Finding Happiness Through Travel and Resilience

 I feel like teetering on the abyss 
What's below?
Maybe the end?
Or a new beginning?
Maybe it's the same thing?
Sometimes life is a storm
Raging out of control
Take a leap, here I go
The end of one Life, the Birth of  a new beginning
Crawl up and over the new found ledge
No matter how tough life gets
Reset is better than Regret.

Not to brag, but as I jot down something new for everyone to read I’m sitting on a rooftop in one of the beautiful towns I’ve ever visited, Sayulita, Mexico. It seems to be a slower process today typing the words out, could have something to do a couple late nights. The hostel I chose to stay at has a party culture and it’s pretty easy to get swept up in it. Along with lack of sleep my hands aren’t co-operating and a tad bit shaky. As a budget traveller I attempt to keep costs down in order to enjoy the experiences as opposed to my accommodations. Now, don’t get me wrong it’s a very nice hostel and the staff and guests are incredible. With activities to get involved with and most here are solo travellers and it’s a great ice breaker to meet new and interesting people.

To start off with I’ll break down a bit of the cost, a flight on Flair out of Kitchener / Waterloo was $328, return. With a half an hour delay it’s well worth the cost and that flies me into Puerto Vallarta. At the airport this time my backpack is flagged and searched looking for vapes, lol, ya I don’t vape. After a good fifteen minute ordeal I’m working my way through the airport out the door, turn left, turn left again and over the highway using the walking bridge I go. Down to the street side and wait for the bus, now you can take a taxi or uber. That’ll cost you about a hundred bucks Canadian. The bus marked Sayulita pulls up, the cost? 60 peso, so about $4.50 CAD. Saturday the roads are busy and it’s about an hour and fifteen minute ride.

My day started at 4:30 a.m. it’s now about 3 p.m. and besides a bag of chips, apple and couple granola bars, I’m starving. I find a small empty restaurant grab a cold one and a couple burritos, which I demolish. Over the bridge and across the main plaza everything becomes familiar again from my time spent here last year. A ten minute walk brings me to the dreaded hill, dirt road, steep incline, a lot of stray dogs. Enter the hostel, so my cost for seven nights is about $160 CAD that’s for a ten bed dorm room and again I’m on the top bunk, this time though opposite side of the bathroom, win. After I get my stuff put away, hit the pool meet a couple people and well the party gets started. Much more to come…

What is Happiness?

The happiness of excellence is the work of emotional resilience. This is often avoided because the discomfort is so great it seems unattainable, the reward also isn’t instantaneous as we crave absolute gratification.

There’s no instant high when I first start into that run, just pain, lungs that burn, legs of stone. Do it again and again, that sensation lessons and a high starts to creep in. Your mind then opens to the possibility of what this body is really capable of the results could be endless. Then it becomes automatic, you love and crave the process. Now it’s a habit built into your lifestyle, that provides us what we are all seeking “happiness” and it comes after what we first started thinking of what we can accomplish is unattainable, when it really is.

You now love the process and understand the commitment needed to start to feel truly happy. Happiness is not an extension of our senses telling how we feel, but from the knowledge the we ( I or you ) is becoming who we want and crave to be. This is what we attract from chasing excellence….kindness and humility, a better human being, We gain our true identity a sense of our true self that can be brought into every fasciate of our lives. Like a drug, but one we have cultivated ourselves adding more worth to one’s self, one that makes us feel truly alive.

Thank that force inside you the one that knows you’re destined for something bigger, that’s pushing you (me) to be more comfortable with less. To me less is greater than more, meaning with less comes lower anxiety, stress and procrastinating (still working on that). Gives you freedom to give more, to be grateful for what’s available. Open’s a vast world that’s ready for you to become a bigger part of it. To be part of something truly special.

What’s Coming up NEXT

Well it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted and once again I find myself apologizing to my very loyal readers. I can assure everyone that my life has been truly excellent over the past month, so there’s no problem on that front. Hence for the blurb on finding true happiness. This guy has just been a busy boy, enjoying what life has in store and while writing is a big part of that, the odd time it will take a back seat. I promise though only for a while. Life just has a way of keeping you busy and on your toes with a smile on your face and that is where I found myself, enjoying the moments. Now back to the task at hand and do my best to describe it.

Much more to come about my trip down south, can’t believe that was already two weeks ago! Wow, how did that happen. So much fun, laughs and sun, many new friends found once again along my travels. Along with catching up with those met along the way during previous excursions. I’m truly grateful to have met everyone that I do when I hit the road, it’s a blessing to still be able to do this and look forward to the next adventure. Much. much more to come. I love you all. If you haven’t yet please consider subscribing to the blog, like and drop me a comment. I do fall behind, but promise I will always answer. Cheers! Steve