I was by myself on a small beach the other week. After packing the car in the matter of minutes, I set out for the road to soon find myself in the sand forty minutes later. While sitting alone on the now cold, 5:50 PM sand, I found a book between my hands and quickly distanced myself from everything besides myself and the world of someone else between my palms.
I only stayed for an hour.
It was 7:00 PM when I found myself packing up my beach towels, book, and myself to head away from the shore. While shaking off the sand and doing my best to avoid soaking myself in the now-inland tide, I was able to notice more of my daily, non-important problems.
As I nervously jumped away from the water that almost brushed against my espadrilles, had a few pieces of sand blown into my eye from the wind against my towels, and had to spend about one minute searching for my keys, I learned that these are not important things to worry about.
At all.
The things I worry about on the daily were easily set aside for an approximate hour, and now that the hour had passed and I was stepping back into my own world, I saw just how little these problems were. I learned that my happiness was becoming slightly altered from the littlest things, and how much I needed to let go of some of the pressure of having the "perfect" life I have always envisioned.
With the hour I gave myself to simply disconnect, I stepped back into my world with a new vision, and greater acceptance. As I inched closer to my car, I rubbed my eye to rid the sand that had reached it, pulled the new-found parking ticket off of my windshield, and just smiled.
Worrying about the little things is something I have always done best to avoid, and after finally finding an hour to just relax, I understood it was worth the price of any parking ticket.
I found my happiness in finding time to disconnect. In an hour of flipping through pages of a good book on a quaint beach, I was able to step back into my car feeling refreshed and ready for the week ahead. Finding time for yourself is extremely important.
Find a good book, go on a run, walk your nearest bike path, or do anything to target your focus on something other than everything else going on.
I found my happiness on a beach, where will you find yours?
