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Celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday with a Parks Canada Discovery Pass #Canada150

January 17, 2017 by tazimdamji Leave a Comment

Where will your Parks Canada Discovery Pass take you this year?

This year, to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, Discovery Passes, which grant free access to Canada’s national parks, historic sites, and marine conservation areas for you and your family, are free! With almost 200 locations throughout Canada, there’s sure to be a few nearby that you can visit this year.

This Parks Canada Discovery Pass is only the second one I’ve owned. When I moved back to my hometown of Calgary, Alberta with my best friend for (what turned out to be) 10 months, we wanted to make the most of our time near the Canadian Rockies with a Discovery Pass. There are at least a dozen Parks Canada sites/parks within a few hours drive of Calgary. I’ll be checking out at least a few of them this summer when I go through the area on a road trip.

For the past few years, I’ve been on a quest to visit all locations of national parks, national historic sites, and marine conservation areas in Canada. I hope to visit at least 10 locations on my list this year.

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Why Celebrating Friendships Leads to Happiness

June 29, 2016 by tazimdamji Leave a Comment

Because I believe that what we focus on grows, I know putting time and effort in to celebrating friendships (one of the most important things in my life) will bring me further happiness.

“It’s about taking those moments when things are fine and making them amazing, because those moments are what make us who we are, and they’re the same moments we take into battle with us when our brains declare war on our existence. It’s the difference between surviving life and living life.”

– Jenny Lawson in Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things

Living life to the full for me, is all about having adventures—big and small. While I could find joy having adventures by myself, I prefer to share the journey with those I love. My good friend Alex and I have talked about the importance of living an adventurous life. No, we’re not going to sell everything and backpack around Europe, or train for a year to hike in the Himalayas.

Adventure is a state of mind. Adventure is about wondering “what if?”—to get curious and take steps towards exploring possibilities.

During this first year of our friendship, Alex and I had many adventures (near and far). Living in two different (and far apart) cities in the Lower Mainland (greater Vancouver area) has meant discovering new places and returning to familiar favourites each time we get together. And every time we get together we talk about other places we’d like to spend time together and travel to.

This anticipation in itself brings happiness. Anticipating adventures with my friend extends the joy of the actual adventure.

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The Joys of Camping

May 13, 2016 by tazimdamji 2 Comments

Camping is a great way to connect with nature. And a great way to escape from the noise, hustle, and bustle of the city.

I was introduced to the fun of sleeping under the stars and enjoying nature for more than just a day at a time, late in life. Like with many other things, my best friend Greg got me hooked on hiking and camping; my life has never been the same since.

Living here in Vancouver, I feel as though there are two types of people—the super-adventure-y ones who go camping, on long hikes, and who regularly enjoy other outdoor activities each weekend. And then there are those that don’t like going outside very often. Where do I fit in? Well, I love being outside, but I don’t like extreme sports. I’d go camping and hiking more often if I knew people who enjoyed doing so.

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Celebrating Top Influential South Asian Lifestyle Bloggers

May 6, 2016 by tazimdamji 8 Comments

Whether aspects of South Asian culture (food, clothing, celebrations, traditions) are front and centre, like with Raj Thandhi’s blog Pink Chai Living, or they’re more subtle, like with my blog, it’s fair to say that South Asian bloggers have a unique perspective that we share online. We all enjoy working with brands on campaigns that fit with our food and lifestyle preferences.

Here are just 5 of the influential South Asian lifestyle bloggers that I have come across:

Tript and Prabh, sisters who run the lifestyle blog Footnotes and Finds, which showcases handmade finds, fashion, and travel. The sisters are based in Vancouver, B.C.

Nisha of Love Laugh Mirch blogs about food, life, culture, and home decor.

Raj Thandhi does a great job of making sure the foods, celebrations, fashions, and family stories she shares include a South Asian presence on her blog Pink Chai Living.

Parita of My Inner Shakti loves to share her monthly goals, weekend recaps, favourite recipes, and beauty products.

