I’ve always loved to learn on all levels and this morning, around 5.30 am, I found myself laying awake in bed and thinking about creating new neural pathways through the love and happiness brought about by my travels and how our choices in life can help or hinder us in doing so.

What I’ve learnt, is that although life is not always easy, the choices we make, can fire up those connections in our brains and develop a new way of thinking and living. This also involves repetitiveness and self discipline, enabling us to embed those new pathways. Because like any new path, you need to keep walking down it to create a trail.

When I travel, all my cares wash away. As of course they do, when you’re away from where those troubles lie. When you’re in different surroundings, with different smells and activities. Our stimulation is different. Yet it is important to recognise that this is what allows for new possibilities in our lives. When the mind is focused on something it is doing, which it enjoys, it is much easier for our troubles to not seem so present.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

And on one level it is – to live a happy life, the challenge is to find those things which make us happy and as much as possible, get to know them on as many levels as we can.

Live, learn, grow and develop.

Keep building and creating new neural pathways.

My experience of this, is that as much as I have enjoyed the physical act of travel, connecting with something so different to ourselves and then building on those experiences have great health and wellbeing tendencies. I have developed an interest in social anthropology in relation to the South Pacific and Oceanic cultures, still my favourite place in the world to visit. I have the urge to learn spanish. Spain-a culture and country which I enjoy and a language I would love to develop and speak. The Pacific Ocean, its surrounding countries and marine life, all hold a fascination for me.

Daily, sometimes in the most minuscule of ways, I keep generating those neural pathways as I recreate myself. It can be tough and times can be hard but I know that if even for a few seconds I can sense how I want my life to feel as it is lived, and my mental attitude to be, then I am talking one small step towards it and the spark ignites once again.

What ignites the spark in your life?