This blog is quickly becoming an extention of my own personal attempts to maintain a balance between my work and the rest of my life. This is something essential that a lot of people may miss because life goes so fast. I have had the luck to always appreciate how fast especially the good times go, after having the privilege to experience, honestly, so many weddings of my close family and friends early on. Those wedding weekends always fly. So by the time I was half way through those I was always reminding everyone not to forget that it was going to be over before they know it. I'm sure I was very annoying.

Also, I got to live in Europe for seven years, and experience a completely different culture. People would always ask me what was different to live there, and I would always have to say there is not any one big thing, but every single thing is a little bit different. Those difference, combined, are large and most people don't realize or appreciate that, again probably because life moves so fast and who has seven years to sit and think about it? But one thing that was different was just how people take time to sit and be with friends and family even if just for a cup of coffee, and to have those nice vacations and the freedom to stay home if you were sick. Honestly, things like not having to worry about health care does in fact give you more space in your brain to think about other things.

So today I got on this site and started watching some of these videos. There is a series with Harvard lecturer Tal Ben-Shaher, and in one he is talking about 5 steps to happiness, although he was put on the spot and he only gave four. The first was to simplify, don't try to do everything, learn how to say no. The second was the mind-body connection, keep your body happy with exercise and it will feed your mind. Third was don't fear painful emotions, because if you don't feel or express those you are either a psychopath or dead. Fourth, appreciate what you have. Appreciation is good because it means giving thanks, but also leads to growth because it gives us direction. Good stuff!