Find Your Happiness…

It’s Monday here in Costa Rica and I have now had 6 full days of rest and relaxation.  This isn’t one of my usual blog posts…it’s a little more raw, a little more honest. I want you to know that just like you, life can catch up to me also. Things aren’t always  butterflies and rainbows – as social media can portray.

Prior to my trip, I was struggling.  Many of us find ourselves caught up in the eye of the storm of life and I was there; getting chewed up in the centre, struggling to catch my breath for air.  Without sleep, without routine, driving up and down the highway in the middle of snow storms/ice storms. Working countless hours, with little time off in between.  Its not that I am money hungry or I want to work like this…it truly is the life of a shift worker in emergency services, during the holiday season.

I think about my work as a Paramedic often; I have been in this career almost 9 years.  There hasn’t been a Christmas or a May long weekend I haven’t worked in all that time.  Being in health care is a sacrifice; a sacrifice of yourself, your holidays, your weekends, your family time, your health and eventually your soul.  There is a reason a Paramedic has a career span of 10 years before you become hardened, exhausted and burnt out.  Most people who get into this career want to help people. Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t…but we always try our best.  Health care is a rollercoaster of a career;  It’s worth it when you get that IV, that made the difference to someone who needed fluid or when you gave some drugs that sustained a patient until they get to the hospital. Even for that little old lady who lives alone and called 911 just to see a smiling face. It’s not always worth it, when you start to realize how this day in and day out can effect you: emotionally, physically and mentally and how many people abuse the system.  In the last two weeks prior to my vacation, I picked up patients who called 911 with the hiccups, the flu that started 3 hours prior and a headache at the early hour of 3 am. Some of these Non emergency calls came just as I was warming up my car to head home, cleaning the snow, bracing myself for the 1.5 hour drive I am about to undertake in stormy conditions. After 12 hours…all you want to do is go home.

This brings me to Costa Rica..a post wedding “mini moon” for me and my new husband.  We both were in the eye of a storm and we have escaped, unscathed and just in the nick of time, ready to come back home and make change to our lifestyle.

At times I feel like in life you get caught up in fear.  Fear of change, fear of the future, fear of getting stuck and not living life to its fullest potential.  Why do some of us, including myself take 1 week each year to live. We work so hard for just a small taste of what life really has to offer. I have found myself feeling stuck and fearing change, keeping me in a routine that makes me unhappy. Being here in Costa Rica reminds me of what it feels like to live and reminds me that life isn’t tomorrow or next week, it’s this moment and it’s about embracing each moment and everything that it has to offer at the time. It’s about not working to much but just enough to make enough money to do the things you really want to do.  Working to much, leaves us feeling unbalanced and using days off to fill our homes and our closets with material things, trying to fill that void without success.

If you feel like you are currently caught up in the eye of this storm, slow down and re-evaluate your balance.  If your working to much, slow down. If your not fulfilled, find things that do and fill your time with them. With time to stop and reflect on my own life, I am optimistic about the future and plan to fill my time with things that are fullfilling including helping others find their own happiness in themselves through fitness and nutrition.  Launching in February 2017, I will be offering a 30 day online program, called Body Revival that will help propel your health on a new path, creating new habits and allowing you to reset your health in a new direction.  I am excited that not only will this program incorporate, balance, stretching and strength training but it will also have a 3 – phase nutrition plan at a price that anyone can afford. This will give me the chance to really spread health with a further reach and to those who aren’t sure where to start.

 

You have one life…embrace it.  Tomorrow won’t be better, today is the only day that matters.  We leave tomorrow today will be the last day of this paradise and the beginning of a new perspective.