Ways To Create A Life You Don’t Need To Escape

October 31, 2014 by Yamfoot

A friend posted this article with 11 ways to create a life you don’t need to escape. I was thrilled to read that I have done many of the recommendations on the list.

#1 Moved to Grenada. Also studied and trained in England.

#2 I always live below my means, except when it comes to travel.

#3 I have tried meditation. Actually, Oprah & Deepak’s meditation series continues next Monday and I have signed up again.

#4 I don’t try and prove anything to anyone but myself.

#5 I can’t recall my childhood self looking into the future. I was living in the moment. Didn’t really focus on anything much back then, except playing the piano, then later, being in the theatre. The only thing I remember was that during a lunch time conversation in high school, the year 2000 came up and I calculated that I would be 36 then and remember thinking “gee, that’s old!”

#6 Though I don’t feel I have a life which I want to escape, when I infrequently do, it’s SCHEDULES I want to get away from. I HATE having to HAVE to do something at a particular time. Flexible schedules all the way!

#7 I have definitely struggled with recognizing that small changes do make a difference. Sometimes I think “go big or go home.” I used to think that way about exercise actually. Used to think that if I didn’t have 90 minutes, it didn’t make sense to go to the gym. That was until I discovered high intensity interval training where you could get a good workout in 8 minutes.

#8 I don’t do this I don’t think. I follow a hodge podge of people on Twitter, from all spheres with different interests. I am into learning everything about technology right now so those gurus interest me.

#9 Yes, I do stuff. Sometimes maybe it is not what I SHOULD be doing at that time, but hey…..gotta do what makes you happy.

#10 Joining Instagram recently and (again) following random people which include photographers, has made me start yearning for living somewhere else obscure (so not a major international city) in a big country. Those photos of fall especially, by a lake, are just drawing me in.slap back to reality Yamfoot….winter is coming next.

#11 OMG I have a story in my head everyday all day! Actually I started to write my book and then put it down, now I don’t know where the first few pages are.

Anyway, this was a good list. I think I passed.

Pre-birthday views and celebrations

October 19, 2014 by Yamfoot

Normally I would have started the celebrations from 1st October and in fact, when I turned a significant age a few years ago, I celebrated for the whole year. This year, work has kept me busy, so it started late, on Friday, with lunch at the hotel I used to work at. Yesterday was the beach and today I was back for lunch at the hotel again. Here are some scenes. No captions necessary…though I did add some 🙂

Grenada is one seriously beautiful island….like Jamaica.

Grand Anse Beach

Panoramic shot

Healthy eating

View from the lunch area

Lagoon by dusk

Teeny tiny cake

Make a wish!

Beautiful sky

I didn’t want to gamble….

September 28, 2014 by Yamfoot

….and I was selfish.

This came up in conversation this past week so it reminded me that I had promised to put my thoughts to paper. What am I talking about? The decision not to have kids. It was very clear to me early on in life that this was not something I would want, for two reasons. I was selfish and I didn’t want to gamble.

For the selfish part, once you have children, your life is (mostly) no longer your own. Any decision would have to include them and in all likelihood, the decision would not have been 100% what I wanted. (Same reason there is no husband.) I only wanted to have to consider one person during the chase for happiness.