All posts tagged: happiness

Book recommendation: Do you want to be normal or happy?

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On my 29th birthday I hiked up our local mountain with my Mum and during our well deserved lunch at one of the huts she pulled out this book as a present. What a good match – already the title made me smile. I read it during the 2012 New Zealand road trip and recommended it to Maggie who took it with her to Australia. When visiting her in Maroubra this year the book found its way back to me exactly one year later. Reading it again in Thailand wasn’t as mind-blowing as the first time but a good way to re-assess my happiness, to look back and see what a long way I’ve come during the year that has passed and get the bigger picture again. So if you’re still looking for a last-minute Christmas present – I can absolutely recommend this one (apart from the paragraphs where he advertises his multiple side-products such as CDs).

The Dinner Window showing the daily sunset spectacle

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Just like almost every night the Piha sky put on another sunset show for us – perfectly timed for dinner. Tonight was somehow special though – the house filled with friends & neighbors, a chilled tune in our ears, sharing a glass of wine or cider on the deck and hearing the kids giggling all over the place. I am grateful today for having found this special place, with this adorable family – every day life with them gives me so much inspiration how I would love to raise my kids one day. It’s not only the magic paradise that those kids grow up in – it’s also the little moments within the family – like the smiles they share, all together singing along to a famous song, dancing in the living room, secretly stealing strawberries, the creativity in their play, little signs of love everywhere. After all those weeks my mind is full of snap- shots of Piha family life that I will take home and hope to one day do it in a …

The ingredients for my personal Piha happiness

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My time in Piha is soon coming to an end and when I look back on it I discover that it has probably been the peak of my happiness journey so far. Much of it is comes from the beautiful landscape, the beach in front of me, the sand between my toes, the bird concert just outside my bedroom window in the morning, the joy I get from taking care of the three sunshine girls, …. I could go on for ages. Mostly things that you can only understand when you’ve seen, felt and lived them. Pretty boring for you, eh? But there’s another part of my happiness that is probably easier to understand: The happiness I found within from mixing up some ingredients I found only out here: Piha is a place of No worries and complete Shamelessness – or have you ever walked on the beach in your pyjamas? I got heaps of Rest after this long and crazy winter – just listening to my body and sleeping when and where I wanted to. …

A spooky and sleepless night at the house

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I thought I have had enough sleep on the plane and felt pretty fresh when I got here on Monday but having done this trip a couple of times already I should have known better: The jet-lag always strikes back. It just hits you out of the blue and if you don’t get to a bed or couch fast enough you literally fall asleep at the table (True story!). Yesterday it kicked in rather late and I fell asleep at around 7 pm, resulting in waking up at midnight – wide awake. Multiple techniques didn’t work out – no way to get back to sleep again. At the same time a major storm came over Auckland and it was pissing down in a way I had never experienced in Austria. A sleepless and spooky night all alone at the end of the world – that’s a pretty perfect breeding ground for self-doubt and lots of worrying: Did I make the right decision? What am I doing here? Why the hell did I put myself into …