Happy First

Feb 24 5.25pm

Its been ONE YEAR since I started this blog!

Feels good :) 

Am sitting in our garden, on the kallu benchu sipping coffee. Just feels so good :) 

One year back, when I wrote my first post, I told myself that it is going to be only about happy thoughts - about how to be happy and about just being happy. Last one year has been an exciting journey! I have learnt a lot, accepted many things, have taken few major decisions and welcomed a new person into our family - my future sister-in-law :D

Last few days I was feeling restless about something. This morning found a solution. I am happy when I am planning something, whether its a trip or something else. According to many people, we travel a lot. But over the last few years, our travelling has reduced. We consciously had made a decision to travel less, but now we are back :) There are so many new places to be explored, and travel gives me the most happiness! So why should I be doing anything else ;) So world here we come :)

Happy First Year Blogging :)

Smaller steps

Just finished playing squash!

My hands are shaking while I type :p

As I have mentioned earlier, I like to bring in variety to my exercise. I don't go to any class, so I have to motivate myself to exercise at home. And its very easy to be lazy and sleep that extra hour in the morning and I am not a evening-exercise person. I have few dvds, that help me exercise. Its like someone is teaching the steps. Even though I know the steps, I need someone to walk me thru. I like do Surya Namaskaras once a week. I don't have a DVD for this and so I have do it on my own.

So every time I start SN, I have a number in mind. Usually it is 20 or 25 SN. I do one or two, and my mind wanders away, I stop to take a break etc. And the thought that I still have to do so many SN doesn't motivate me enough. So now, when I start off, I tell myself that I will do 5 SN, after I complete , I feel that I can do 5 more and so on. The result is, I end up doing 20 or 25 and I am very happy :)

The reason the above theory works for me is because I am breaking up one huge task into smaller ones. And I also tell myself that I can take a small break after I do 5 SN continuously. This made me think about life as a big picture, and how we can apply the same theory for everything in life! If we start thinking about any huge task/goal in our life, it may seem scary. We can start wondering what/how/where we will do something. But once we break that 'something' into smaller tasks/versions/pieces it will not look very scary, and it will seem doable. And as we achieve those smaller tasks, it gives us confidence to move ahead. 

One more key thing will be to take breaks often. This will motivate and re-energize us to go forward with more enthusiasm.

Thats it for today :) Have a great day!

My Circle

I would like to call it my one-foot-circle!

My mind is known to wander far away all the time. And in all possible directions. And most of the time it keeps thinking about something not relavant or about something related to others. Thinking about non important things, and about what other people think to some extent is ok, but when it gets too much, one has to bring the mind back to its owner :)

So I have created this one-foot-circle around me. And I plan to not let my mind wander outside this circle. It is very important for us not to over burden our mind with unnecessary thoughts. So each time the mind crosses my one-foot-circle, I consciously try to get it back. So now I at least know when my mind is outside the circle.

Many people, without realizing, tend to think about unnecessary things most of the time. And as I had mentioned earlier, our mind takes in whatever we feed it. At this point of time, the "one-foot-circle" is what I need. For others it may be something else they want to concentrate on. So the idea is to start feeding the mind with the exact thing that we want. One can create a "one-foot-circle" or a "only-positive-circle" or a "all-good-circle" or _ _ _ there can be different kinds of circles you can follow :)

For now, its going to be ONE FOOT for me :D

My Excitement

Need to clear my thoughts. Whenever I am too happy or excited, I just have to share it with the world. Thats my nature, don't know if its good or bad! And its interesting to see each and every person react in a different way. Earlier it used to bother me if someone did not react the way I expected them to. But today I find it plain interesting :)

I am one person who gets excited about every little thing, about every good thing that happens to me, to my family, my friends and acquaintances. And I express my excitement out to the world. I have realized that very very few people get so excited. Sometimes it makes me wonder if something is wrong with me. A always says that I need to be more balanced, I goto extreme zone, both ways, when I am happy and when I am sad. I am still trying to achieve that balance. I guess its about controlling the thoughts.

