Happiness Blog August 19, 2019

I like to beat the summer heat with a staycation. It helps that I absolutely love my home. If you do not love your home, you can still have a staycation. Back in the days when I did not love my home, I would often stay at a bed and breakfast or small cottage inn near my home. Nowadays, this has gotten even easier with home hosting websites and apps that allow people to rent out their homes or rooms in their homes to have a staycation. It doesn’t need to be your home to be a staycation, just someplace local that is low cost and where the focus isn’t on going out. The intent of a staycation is that it is low cost and low impact.

My favorite staycation is to close the curtains in my house and spend a couple of days working on art or building a jigsaw puzzle. My favorite thing about staycations is that they remind me to practice good self-care and of the beauty of having time to myself. I have always enjoyed my own company, and that is in large part because of my positive internal dialogue. I have found that having a well-planned goal-oriented life has allowed me to have a positive internal dialogue that includes the opinion that my life is beautiful. This took time for me to discover. It may be the opposite for you, in that you feel like your life is beautiful when it is not over-planned or too goal-driven. It could be you are the same or somewhere in between.

Building a life that we can consider beautiful takes thoughtful and intentional planning. Building a beautiful life is different than building a happy life. For me, a beautiful life is one filled with people and activities that have value to me. One of the things that I value is time in my home and time to myself. Staying in (staycation) rather than going out is a rejuvenating thing of beauty, and being able to do so feels luxurious. Finding luxury in downtime and embracing the beauty in being able to choose how you spend your time increases the beauty in your life. Time alone provides time for self-refection and finding your definitions. Spend time with yourself and reflect on what you consider to be a beautiful life.

Posted on Monday: 19 August, 2019