Continental Drift: Happiness Is....

My family.  The two little humans, my husband, my parents, sister, extended family and my friends.  Those are the things I hold closest to my heart.  They are the people that I want to share this life with.  They are the ones that help pick my pieces up when I just cant muster up the strength to do so.  That being said today I am writing about the things that make ME happy and help me become the best version of myself so that I can give love back to those people.Recently I was talking to a friend and we were talking about the importance of knowing how to make yourself happy and not putting that responsibility on other people.  Here is what I've discovered and rediscovered over the years. 

 

1.  Water, a new discovery.  Over the past five years I've discovered that water makes me  feel calm and at ease.  I love just being near the water, watching it from the shoreline or being on it.  I've discovered that being in the quietness of the morning on my paddleboard is as good for my soul, being pulled behind the boat with music blasting.  This year I learned to swim and have added being in the water to my weekly workout schedule.  It grounds me.  It makes me take a deep breath.

 

 

2.  Reading; rediscovery.  When I was in grade 6 we our whole class came up with an alteration  names for each other as a community building activity.  Mine was Bookworm Bojana.  At the time I was still struggling from the trauma of living through war, leaving my home behind and moving to a new country.  Once I discovered how to read in English, I guess I was probably hading in and behind the books.  I was mostly happy and enjoyed spending time with friends, but I did find solace between pages of books that I spend hours reading.  As an extrovert I think I was searching for a balance and some time on my own.I've notice in my 30's how I crave time on my own, in silence more and more.  This year one of my goals was to read more and I am finding as a result of that goal that both  my husband and I are  reading more.  We often shut the TV off earlier in the evening and go read, or sit on our deck in quietness and just dive into our books.  It feels good to make time for that once again.

 

3.  Fashion, feeling pretty.  There was a time when I just didn't have the time or desire to care for myself as much.  After two maternity leaves I realized how comfortable I had become in my life. I also realized that with the "comfort" came a feeling dumpy and unmotivated.  Getting dressed up to go to work helped me find myself, the fun, creative, feminine, pretty, part of myself.  Once I tapped back into  I realized how happy and good it made me feel to put effort into myself.  So here I am and the birth of Bo's Bodacious Blog. 

 

4.  Traveling, beach vs. city.  Hmmm.  Well, as mentioned I love the beach and beach vacations.  They are easy and the kids love, love, love them.  It's a break from life.  The thing is, I am discovering that I am ready for a change.  I really enjoy vacations on the go like Portland, London, Disneyworld, Paris, etc. Vacations that I get to mix in exploration, nature, history and new discoveries.  I think I am leaning more towards city vacations but I know that my kiddos aren't at an age to enjoy it.  I also knew that when we were deciding to purchase  our cabin, that vacations were going to be cut back significantly.  What do you and your family do to balance out vacations?  Do you do family or couples vacations?  How do you budget for them?

 

5.  Running.  Happiness, energy and peacefulness.  running is how I work out my feelings.  Happy.  Sad.  Frustrated.  Anxious.  Excited.  All of it.  I feel the emotions rising in my chest, I run.  I process life when I run.  I pick myself back up when I run.  I plan my work PD when I run.  I overcome obstacles in my mind when I run.  It's my coping mechanism for life.  It sounds strange but when I can't run, I get anxious within in days and I feel my insides getting out of control, and mixed up.  It's a bit like a drug.  I will say that I can substitute other forms of exercise and feel good as well such as spinning, snowboarding, walking, cross-country skiing, but I like it to be fast. 

 

What are things that make you happy?  What bring joy to your life?  What makes you the best version of yourself?

 

 

Welcome to our Continental Drift linkup! The reason we are  dabbling at a link up was that we wanted to connect and learn from bloggers from all across the world about their passions and lifestyle.  We will host the  Continental Drift link-up the first of every month.  The concept for myself and my fellow hosts (Mutton Style & Sydney Shop Girl ) is that we, the hosts, will write a post about our life on our continent/Country/state over the past month (hence the name).  Starting June 1st we will have a prompt that we are writing about.  You are welcome to join us using the prompt  or link-up with  any family friendly topic that you like,  be it DIY, cooking, sewing, crafts, lifestyle, de-cluttering, traveling, moving homes, fashion, style, beauty, make up, etc. Your hosts to this linkup come from UK, Canada and Australia.  Enjoy getting to know each other! 

Now please follow each of your hosts Bojana of Bodaciousblog, Sydney Shop Girl and Mutton Style  on at least one platform (Instagram, Twitter or blog) and comment on their blogs.  It would be great if you could read and comment on the blog above yours in the link up.  You might make a new friend. Please also do add a link back to our blogs on your posts to help the linkup grow.  Thanks for stopping by, we look forward to learning more about everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up