People often don't like their lives. If you think this happens only to you, don’t be fooled. The 21st century is a century of contrasts: never in history has a person had so many opportunities to make life interesting and rich and so many complaints about boredom. Even people whose existence looks bright and full fall into depression or do crazy things just to get rid of the monotony. What does this mean? Boredom does not depend on the type of activity you do, the number of hobbies you have, etc., it is a state of mind. Anything can be boring, depending on a person’s temperament, interests and outlook.
If your life seems boring to you, the problem is not life. The same thing will happen after a while if you find yourself in the “skin” of a movie star, popular musician or artist.
Why is this happening? It's all because of the burnout of emotions. No matter how much you admire the taste of your favorite dish, if you eat it every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, after a couple of days you will begin to associate eating with melancholy. Many strive for the profession of their dreams, for example, entering a theater university to play on stage. But when you get into the theater backstage, you are faced with the monotony of rehearsals, with the endless repetition of the same performances. The student begins to burn out, he understands the difference between the stage and the auditorium. The same thing happens in everything, especially among people whose temperament is too fickle to remain faithful to one thing for a long time.
Why doesn't this happen to everyone? Nobody fights boredom on purpose, it’s the same as forcing yourself not to think about something. One must not fight with the mood of the mind, but take it into account and try to get around it. Some people just know how to do it, they themselves don’t know how they do it. Others have their own methods, which have come over the years out of necessity, because everyone needs to work, but few enjoy the work. In this article we will look at ways and tips that help other people make life brighter and more interesting, and talk about the principles of how mood works.
Develop your imagination
In Lars Trier's film Dancer in the Dark, the main character dreams of becoming a musical star, but works as a press operator in a factory. This is the case when the work consists of the same movements repeated over and over again for the entire 10-hour shift with a short break for lunch. There is something to get bored and go crazy about. What does the heroine do? She catches the rhythm of the rattling machines, imagines herself as a character in a musical, moves to the rhythm and even sings her character’s part to herself. The work of imagination turns “hard labor” into a place where dreams come true, allows you to ignore routine and have fun out of nowhere.
How we block ourselves
- No money
- No time
- I work all the time
- Quarantine, where will you go, you will go - everything is closed
- My health is poor - I really want to go hiking, but I have allergies/ weak back/ paws ache/ tail falling off
- I don’t know how – it’s great to ride a bike, I’d like to too, but I don’t know how
- There is no company - I would also like to go to bachata, but not with anyone, and it’s awkward alone
And you won’t believe it, or maybe you will, but all this is nonsense, excuses... It is clear that everyone has real limitations. And if you are not the granddaughter of Rockefeller, then a solid Hakuna Matata will not work, of course. You need to earn money for your entertainment, and work takes time. The question is what to do with the remaining free time and where to spend what you earn?
Don't repeat yourself
This is a game you can play with yourself. It will not only add variety to your daily routine, but will also allow you to develop some skills and qualities. For example:
- memory;
- savvy;
- creativity;
- improvisation;
- imagination.
The essence of the game is to always do everything differently. You can start with one thing, for example, dressing differently for work every day. If there is no dress code at the workplace and there are enough things in the wardrobe, this will not be difficult. Just choose different combinations of familiar things. When you learn, add a new activity, for example, go shopping in different stores, walk in different parks, cut vegetables on different cutting boards - whatever your imagination allows.
Walk outdoors more often
It is generally accepted that a busy life is when a person travels the world every month, dines in expensive restaurants and goes clubbing with friends on Friday night. But is this really so? After all, a rich life begins when people leave their comfort zone and start doing what they really like. Try to explore the surroundings of your city, get acquainted with amazing lakes, forests and steppes, watch for wild animals and enjoy the fresh air.
Learn to calm your mind
It is the restlessness of the mind that causes dissatisfaction, thirst for more, and boredom. Melancholy often grips a person who has everything he needs, this is inexplicable from the point of view of needs. The mind is constantly trying to occupy itself with something new, like a restless child who is unable to sit in one place for more than five minutes. Information noise brings additional chaos into your restless consciousness, forcing you to constantly want something. New iPhone, new triple cheeseburger from McDonald's, new bottle of Coca-Cola, new data plan. You are constantly instilled with desires and fears of being left without something important.
Awareness will help you calm your mind and make your life interesting and rich: pay attention to the desires that arise, evaluate their rationality. Meditate, it helps you better understand your real needs.
First week. Start with the little things in life
The name speaks for itself.
In order to diversify your existence, you do not need to rush headlong into vacation. All you need to do in the first week is make changes to your daily routine. For example, start doing everything with your left hand, or change your blue pen to a black one.
These tasks seem simple, but despite this, they perfectly enliven an established lifestyle and add variety.
To make it clearer, below I have described a clear example of what the first 2 hours after waking up in these 7 days might look like:
- 6:00 – Got up an hour earlier.
- 6:10 – Brush my teeth with my left hand.
- 6:30 – I picked up a book for the first time in a couple of months (and read a couple of pages).
- 7:30 – I chose an unusual style of clothing.
