22 Dec Happiness Lessons from my holiday (continued)
Over the last week I’ve been spending some well earned time with my family – mostly doing nothing much but walking, swimming, reading and playing games. It’s been great, but I’ve also noticed (especially in the first few days) how hard it is to switch off my busy mind.
Normally, to do what I do, I need to be constantly thinking about what’s going on as well as planning and preparing for what might be going on at some stage in the near (and distant) future. As useful as this is during normal working days, that sort of busy mind is not necessarily conducive to relaxing on holidays!
But eventually I managed to balance work thinking and holiday relaxing and at the heart of this challenge what I’ve (re-)learned is that happiness is undoubtedly in the here and how. The most relaxed I’ve felt is when I’m thinking of nothing else but the present moment.
And this is something I’m going to try to achieve more often – even when back in the office.
So for more happiness, when on holidays, or anywhere else for that matter, try to focus on “the now” and remember, there’ll always be time to review the past and to plan for the future. But just be happy now.