The Opia Effect

Travel.Pole.Climb.Draw.Write.Love.Live

[theopiaeffect-blog]

Good morning Marseille ⚓️ #port #vieuxport #marseille #travel provence #france #euope #ferriswheel #sea #beach #boats #shopping #provence #igersmarseille #stuyabroad #bluesky #journey #seaside #marseillais (at Old Port of Marseille)

[theopiaeffect-blog]

We all long for the day when a guy with a limo will climb the side of our house with a rose in his mouth ❤️ #prettywoman #la #california #travel #trip #blog #juliaroberts #richardgear #love #single #film #laspalmas #selflove #stairs #celebrity #stars #tours #losangeles #igersla #hollywood #usa #summercamp #rose #dream #climb #heights

[theopiaeffect-blog]

Because, Norway! #Oslo #oslooperahouse #sunset #clouds #travel #blog #norway #opera #art #iceberg #sea #sky #travelling #winter #light #tourist #past #music #europe (at Oslo Opera House)

[theopiaeffect-blog]

All you need is your backpack #travel #backpack #studyabroad #lescalanques #rocks #climb #blonde #nationalpark #blog #traveller #travelling #climber #sea #marseille #provence #world #kedgebs #france #lonelyplanet #tourist (at Les Calanques)

[theopiaeffect-blog]

Who fancies a game of spot the climbing junkies?

[backpackgamestrong]

http://ift.tt/1SEfeaN http://ift.tt/1EBP6RD

[theopiaeffect-blog]

Life goals 👌🏻

[theopiaeffect-blog]

If you don't wake up in the morning feeling like this, you're doing it wrong....💀 For too long I sat at a desk contemplating what life might be like if I'd done something, anything differently. I talked the corporate talk and walked the corporate walk. Some might say I belong in that game, even now. I would stare at the fields and wonder what the grass might feel like beneath my feet. I would imagine touching the rock, breathing in the fresh air and feeling the chill of the wind on my face as I pulled on my climbing shoes. I'd watch the sun break through the trees and fall onto my desk for just enough time to forget where I was, and I would just...sit there. After a brief moment, I'd snap back into reality, frantically typing and trying to refocus my brain on the numbers, emails, voicemails, post-it notes and to-do lists in front of me. Reading this you may wonder who would ever employ someone like that, but trust me, I was so good at it I even fooled myself. At one point I genuinely believed the only way to be happy was to continue on up that ladder. How utterly wrong I was. Today as I sat in Les Calanques, actually feeling the rocks beneath my feet and the chill on my face, I asked myself how the transition from then to now was possible. I stared at the waves in disbelief. I watched the rays of sunlight break through the clouds, and with every breath I filled my lungs with the fresh air I once longed for, and I just...sat there. It was in those moments that I finally realised. This was possible because something had changed. Me.

[theopiaeffect-blog]

❤️I love you, that's why I abuse you ❤️ I'm a shoe kinda girl. I have more shoes than I can count. I have heels I've never worn. I have boots I will never walk in. I have sandals that fall off my feet. I have trainers that long to feel a treadmill beneath their rubber soles. Blue, black, round, square, high, low, pointy, boring, extravagant and over priced. You name it, I've handed over my hard earned cash to place them on a shelf and appreciate their beauty. So why do I wear converse every, damn, day!? I wear them with jeans, with skirts, with dresses, with my Michael Kors bag, with my Boohoo leggings, to night clubs, on dates, to the park, to restaurants and to lounge on my balcony. I wear them until the laces are black, the tongues are worn, the backs no longer stand up and the soles are so sticky my mum wants nothing more than to commit them to her washing machine. So what makes them this versatile? Is it the style? The comfort maybe? The advertising campaign? Honestly, I have no idea what makes this shoe, my perfect shoe, the weapon of choice every morning. I can only guess it must be the unspoken rule of the Converse fashionista: When planning your outfit, forget your feet. Converse got this, bae.

[theopiaeffect-blog]

🌷Sometimes running away is the best medicine...🌷

What do you do when your world is launched into cataclysmic crisis? Well some people take the hardest option of all. The option bloggers, psychologists, life coaches and hypocritical life long friends tell you is the easy way out. "Face your problems head on," they warn. "Yeah...actually...I'm going to run for the hills. Specifically to the northern lakes of up state New York," was the only response I could manage. The details of what people do on their travels I often find irrelevant; the change in the person's eyes, personality, presence however? Now that's fascinating. It's for that reason that I'll leave out the story about a stoned bear, armed robbery and the quickest way to set your hair on fire...for now at least. After flying to New York to run away from the life I'd so actively participated in creating, I vowed to cherish what little spare time I had; for reflection, for self development, for exercise, for my family and for appreciation of the smaller things. It seems ironic now that such a substantial promise to myself would be cast to the back of my mind within months of returning home. My divergent thoughts fell back into the claustrophobic monotony of what so many call life and I pretended, if only for a while, that I'd finally made it. How do you know you haven't made it? You sit in a large armchair 5 years later expecting a stranger to say, "face your problems head on." To my surprise, that phrase didn't follow. Instead, this is what she said: "Why should you follow the same path as everyone one else? Why do you assume their path is better than yours? I think you should go where your heart takes you and most of all, I don't think you're running away again. Its going to take courage, resilience and commitment to make this happen. So, tell me, what are you going to do next?"

[theopiaeffect-blog]

Sometimes I'm scared of my ability to get up, pack my bags and leave it all behind...