Why now is the best time, to be the best version of you

 

Living the quarantine life, many of us had more than enough spare time to overthink solutions, rethink behaviors and situations, re-evaluate relationships, revisit ideas, or restart passions, dreams and goals. This way of living that we all, globally, had to go through and many of us still do, wasn't only a lesson and a test of how good of a citizen, neighbor, employee, parent, or friends we are. It was also a lesson of how well we listen, and respect our own selves, and how good we are doing with our own existence. This internalization that we were asked, or better forced to do wasn't easy, and some times might have been unbearable for so many, because actually we had to stop and be more with ourselves. There was nowhere to escape, there were no excuses to make. The voices were loud and clear, no way to ignore them. That was exactly the time to take action. The moment of the biggest mandate stillness, became the most active time of all! 

Is "Finding Happiness" the next new trend?

If we could only wake up one day and say "I am happy! I am really happy!" How possible this is? How easy is to switch mindset? How easy is to stop unhappy noises in your head and around you? How easy is to stop accusing other factors, people or situations for your own un-happiness? You will have probably think: This is how I am, I was born  seeing the glass half-empty." So with all these questions in mind, and more, i started looking for answers. My search land me to an online course. The subject: "The science of Well-being" by professor Laurie Santos. Well, apparently finding happiness is in the bucket list of million people, that they are in the hunt of how to touch, feel, achieve it, because by now almost 2.5 million have sign up to this course! Making it the most popular course in the history of Yale university!  And there is a reason apart from the "Stay at home" orders .This course is the best start you can make if you are in the look out for ways to achieve happiness! And keeps on giving you more than the answers you are looking for...

Self-care is not selfish, is vital

☆Self care had never been my first priority. Although I was always interesting in reading and researching about this topic, and after I would go and suggest to my friends and love ones ways to love and taking care of them selves, I wouldn't actually applying to myself what I was preaching. That sounds like a fraud, right? But so many people do the same. They put themselves last on the list sometimes forever and sometimes until the red flags are so profound that they can't escape and it is time to face the problem right in the eyes.

Our move No 6 and ..."The most wonderful time of the year!"

After 4 whole months i am back here on my blog! Just a week before the holidays, to report and give you a hint about our second round in the States. Our 6th move, second overseas, is now behind us and we are running to adjust to our new reality, new house, new neighborhood, new friends along with the old ones, and new school routines for our little one.

It was 4 very stressful months that i am slowly trying to overcome, and i am so thankful that Xmas is in the corner. This year it took us longer to be ready for the big holiday, but we made it!

Next chapter soon: Why i will miss the (North) Netherlands...

Another move, another set of goodbyes, another time for wet eyes, and emotional farewell dinners and coffee mornings. The Netherlands welcomed our family so warm, that it is very difficult to let things go. I never expected to feel so at home in a country where, we just came for work, where i don't speak the language, (although my time in Belgium helped me a lot) where i knew nobody, and where i had to start from 0. Well everything happened so easily, effortless, and calm. We found a house close to my ideal kind of house, in an area where you can easily find anything you need on a walking or biking distance. In a beautiful setting surrounded by nature and animals. Where the rhythms of life are relaxed and organized. Nothing fancy or glamorous, just pure normal living. And of course i had the luck to be at the right place at the right time to meet my first friend here at the gym, who she generously open her house, her hug and her other friendships and shared them with me. They say, or i say, you only need one person to connect so to stop feeling alone in a new place. Well, i had the privilege to meet more than one wonderful women, mothers and seekers of a better life for them and their family. Netherlands has been a box full with surprises!

The Positive Thinking Trend: not cool for everyone!

Hello! Spring has arrived here in the Netherlands and things have started looking more colorful and more positive already, the temperatures though not there yet! So, this post it is not by me. I have the pleasure to have a dear blogger/writer friend, guest writing here on my blog. Lety Ponte is originally from France. but she has been traveling a lot for studies and later because of the work of her husband, so she is a serial expat mom like me! For now she lives here in the Netherlands and apart from a wonderful husband and daughter has a very beautiful site where she shares what she loves most "Life, Positive eating, Mindfulness and Spirit Guidance are ‘my things’" as she mentions at her site. Lety loves the earth. Forests and magical gardens are her hideaways, but she is also working a lot towards reaching and improving her higher self and has the gift to bring beautiful messages from high above to others. Many of this messages you can find them at her site or by simple asking her for guidance. Here she shares with us about the pressure of the "trend" of positive thinking and what are actually the real tools so to conquer  this! Enjoy and follow Lety here if you want some more light in to your life.