I spent a good part of today planning trips – one international and a staycation. I already booked hotels for the international trip about a month ago. I’m now in the process of booking tickets. Then I have a visa appointment as the destination is in Europe.
The staycation is planned for New Year’s and I want to book it in advance. In the past two years, I spent New Year’s in my Dubai apartment. There was a pandemic last year and the year before I was getting ready for a two-month Bali trip.
I wasn’t living from a place of acting as if I have a partner. I was living like a single person who was single not by choice.
Today’s blog post is about this topic. What does it take to be happy? and does your single status determine how happy you feel?
A Breakthrough Moment in Sicily
It was the summer of 2019. I decided to visit Sicily and I stayed at a lovely and unique five-room boutique hotel in Syracuse.
I spent ten days towards the end of August till early September exploring that part of Sicily and visiting the quaint towns.
I fell in love with that part of Italy and I plan to go back one day.
What happened during my hotel stay was interesting.
The lady who was responsible for the reservations and most of the admin of the hotel was friendly but I noticed that she had a low vibe around her.
She seemed younger than me and I was convinced that she was single – mainly because I felt that she was sad and not happy with her life.
Because I was not accepting my single status and the fact that I was exploring Sicily all by myself, I assumed that the lady was also single and miserable about her life like me!
After having small talk with her, I discovered that she was married with a five year-old son. And that she lived with her husband on the beautiful coast of Sicily.
What was even more ironic was that she told me how she felt that I was lucky to be able to travel and just do whatever I wanted to do!
While she was feeling envious about my lifestyle and freedom, I was feeling equally envious of her being in a relationship and living in magical Sicily!
What we both had in common was that we were both vibrating low because we were not accepting our current life situation!
I wasn’t happy being single and traveling alone. And she wasn’t happy being in a committed relationship that doesn’t allow her the freedom to travel anytime she liked.
How to Be Happy
This specific story and incident is one that I’ll never forget. I think it tells us a lot about the notion of happiness and how it has nothing to do with our marital status and a lot to do with how we feel about ourselves and our lives.
It’s been almost two years since my conversation at the lovely boutique hotel in Syracuse, I can say that this pandemic helped me have so many breakthroughs. If you want to know the latest one, you can read it here.
One of these breakthroughs is that I learned to be happy no matter what my relationship status is.
I also prioritize feeling good and living in alignment with my values – which include travel and exploration.
I still want to be in a relationship but I’m not coming from a place of need and desperation.
I now can see that vibrating high and feeling good has nothing to do with whether I have a partner or live in Syracuse. It has more to do with loving and accepting my life and path exactly as it is.
I can’t tell you that I’m 100% accepting of my single status and life. But I’m not where I was back in that summer of 2019.
Let me know what your thoughts are and what do you feel makes you happy? Does being single make you fulfilled?
Let me know in the comments. And please let me know what you’re struggling with so I can create content on that.
Here are some pictures from that magical trip to Syracuse in the late summer of 2019.
rethinking the notion of happiness
Does being single make you unhappy?
