Changes in life - Hawaii changed my whole life
November 2014
When I came back from one year in paradise I started to go back to my old life in Innsbruck. I found a good job again as a business economist, a new flat and everything worked out perfectly. Although I was really happy to be with my friends and my family again I missed the Aloha spirit every day.
I lied to myself by always saying "I am happy to be in Innsbruck again", "I like what I am doing at home". And although I said it every day, it didn`t become true, because my heart felt differently. "It was like painting over a wet moldy wall with color" (quote Robert Betz). And this was exactly how I felt.
For sure I enjoyed my life, I mean, I am healthy, I have very good friends to have fun with and great parents, I had a good job, enough to eat and enough money to buy nice things. So everyone would ask me and I actually asked myself, why are you not really happy? It seemed like whenever I was travelling and I stayed somewhere else (not just in Hawaii, also in Paris, in Italy, ….) I was a happy person and at home I was a normal person. I didn`t have the sparkle in the eyes as I had in Hawaii or in Paris or where ever. So what was it, that made me feel different?
It couldn`t have been Austria or Innsbruck, because it is nice to live here. Was it just because on holiday life is easy and relaxed? For sure it wasn`t hard work to ride my lovely beachcruiser :-), play beachvolleyball till sunset, go snorkeling, go out with friends drinking good wine, …. and for sure when you are happy you meet other happy people, you meet nice men. By the way, that`s really funny, because always when I left home it usually just took me two days to become acquainted with an interesting charming man and at home I didn`t even meet one. It`s not, that there weren`t any, I just didn`t see them at home. So I suddenly realized, it was not about the people or men, it was more about me, who I am, how I behaved differently when I was not at home.
All those personal findings raised one question. "What do I want in life and what makes me happy?" It was the first time I thought about this not including a man. All the time when I was in a relationship I focused so much on the relationship and my partner that I completely forgot about myself. My goal was a happy life with my boyfriend. So by that time that I started concentrating on me I saw all those different opportunities that life brings. There was just one question left: "Do I want to change my life now and do something day after day that makes me happy?"
I answered the question with "YES" and from that moment on everything went by itself. Whatever I did, to whom I ever spoke to, it always ended with a new opportunity what I could do in life. For example I just went to a massage school in Honolulu to get a nice Lomi Lomi massage, to relax and do something good for me, and at the end I enrolled at the Hawaiian massage academy to learn Lomi Lomi, Hawaiian hot stone massage, etc. And why? Because I was always interested in it, I wanted to learn something new, I have the chance to stay in Hawaii again for a while, … and why not? Then I spoke to friends about this and immediately I had a nice apartment to stay in.
It all ended up with a plan for a whole year of new studies in the health and relaxation field. Already for years I am passionate about those topics. I moved to Hawaii again for some time and then to Vienna, where I finished my nutrition and relaxation study. Now I have a job I love and I am passionate about, I help other people and I am feeling good, happy and relaxed :-) by what I am doing day by day.
So sometimes - to calm down for a short time, to think about your past, present and future, listening to your heart, a clear "YES" and for sure also a bit courage and luck, can change your whole life.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Ferris Bueller