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9 Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World
In the foreword of Happy: Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World first published in 2011, Maureen Wheeler, Lonely Planet co-founder, writes that ‘happiness in travel comes from the moments you are aware how lucky you are to be in that place, at that time, and how wonderful the world is’. As I’m reading this book, I’m reflecting on my own travels and what traveling means to me. I first traveled abroad at the age of eight; visiting Thailand and then Singapore was such an eye-opening and character-shaping experience, for which I’m always going to be grateful to my family. As I’ve recently written, for me, traveling is…
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Skyros: the island of wellness & wellbeing
My home country, Greece, has 6,000 islands of which 227 are inhabited. Having been to a dozen (including Mykonos, Santorini, Amorgos, and Koufonisia), I am often asked to provide tips and inside information. When people ask me which Greek island is my favorite, or which one to visit (a frequently asked but rather difficult question to answer), Skyros is always the first to come to mind. I have to admit that I am somewhat biased, as this is my late grandfather’s home island; not only I have precious memories of spending my early childhood summers there, I also have beloved relatives still living on the island. For this reason, I’ve…
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The Traveling Psychiatrist: Wanderlust & Wellbeing
Wanderlust Being a non-native English speaker, I was well into my twenties when I first came across the word wanderlust: the wish to travel far away and to many different places. Yet, now that I know this word, I realise that I have been familiar with its true meaning since I was eight, when I first stepped into a plane, and then into a foreign country (Thailand, and then Singapore). The following year, I traveled back to Far East Asia (Thailand and Indonesia), and that is how I became addicted to traveling. At the age of nine, I had already experienced my wanderlust, and from then on, I would travel…
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5 tips to achieve New Year’s resolutions
Happy New Year! At the end of each year, many of us make resolutions and set goals for the New Year. Health, fitness and wellbeing resolutions tend to be the most popular ones: we resolve to exercise more, eat healthier, drink less, quit smoking and so on. Come the 1st of January, we have the best intentions to achieve these goals. Yet, a year later few can share a success story. According to a recent Australian survey, 2 in 3 people failed their New Year’s resolutions. Instead of examining the reasons for failing, let’s focus on those for succeeding, and identify 5 tips to make it more likely to achieve…