“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” — Emily Dickinson
It’s December and in my part of the world, (New Zealand) the frantic nature of the silly season is well and truly in play. From end of year work functions, to school speech nights, Christmas shopping and preparation for summer holidays – everyone is busy. On top of all of the running around, there is the challenge to be planning ahead for next year too. With not only a new year, but a new decade almost upon us, aren’t we meant to be all reassessing our lives and hitting 2020 refreshed, refocused and ready to get fit, climb the career ladder, have the relationship of our dreams and achieve the perfect life-balance?
I don’t know about you, but as much as I want to tick all of those things off my annual “to-do” list, finding the time to reflect, reset and find my bliss for the new year kind of gets pushed aside for more pressing things, like making sure there is enough toilet paper in the house for the extra guests staying with us.
It’s this time of year too that I start looking longingly at retreats where women gather to get massages, and lay in the sun meditating in exotic locations to get inspired to create blissful lives. Heck, I’d settle for one where we get to sleep and sip wine all day while reading a fun trashy romances without the guilt that we should be reading something more highbrow or business related.
Is it just me or does it feel more and more like “finding your bliss” has become another thing on your “to-do” list next to “find a gym” and “update the insurances?” Has life become so scheduled, arranged and organised that we have lost the simple joy of living?
If I can encourage you to do just one thing this December in between all of your racing around – that would be to find just one hour for yourself and during this hour leave your devices behind and go for a walk.
Not a power walk, not a jog – just a stroll where you can simply observe your surrounds, breathe and hear your own thoughts. Then start thinking of all the good things you do have in your life. Your partner, your children, the ability to walk, a roof over your head, a pet that makes you laugh, coffee that you love and girlfriends to giggle with over bubbles.
There’s your bliss. Right there in that list.
Discovered not in what you need to “do,” but instead, found in what you already have.
Make this month the month that you truly find your bliss and when the overwhelm and busyness begins to take over, go for that walk again and reclaim it.
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