Monday 3 June 2013

Thoughts On Holiday

We're feeling very refreshed at Candid Apple HQ on this sunny Monday morning as we're just back from a week of walking in the Lake District (also managed a sneaky trip to Holbeck Ghyll for some spa treatments and delicious food too so hurrah for that!)

Up until recently, I'd never quite appreciated the effect that holidays can have on you. I now look forward to them as much for the almost inevitable work-related epiphany as I do for the experience of going somewhere and doing something different for a week or so.

In the run-up to this break, I'd been flat out - projects, wonderful clients, writing work and home-life had been so busy there was no space for head-space. Don't get me wrong, I love being busy but sometimes, you need time-out to really be able to think clearly.

I know I am so lucky with my work. I have a flexibility, creativity and I get to work with some truly gorgeous people. I can, hand on heart, say I love what I do. And heaven knows, that's worth everything.

But my personal passion is writing. I just adore it. The whole process, whether it's scribbling in a notebook or typing furiously at my laptop makes me happy. And knowing what makes you happy is incredibly important - without understanding that, how can you ever feel satisfied? Surely you're just drifting some one experience to another without ever topping up your tanks of feel-good happiness, hoping beyond hope that happiness will just fall into your lap or that someone or something else will create it all for you and ta-da, you'll magically be happy.

It just doesn't work like that.

Being able to realise, in the moment, what makes your heart sing is, in my humble opinion, so incredibly important it should be taught in schools, it should be an essential part of the curriculum. Too many of us let exceptional moments slip by un-noticed because we're looking for the next thing in the hope that that will be 'it', the elusive experience that is the answer to everything. When you live like that, you get to the end of too many days and feel let down.

No, sometimes it's not easy to create little snippets of joy in the everyday rush but if you don't notice them or don't acknowledge them, you're going to spend a long time hunting for happiness when really, it can be all around you all the time.

Writing this post has made me happy. The fact my dog is by my feet as I type has made me smile. The view outside of blue skies and green grass makes me content. Yes, I have some challenges and things in my life that make me want to scream sometimes but do you know what - when it all gets too much, at least I know what to do to put myself in a good place.

And do you know what,buoyed by my holiday happiness, I might have started on book number three...

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