The Write Balance, written by Salma Dinani is a blog all about “parenting, motherhood, children, family, food, health, thrifty shopping, being green and life in general.”

And also me: I write about and create content around travel, adventure, vegan food, and self-care/personal development.

Are you a South Asian lifestyle blogger, or do you know of one I should check out? Let me know!

How to Plan to be Spontaneous

May 2, 2016 by tazimdamji 2 Comments

Planning to be spontaneous—seems like a contradiction, doesn’t it?

The truth is, if you don’t leave room in your life for spontaneity you’ll just end up feeling guilty the entire time when you decide to ditch your to-do list or skip out of work early to hit the beach.

Instead of putting items on a daily to-do list, make one for the week. This one action will allow you to decide when you’ll do certain tasks, and leave you feeling less guilty for not getting specific things done each day.

OR leave one day a week completely unscheduled—just do what you feel like doing and see where the day takes you!

Here are 7 things I’ve added to my car’s trunk so that I am prepared for spontaneity: [Read more…]

Vancouver Travel Must-Haves

March 17, 2016 by Tazim Leave a Comment

Like other cities and areas of the world, Vancouver has a distinct style, and there are certain essentials one needs in order to both fit in and make it through weather-wise. My friend’s girlfriend is moving to the city for the first time and in order for her to successfully make it through the rainy spring and the rest of the year, I put together this Vancouver travel must-have list. Whether you’re here to stay or you’re visiting, there are a few things that will help make your time here more enjoyable:

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A Fresh Start Is Like Jumping Out Of An Airplane

March 11, 2016 by Tazim Leave a Comment

If you’re beating yourself up for not keeping up with your new year’s goals, this may be music to your ears: you can have a fresh start anytime of the year! If you’ve made a promise to yourself that you’ll go for a run twice a week, but you haven’t yet—start on Sunday, or now. There are a few times a year when I give myself permission to really, thoroughly review my progress and majorly change things up. These times are: January, June (my birthday month), and September (back-to-school). Spring is also a great time of year to have a fresh start.

In many ways, this blog is like a fresh start. I’ve been blogging for over 6 years now (!!!) and over the years (of my life and in my blogging career) I’ve really been able to figure out what’s most important to me. Celebrate Life’s Adventures focuses on my most favourite topics ever. Okay, there’s no category for love—which is such an important topic to me—but there will be plenty of self-love in the Self-Care category, and mentions of my favourite people (the ones I love) throughout all my posts. If you’re interested in what I have to say about the topics I’ll be blogging about here, check out my ABOUT PAGE.

Starting on a new adventure can be both exciting and scary at the same time—like jumping out of an airplane. I should know, because I’ve done so before.

No one told me that the first time you skydive, you aren’t supposed to go solo. Apparently the norm is to skydive with an instructor and then go solo. I had no idea. Skydiving wasn’t something that had been on my ‘bucket list’ for a long time, or something that I’d been wanting to do for a while. The idea of going skydiving just came up with a few of my friends from work, and it seemed like it could be fun, so I agreed to go ahead with it. I was young (18) and hadn’t really had any adventures in my life. That adventure was the first of many, both small and large. Sometimes, I feel like I have a boring life—but it only takes a second to look back and think about all the adventurous things that I’ve done. Each time, because of risks involved, it is a little bit exciting and scary.

This fresh start is my newest arena

If you checked out my about page (above), you’d notice how excited I am about the new site and all the great content I can share with you! At the same time, I recognize that something new is always a risk.

“An arena is any place in our lives where we would like to try on a new way of being that’s a little bit bolder and a little bit more honest and a little bit more authentic.” – Brené Brown

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Where will your Parks Canada Discovery Pass take you this year?

Adventure is a state of mind. Adventure is about wondering “what if?”—to get curious and take steps towards exploring possibilities.

Camping is a great way to connect with nature. And a great way to escape from the noise, hustle, and bustle of the city.

Here are just 5 of the influential South Asian lifestyle bloggers that I have come across:

This fresh start is my newest arena

Hello! :)