Home sweet home

What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful. - Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

I am in Cartagena, Colombia. I am home. I have spend the last month just relaxing, doing nothing. I have felt my "emotional fuel tank" was running in low gas but it is filled up now. What I mean about emotional tank is that we only have certain amount of energy and we use it when we keep our mind occupied like being under stress. We have to listen our bodies, that is one part of happiness, we have to know what is going on inside us. I really felt I needed rest. I know how my body works and every time after a long contract I need to rest my body and my mind. Heart is a good example, did you know that a heart only works 9 hours a day and it rest 15 hours? Amazing. We should do the same. We should not burn out our bodies and minds, we should take care of ourselves. That is what I have been doing the last month, just relaxing, giving my mind some rest.

I have been slightly stressed out due to my current work situation. I had to look for a a new job after my time in Africa and it is normal to stress out when you are unemployed and no sign for a new job. How I deal my stress? I try to build a watertight wall around me and not worry about the past nor the future, I try to live today, not tomorrow or not the past. Key part of happiness. Sometimes it is difficult to actually do that but it feels so good after you realize that you can live the present and not to worry about the future. Usually nothing will change by worrying, it just make it worse. I have been thinking a lot how to live in present and it was good to spend some time in Africa because that is exactly what people do there, they live in the present. Why they are happy there, because they don´t worry about the future or the past. Okay, that is not the only reason but it is a big part of their happiness.  

It is amazing to be here in Cartagena which is in the same latitude than the place I were in Africa so the weather is the same but the culture is so different. Same kind of place but totally different. My point is that people make the place, people make the difference and people can find the happiness everywhere in the world in them. Happiness is a state of mind. Cool ah??

"Nothing is worth more than this day."
- Goethe

My normal day here in Cartagena is that I wake up around 9 am and and make myself amazing breakfast which will take me an hour or two to finish while watching TV or listening radio. Best time of the day. After I normally have my morning swim in our swimming pool or I go jogging. I love to make food and everyday I do something, some days twice a day. I just love cooking!! During the day I visit the city or go for a cafe in some cafeteria. Evenings are for relaxing at home; watching movies or making some great food with good wine. Simple things but so good. So this time here at home have been my time for refueling my "emotional fuel tank". Simple things, things that I love to do.


I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

- E. B. White

Summarize my time in Africa...it was amazing, it was great. Would I do it again, absolutely. It was amazing experience. I met so amazing people who I miss already and Africa thought me about life and gave me some cool ways to see life in a new more amazing ways.

Being here in a country with everything and comparing this to the country I just spend 3 months, things for happiness are still the same. My happiness is about small things, I don´t need to do anything amazing to be happy, I just need to do things I love, that is happiness.

There are always challenges in life. Life is not perfect, attitude makes the difference. There are good days and bad days, it is the way you see them.

I will continue searching happiness and my next step for finding ultimate happiness will take me to the source of inner peace, it will take me to Nepal.  I found a monastery by searching internet and I found a place where I want to go but now I will concentrate on my family but also on my trip to Nepal where the monastery is located, the plan is to stay there for a month to learn the inner peace and find the ultimate happiness. Hopefully that trip will happen end of next year.

"As human beings we want to be happy and free from misery...we have learned that key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachments, fear ans suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness". -DALAI LAMA 


That´s all for now. After a month here in Cartagena I can´t wait to get to Finland and spend some time with my kids, friends and family. That is happiness.