. Waiting and sitting around won’t make dreams come true. You have to put in time and effort. You have to be willing to sacrifice and work for it. You have to be willing to fall and get back up.

The trip that was gonna be a long holiday all of a sudden became a journey of self-discovery, soul-searching. It’s a graceful opportunity from life. I’m given all the time to focus on myself so when I come back to Europe I can come back stronger, braver and with my cup full to help others.

This is what I always wanted: to serve people, to make this world a better place, a more loving, caring and mindful place.

This, I know, won’t happen from one day to another. I have to first grow and invest into myself:

• I started a Life Coaching course to understand myself and become clear about my intentions and reasons.

• I’m exercising every day now to grow stronger mentally and physically.

• I have to face my bad habits, the painful emotions that pop up uninvited and be willing and open to deal with them.

• I have to accept that life doesn’t work out itself sometimes the way I imagined. I either accept this and let go or I have to be dragged by the bags on my back.

I’m grateful for this “free” time I was given to travel, to self-discover, to learn and grow. It’s always up to us what we make time for. It’s always up to us what we make of this life and of our dreams. Do we make them reality or do we sit around day-dreaming about the life we really want.

You’re graced for your race!

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I’ve been spending quite a lot of time this week in the kitchen, in the gym and in the yoga studio. Hubby’s been away, so I had all the time to myself this week. It was a fun and active week, but I think I pushed past my limit and my body’s craving for rest. I was gonna go to the gym this evening but I’ve decided to stay home, chill and write this new blog post instead.

In my last blog post [ What Fit Means to Me ] I was telling you about what Fit means to me, and how my life’s changed for the better since I regularly exercise, practice yoga and try to eat consciously. So, here it continues.

 

This fit lifestyle keeps teaching me patience every day. We want results Now, and we get so discouraged when we don’t see the results we had in mind. I think most of the time this is the very reason why people give up. Even after a year and a half, I’m still not there where I want to be. To be honest, I thought I would be there in 3-6 months. I disheartened many times, I was on the verge of giving up a couple of times. But I always realize, I’m not doing this for the six packs or the nice perky butt (although would be nice to have them, and hopefully  will do one day soon).

@ Tribe Yoga Studio – chilling between a power yoga and a yin yoga class

 

I’m doing this because I love the post-bliss-state exercise and yoga put me. I love feeling strong and I love seeing even the tiniest results. All these keep me going and coming back for more.

Fit also taught me to be confident and comfortable in my body. To be happy in your body doesn’t depend on the size of the dress you wear, or the number your scale shows. Confidence and happiness radiate from inside. It’s a feeling of being healthy and active. And, I’m very positive that this can only be achieved through an active lifestyle. I’m not saying you have to go to the gym and do weights, or run 10 K every day… You have to find your own way of healthy and active, your own way of fit. For me, it’s a mix of yoga, hardcore training, where I can push myself to and over my limits (like bbg, insanity, bodyrock, weights training) and eating as healthy as possible.

Post-yoga-bliss selfie from this week

Fit showed me the importance of balance. You can’t keep pushing yourself and training every day. Your body, mind, spirit need rest days. Your muscles need to recover. There were times, and I’m still struggling with this, when I’d feel bad about having a rest day. This is when I need to remind myself that loving my body is not just about being active and pushing it but also about giving my body the rest it deserves.

Also, you can’t eat clean all the time. You need those cheat meals, you need those treats sometimes. I have the sweetest tooth ever and I had to discover a way that works for me to keep it in balance. My way of balancing it is making my own raw, vegan treats. Like this I know all the ingredients that go in there. I make a batch for the week ahead, and I know whenever I feel like having something sweet, it’s there waiting for me in the fridge.

Hungry? Raw, Vegan Snickers Bars to keep my sweet tooth in balance

I could write pages and pages about what this lifestyle has taught me so far. It keeps teaching me every day something new about myself, relationships and the world. I’ll be back soon to share more of my experiences.

Please visit my FB: https://www.facebook.com/wholehappylife/ and my IG: whole.happy.life and join me in this amazing journey. Let’s inspire each other to live a happier and healthier life.

Much Love to you all!

What Fit means to me?

To me, being fit is not only a physical but also a mental, and sort of spiritual state.
It’s the journey of learning to listen to my body, loving it and taking care of it.
To me, fit is accepting my limits and pushing through them. To me, fit is being in balance and in harmony. It’s a real chill pill, a happiness accelerator and a gratitude generator.

Physical exercise has always been there for me as a clutch: in the midst of a distorted self-image during my teenage years, struggling with a slight eating disorder, through break-ups, heart aches, vogue ambitions, through low tides and high tides.

Physical exercise, together hand in hand with yoga now, still plays a massive role in my life. It keeps me sane and grounded. It gives me a healthy self-esteem and self-image.
My concept of fit has changed in the last one and a half years, though. Something switched in me, now I work out because I love my body, and not because I’m unhappy with it. And,  yes, it’s really the best therapy life can can offer.

I’ve learnt as well that fit doesn’t exist without eating healthy.  Nourishing your body with real food, will also nourish your mind and soul. I think self education is the key to understand what we put in our body as the food industry definitely does its best to hide the truth about certain ingredients. You have to do your research and reading. You have to experiment with ingredients to find out what works best for your body. You can’t eat clean all the time, cheat meals are essential, I believe, to achieve balance.

(Although, I’m not vegan, I love making raw and vegan treats such as the above *raw carrot cake* )

From my experience, it’s a transition of months and years to find a healthy lifestyle that you can maintain. In order to make healthy choices, and to make those choices out of love and respect towards yourself and that you wouldn’t take those choices as restrictions,  you have to recondition your mind about eating.

More to come about my Fit journey, about my whole happy life in my next post. If you’ve got any questions please ask. I’d be so happy to answer all your questions.

 

*Please visit my FB and IG for more healthy treats: https://www.facebook.com/wholehappylife

 

**All pictures were made by me, quotes from pinterest