Today I decided to take care of my needs. I wasn’t sure exactly what those needs are, what it is that needs attending to, or where to start. Since I’ve moved to the sunny state of California, I’ve actually been indoors more often than I’d like to admit. I remember about 4-5 weeks into moving in my apartment, the first and only time I took a stand and said to myself “I didn’t move across country to be Cooped up. Cooped up in an office at work and then cooped up in my apartment”. That was the last time I went for a walk.

So today, despite waking up at 12:30 (I didn’t go to bed until 3am), I said you know what I’m going to go for a walk today. A walk feels good, it feels right. Explore. Wonder. Get some sun. And I did just that. Wow, do I feel so much better/positive/hopeful.

I like seeing things I haven’t seen before so the act of staying inside or finding excuses to not go out is me living it up in my comfort zone. But the problem with comfort zones is that change, reflection, internal realizations don’t happen there. They happen when you leave.

So right now as I am outside my apartment door, so close that my Wifi still connects and I can hear Liam, my cat, if he meows, I have my feet in the water and I reflect on the 2 simple choices I made today to improve my mental health.

Paradise or real life? It is both.