An Escape to a Creative World

 What Brings You Happiness?

Picture by: Kian Hanlan, iPhone

What’s an activity that brings you to your happy place? Sports, cooking, taking a walk in the park, yoga? Having an activity you like and can look forward to doing is important to maintain balance in a busy life.


For me, playing my guitar (especially flamenco) has always been my favorite pastime activity which brings me satisfaction and peace of mind. Whether I am having a long day or dealing with problems in my life, playing guitar always brings me to a place of calm and serenity. I tend to catch myself losing track of time often playing for hours which only feel like minutes. This is the activity that gets me 100% into a flow state of mind. After a few minutes, I become fully enveloped in the world of music where notes and beats come alive and create vivid illustrations in my head.


With the world being as fast paced as it is with no signs of slowing down, I find it common for days and weeks to pass in the blink of an eye. Often my day is filled with obligations, errands, and time commitments which leaves me with little time to do what I truly want to do. I’m sure you can relate to this feeling. Don’t you wish every once in a while you could put everything on pause to pursue your desires? I know I do.


This is the reason why life needs to have balance, to combat the stress of life with the joy of fun. A break from the daily motions and the coming and the going of weeks helps to add color to the sometimes gray days.


When I pick up my guitar nothing else matters except for my fingers on the fretboard and the plucking of my pick. This hobby that I am mastering pushes me to do better each time I play. It challenges me in ways that lean into my creativity, a characteristic that is not often used for daily tasks. Because of this, I feel like I maintain balance in my life between everyday motions and artistic freedom.


I challenge you to take a moment to pause and think about what you truly enjoy. What do you do when you feel down, when you are bored and need something to do, what do you gravitate towards? To answer this you must firstly ask what makes you happy. A happy life is a balanced life and you get to choose how to balance it. 

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