Feeling complete deep down for the first time in my life soothes the loneliness of not being in a loving partnership right now, and walking the beach with my dog every morning watching the sunrise, instead of being on a packed London commuter train, makes my heart burst with happiness.

Perhaps you're wondering, how an earth do I go about creating an authentic life? Where do I start? Well, this is obviously vastly different for everyone, but my advice would be to just start somewhere, and what better place than where you are right now? By that, I mean start by looking within. Meditation, for me, is about carving out a few moments each day to sit quietly, breathe, connect with myself, and recognize my part to play in a bigger whole.

This isn't a recipe for happiness in any shape or form. These are just my things. My choices leading to the life I am creating for myself, from a place of authenticity. I have started to understand and accept that my life is up to me-my choices, my creation. The life I am living right now resulted from the choices I made before now, and yet they are no longer important; only the choices I make right now are. Right now I am free from the past but have a choice in creating my future.

I understand that some things in life we literally can't change-maybe you're a parent or caregiver or have other responsibilities that limit you-but you still have a choice. You can choose to resist and focus on the negative, the struggle, or you can choose to see differently, create opportunities for change, and ask for help. No matter what your life looks like right now, you can still create a life you love. I believe that everyone can dig deep to find out what feels right for them, be honest with themselves and others, and align their life with that place of authenticity.

Creating a life you love is really about aligning your life with your own core values-those things that are most important to you personally. Regular meditation will help you discover what those are. It might also help to think about the activities you loved doing as a child and find some time to do one of those things one day soon. Express yourself and be creative-journal, draw, sing. Join an activity group, take a class, volunteer, be of service. Move your body with exercise or yoga.

The point is to listen to yourself and take action on what you discover. Connect with how you really feel and use that as your guide when making choices so you can create a life you truly love. If you do this, you may eventually realize, as I did, that it doesn't matter one teeny, tiny bit who the happiest person you know is; all that matters is that you're happy with yourself and the life you're living. See a typo, an inaccuracy, or something offensive? Please <a href="https://tinybuddha.com/contact/">contact us </a>so we can fix it!

"My goal is to build a life I don't need a vacation from." ~Rob Hill Sr. The other day I had an interesting conversation with a friend, who asked me the question "Who is the happiest person you know?" Ask yourself this question now. It's difficult to answer, isn't it?

The First Steps Toward Creating a Life You Love

Camilla van Rheenen