The author enjoys spending time outdoors in nature to relax, think, and gain inspiration. They will go to the garden, pool area, beach or hiking trails near their home in Costa Rica on weekends and for at least an hour each day. Being outside in nature helps the author feel good, maintain a positive lifestyle and mindset. It also helps with personal development by allowing them to think about their life, identify negative thoughts, and realize how to improve. Time outdoors was also beneficial professionally when the author was a teacher, as it helped them brainstorm lesson ideas away from internet distractions. Spending peaceful weekends outside of the city left the author feeling energized and happy to return to work on Monday.

1. Activity I enjoy doing most

2. What is it about?
• Due to the fact that I’m from Costa Rica,
a place full of green areas, at moments
where I needed inspiration, my escape
was going somewhere outside. I felt the
need to turn off electronics (sometimes
FB and other web pages may be a little
addicting), grab a fruit, a notebook with
a pen, a bottle of water (I drink LOTS of
water), a blanket and go to the garden
or the pool area, lay down and THINK.

3. • Not only in specific moments throughout
the week I ended doing this, but also for
the weekends, which I usually spend them
ALL at the beach, or at a volcano, or at my
farm. My weekends ended up being more
healthy, I received sun, I swam at the
ocean or pool, I usually went for walks.

4. • I need at least one hour of MY time, everyday,
where I usually go for a walk in my
neighborhood. I love observing people,
breathing fresh air. I'm definitely an “outside”
person, adventurous, it helps me FEEL good
about myself, maintaing a positive lifestyle
and a positive mind.

5. Personal development
• It helps me in EVERY aspect: I think
about my health, my work, my
family, what are my negative and
positive thoughts… Eliminate the
negative ones.

6. Personal development
• Giving myself a break throughout the
day, helps me deepen on how I’m living,
if I’m happy with my life, it helps me
realize what I don’t like, and how to
change it, it helps me get real with my
feelings, thoughts, it’s usually at those
times where I write Christmas of
birthday cards to my loved ones.

7. Professional development
• For what I worked in Costa Rica, as an English
preschool teacher assistant, brainstorming while
being disconnected with internet and just
focusing on what I needed, helped me come up
with great ideas. Sometimes when you stay
home on the computer, you can get distracted
with all the pages you can browse online, that
won’t help you in your professional
development. As well as during my college
years, being outside, thinking, writing,
scrabbling ideas, helped me do my essays,
brainstorm about my projects, I came up with
great ideas.

8. • Having this need of living life the
healthy way, spending the weekends
away from the city, thinking over how
the week was, made me get to work or
to school with a smile on my face,
feeling energetic, due to the fact that
the weekends were so peaceful. I love
getting deep with my feelings,
expressing myself, and communicating
myself, people have lots that
throughout the years…

9. • How we think directly affects on how we feel.
So the activity I enjoy doing most is
maintaining that happiness, expressing myself,
living in peace, connecting with nature,
writing down my feelings, live to the fullest
the healthy way. 

10. • “Your work is to discover your world and
then with all your heart give yourself to it.”
- Buddha
• “Peace in every step” - Thich Nhat Hahn
• “Be soft. Do not let the world make you
hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do
not let the bitterness steal your
sweetness. Take pride that even though
the rest of the world may disagree, you
still believe it to be a beautiful place.”
-Anonymous

11. About the pictures…
• All the pictures used as backgrounds are
original. They are taken by me at different
places in Costa Rica, where I usually spend my
weekends at. 