Self Improvement

Life After Long-Term Travel: How to Adjust and Find Balance

June 26, 2018 by Marie Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I last traded in my backpack for an apartment, a job, and a fairly stable existence in Canada. And it has been a struggle. I still have a lot of days where I all I want to do is sell everything I own and jump on a plane, but I’m learning to cope and understand why those feelings persist.

Long-term travel is a beautiful thing. You give up set routines in favour of doing and learning something new every day. Even a chill day on the road is exciting in its own regard. The weeks don’t blend together and instead moments stick out in your memory. While friends were getting married and buying homes, I was living a different life every year and forming unique memories of it all.

But it can be tough as you get older. At a certain point, you look at your life and realize that you are missing a plan. Starting over all the time isn’t for everyone. Not knowing how you’ll be supporting yourself in a year from now isn’t for everyone. It might be OK when you’re 21, but in your late 20s you can start to feel a bit of a time crunch. I’m not saying this is true for everyone, but it certainly reflects my own experience.

Getting comfortable with living a more “normal” life has been a challenge, but I’ve waded through it and am finding it slightly easier to settle in. Here’s what I’ve learned.

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Post-Move Regrets: How to Deal With Big Changes in Life

May 4, 2018 by Marie Leave a Comment

At this point in my life, I would have to say I’m an old hand at moving. I’ve moved a lot in the last decade since leaving my parents’ house — within the province, within the country, and across the globe.

That being said, moving is always tough when you’ve spent longer than a couple of months in one place. It’s amazing how quickly you can develop a routine, and when that routine is hauled out from under you, it’s easy to feel a sense of longing and regret.

That feeling exists for your first move and every move thereafter, though knowing that it’s coming can help you mentally cope a great deal. I am currently in the stage of settling into my new home and new town after moving from the east coast of Canada to the west, and while things are still quite hectic (I arrived less than a week ago), let’s take a few minutes to carve out a quickie guide to get you through your next move.

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The Grateful Traveller: Why Practicing Gratitude Isn’t Always So Easy

March 8, 2018 by Marie Leave a Comment

We are living in a culture where spirituality, gratitude, and practicing the law of attraction are all quite trendy. This is not a negative thing of course — making the effort to be grateful and positive every day can have huge impacts on your overall happiness. However, it’s much easier to jump on board the train and claim gratitude than it is to really step back and look at your relationship to your circumstances every day.

Many travellers will claim that above all, travelling taught them to be grateful for the opportunities they have to travel, to have been born into situations where travel is even a possibility. I am not here to say that is not the case. Coming face to face with poverty, exploitation, and injustice on varying levels is truly eye-opening when it is so distant from the reality you’ve known your whole life. It is a different thing to read articles and see images online than it is to see and hear stories in person. I’d say it is impossible for the average person to not be overcome with gratitude when faced with these situations.

However, gratitude can dissipate quickly when confronted with the common human condition that can easily be summed up with “so, what next?”

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Dealing With Anxiety & Depression in Your Late 20s

July 27, 2017 by Marie 2 Comments

When you’re young, bouts of anxiety and depression are almost expected to occur. It’s the hormones of the teens or the major life changes and coming to grips with adulthood of the early-to-mid 20s that are expected. Once you pass those parts of your life, you think you’ll become a functioning adult who knows how to deal with almost anything in a mature and balanced manner.

Unfortunately, mental struggles don’t necessarily disappear as you age. In fact, a looming concern can really rear its head as you approach 30 (or 40, or 50): you haven’t become the person you always thought you’d be by this age. When you’re young, it’s easy to assume that someday you’ll be healthy, successful, well-read, social, and all those well-rounded things. It’s easy to brush it off, to save the work for a later, future you who is more capable of dealing. Things don’t work that way. Before you know it, you’re doing the same things you’ve always done but it’s 5 years down the road and the you that you wanted so badly (enough to put it off, anyway) is still 5 years off.

This can just add to the despair if you’ve already been prone to anxiety and depression throughout your life, but suddenly you can feel somewhat ashamed to admit it. You’re supposed to be a proper adult now — you’re supposed to tough it out and deal with your problems.

Luckily, these feelings can be a driver. They push you to see that the ultimate you that lives down the road is something you need to start on now. If you always fantasized that one day you’d be a fit, financially stable, and politically minded being, you’ve got to start living for that now. You’ve put it off for a future version of you to deal with for too long.

This can be easier said than done when your mental health is not in alignment, so let’s take it step by step.

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How to Recognize and Deal With Negativity in Life

April 30, 2017 by Marie Leave a Comment

I’ve recently been prompted to zero in on negative thoughts, negative people, and general negativity in life. As one of the many people out there who are prone to seeing the glass half empty, I find it takes a certain amount of effort on my part to maintain a positive outlook. If you are one of those people with heaviness as a constant companion, you know that it takes practice to get to a neutral base mood that many people take for granted.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come more to grips with the idea of happiness as a choice, and that makes it a whole lot easier to make that choice. We all have options when it comes to how we live, the type of person we are, the activities with which we fill our time, the projects we pursue, and these are all part of that constant choice we make every day to pursue happiness.

With that said, not every day can be a leap forward in the pursuit of a dream life. On the contrary, many days are just part of the grind that is required when pursuing any goal that really matters. And those are the days when negativity and questioning can seep in, threatening the sense of focus, ambition, and certainty that you once had.

With all of this in mind, I’ve put together a few of the strategies that help me deal with negativity and negative thoughts. Here’s to hoping that they might help you get through some of the darkness as well.

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My Number One Strategy For Overcoming Anxiety

September 12, 2016 by Marie 2 Comments

For many years, I accepted the fact that my severe levels of anxiety would just always plague me. I tried counselling, medications, meditation, becoming a hermit, as well as other pieces of advice and tips over the years. It wasn’t until I stopped actively searching for solutions to anxiety and started thinking more about living mindfully that I found the one strategy that’s actually worked for me.

Now, I’m not saying that I don’t have anxiety these days — I definitely do. What I am saying is that there are specific strategies that do work when it comes to quelling anxiety when it arises.

If you suffer from severe anxiety, you probably get anxious about feeling anxious. This can send you off into a million different directions and make you feel like you need to prepare in advance for anything and that you absolutely need to know every possible scenario you might face in any situation ahead of time (Phew — need to take a breather after that one).

Luckily, getting anxious about getting anxious can be avoided when you know that you have a strategy in place to help you deal with those tense times.

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Tips For Getting Back To A Healthy Lifestyle After An Indulgent Trip

July 26, 2016 by Marie Leave a Comment

I recently went to Portland for a few days. It was a short trip where I didn’t really get out of the city or really experience Oregon any further, but I knew that would be the case ahead of time. Luckily, one of the things I was excited about when it came to my Portland trip was the fact that it’s known as a vegan Mecca. And I was ready to eat.

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