Being more calm, not getting agitated, doing the things that one enjoys doing, being disciplined - these are the basic things that will help in controlling the mind. Just my thought :)

Goa

Goa is an all time favorite place of almost every person in India. I had been to Goa once, and had visited few beaches and forts. One of our cousins called up and said they have booked us at Hyatt. So thats how this trip was planned :) 

We flew in to Goa on a Saturday early morning flight. We reached the airport at 7.20 am. Our hotel was around 25km from the airport in Dabolim. The hotel taxi picked us up and we got an early check-in. The rooms were lovely, with a pool view. Well, Hyatt is a luxury 5 star hotel. So everything about this place was very good. Our favorite part about this place was the beach! We had breakfast and headed to the sea. The hotel overlooks Bambolim bay in north Goa. It was almost empty, and we had a great time jumping into the water, and relaxing on the beach chairs. Around noon, cousin and our favorite triplet kids joined us. The kids are a perfect example of the quote "A child can always teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, ... — Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain". It was fun playing with them in the water and sand and chatting with our cousin.

View from our room

Evening we headed out to see old Goa, after a nice hot cup of masala chai. We first stopped at the St. Augustine's Tower. It was part of one of the 4 16th century churches that stood there. Even today, the remains of the church are so beautiful, though its sad to see it all destroyed. We spent nearly one hour here, and its definitely one of my favorite places in Goa. The kids just headed out to explore this beautiful place. They love exploring new places, just like their mom :) I will let the pictures explain the rest about this place.

Goa has too many beautiful churches.

Then we went to the church Basilica of Bom Jesus, where the remains of St.Francis Xavier are kept. A wedding was going on and it was nice to see everyone dressed up, especially the bride and the groom. 

There was another church Se Cathedral, right across Basilica of Bom Jesus, we could see this only from the outside as a religious ceremony was going on, and visitors were not allowed inside. It is a peaceful place. We sat on the steps of the church for sometime. S was born and brought up in Goa, and so she was explaining the history of each place. This is the largest church in Asia. 

We headed back to the hotel and had dinner. After dinner, we went to the beach and walked for sometime. There were a lot more waves in the nigh compared to daytime. Before heading to the room, we sat near the pool, with our feet in the water. 

Beach Walk!!

The next day we got up late, had a heavy breakfast and headed out to visit the temples of Goa. We went to the Mahalasa Narayani temple where S and G got married. Its a beautiful temple. After spending sometime here, we had cocum juice - a Goan speciality and all of us shared one vada paav just outside the temple. 

Morning freshness

Breakfast

The Temple

Behind the Temple

Headed back to the hotel, where we all relaxed. I spend the whole afternoon and evening at the beach. I used to sit in the sea water and come out and laze on the beach chair with a beer. At around 430, I had veg pasta on the beach. I just couldn't stop singing "I have my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world, a cold beer in the hand, LIFE IS GOOD TODAY, LIFE IS GOOD TODAY.." by Zac Brown Band :D It was just  a perfect holiday.

We watched the sunset from the hotel, sipping tea. As always, sun set was gorgeous. 

Dinner time, spent time eating, chatting and drinking. Then we went for a walk on the beach. We sat at the pool with our feet in the water for a long time. The pool was amazing, with different size and depth pools next to each other. 

We woke up early next morning, and went straight to the beach. Weather was very pleasant, we walked for an hour and hit the breakfast buffet again to hog. Don't remember eating so much in a long time :) 

Morning Walk

We started off towards southern Goa, to a place called Cuncolim, where S was born. The drive throughout is very beautiful. The roads in Goa are very good. On our way, we stopped at the bridge on river Sal, which is very close to Cuncolim. Its a beautiful river with trees all along the river. Again, the picture says it all!

River Sal

S's house at Cuncolim is beautiful, with lot of trees, wells, a temple adjoining the house. Its really nice to have a place like this :) The kids were so excited to show us around the house. Aunty had made yummy Goan food. After lunch it was time for us to leave. Our flight was at 3.10, so we had to say bye to Goa. Am sure we will visit again very soon. 

Yummy food, lovely place, great company, it was an amazing vacation. Thanks G, S, A, A, A!