Personal Development Archives • Page 2 of 2 • The Bliss Movement

An Open Letter To The Man I Met Abroad

It hits at the most unexpected times. It's not written in stone and it can sneak up on you when you're least expecting it. We all know the feeling: the undeniable tightening of the chest, the butterflies soaring in your stomach and the endless need to hear his voice, see his face. Love has a funny way of working and travel has a funny way of making itself a larger priority. Maybe it's not really love if it doesn't come first but it has gotten pretty close. The first time I saw him he was singing in a café that my friends and I went to every Wednesday: a guitar s[...]

Barbados, Personal Development, Self-Care, Travel

4 Lessons Learned from Living on an Island

Before living on an island I had no idea what to expect. Warm weather, the sea and days relaxing on the beach, obviously, but I had no idea just how life changing it can be to immerse yourself in island living. It has shifted my perspective on reality and I am determined to incorporate the life lessons I've learned for the rest of my life. Island time is a real and inherent thing that you will come to love if you end up living on an island. As you embrace this concept of time, the stress and anxiety begin to fade and you finally begin to take in the life that[...]

Personal Development, Self-Care, Travel

It’s Time To Rephrase the Question.

I have grown up in a society blinded by the goal of having money. Money has always seemed to be the first priority and people around me work insane hours in order to make as much as they can. The result? We stop working to live and start living to work. I can't count the number of times visiting with my friends revolved around a quick dinner and spending most of that time talking about our jobs - and don't even get me started on the dating scene, where the first question is always what do you do for work? Every time someone asks me that question I want to bang my[...]

Personal Development, Self-Care, Tips, Planning and Packing, Travel

Are You Breathing Just a Little and Calling it a Life?

“Listen—are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?” –Mary Oliver If you live in any of the Western countries you will know all too well the typical route that a life is supposed to take. Graduate, go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, start a family… not necessarily in that order. But what happens when the idea of all of these things that equal a “successful” life fills you with dread and makes you want to run in the opposite direction? What happens when a university degree is not going to give you what you always wanted? W[...]

Personal Development, Self-Care, Thailand, Travel

5 Life Lessons We Can Learn From Elephants

I think that people are subtly trying to let me know that they’ve had enough of my elephant talk. A few weeks ago my cousin, not so subtly, told me that he was getting tired of seeing so much elephant stuff coming from my Facebook. Just a few days ago I was trying to get my brother to watch the saddest but very educational video about elephant training in circuses, to which he refused and asked why. Well, to raise his awareness, of course. “Look who I live with. I think I have enough elephant awareness,” was his reply. Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s[...]