- 8:00 – Went to work or school along a new route.
I think the operating principle is clear - don’t get hung up on large-scale changes, but start with the little things.
Now I propose to consider 10 ways that will help diversify your life in the little things. Read them carefully and memorize them to put them into practice.
10 ways to spice up your life in the first week
Start getting up an hour earlier.
At this hour you have the opportunity to do those things for which you previously did not have enough time. Get up, brush your teeth, do exercises, make your bed, iron your shirt.
Thus, you will already have completed 5 tasks. Done! ☑ Done! ☑
Start using only your left hand (or right if you're left-handed).
Place a reminder on your desk, refrigerator, and toilet so you don't forget this rule. Seriously, this is very funny.
Change your route to work or school.
We have already become so accustomed to everyday routes there and back that it began to happen automatically. For this reason, we need to periodically change our routes.
Or go along the old path.
But just now try to notice those things that were previously ignored.
Change your wardrobe to a style that is unusual for you.
If you're used to black clothes, buy a couple of T-shirts in white or yellow.
Get a new haircut.
You don't have to dye your hair red. Just ask your hairdresser to cut it a little shorter.
Rearrange the furniture.
Pay attention to the design of your room. Maybe it's time to transform something?
Start using black pen paste.
Applies to schoolchildren and office workers. Do you agree that blue paste is already boring?
Practice new greeting gestures.
Instead of the usual handshake, “bump your fist.” In the context of coronavirus, it is recommended to greet people without touching at all.
In the evenings, start keeping a personal diary.
By following this system, every day you will notice new discoveries for yourself. Therefore, enter into your diary all your internal changes regarding the first week.
Such simple methods will help you prepare for future, more global changes.
Get rid of the assessment
Speculation is the worst enemy of experience. The habit of evaluating things before getting to know them closely deprives you of a lot of opportunities and knowledge. This is a strong inhibitor: when the opportunity to try something new arises, you say “oh, this is probably not interesting,” “oh, it seems, this is not for me,” and so on. Eliminate the words “probably” and “seems” from your vocabulary. Try everything that comes after them from your own experience. It may be difficult, but the source of difficulty will be the fear of failure and nothing more.
Social networks - no!
There is no need to spend a lot of time looking at interesting and wonderful events that happen to other people on social networks. It is better to modify your existence, spend time searching for the beautiful, and allocate time to achieve your own goals.
If you devote no more than 15 minutes a day to the world of social networks, then life will sparkle with new colors, become more exciting and rich. You need to move forward, make new acquaintances, maintain old ones, forgiving grievances and contradictions.
When someone’s misconduct or actions have caused you pain, you need to discuss this situation with the “culprit”, and not complain to others about him. If you think that communicating with this person will not bring you anything new, then you can safely break off contact.
It is necessary to communicate with those people who bring harmony and tranquility into life, and do not “strain” them with their company. Take care of your loyal friends and don’t waste your time on trifles. Surround yourself only with positive people!
Be active
A person who is not interested in anything will never be able to make his life easy and interesting. Water does not flow under a lying stone; to fill your life with events, you need to strive for them. It takes energy. If you don’t have it, think not about the richness of life, but about how to become livelier and more active yourself. It almost always comes down to physical condition.
- Get rid of bad habits, they slowly suck the energy of life out of you.
- Be active, lack of physical activity dulls, relaxes and deprives you of emotions - they simply have nowhere to come from.
- Play sports. Physical improvement is self-confidence and the desire to try one’s strengths. Just take on new milestones and celebrate your achievements.
October 10, 2018
Ekaterina Severnaya Writer, experimenter and optimist. Seeker of new experiences. I work as a freelancer and practice Muay Thai, yoga and fencing. I collect countries and cities: from Kamchatka to Crete. Author of the blog “Make Life BRIGHTER”.
- let-me-smile.ru
- vk.com/severnaja_ylibka
I was twenty when, on a sunny summer day, I went out onto the balcony, looked at the piercing blue sky, breathed in the warm air and thought: I live a very boring life...
Nothing “extraordinary” is happening in my life that I can tell my grandchildren about with a cheerful wink in forty or fifty years... What interesting thing happened to me in two hot months? Apart from a few swims in the Gulf of Finland, going to a bar with friends and barbecuing at the dacha?
Nothing. But this is a precious time of my youth. Why do I sit in front of the computer in the evenings? Why don't I live to the fullest? Why to the question: “How did you spend your weekend?” I answer, as usual, nothing special...
Maybe you have had such moments too? When you wait all week for the weekend, and then don’t know what to do... When, when asked “hobbies” in some form, you write: “books, films, music”...
Where to start change? A wish list
I firmly decided to fill my life with bright events.
And I started with a wish list. At first there weren't too many points:
"jump with a parachute",
"spend the night in a tent in the forest"
"walk on the rooftops"
"to go abroad"
"to fly on an airplane"
"try driving a car"
“learn to shoot”...
Everything I've never done before.
It’s one thing to write it down, and quite another to implement it.
We need money to go abroad. On a hike in the forest - company. For a walk on the roofs - at least the addresses of open roofs. And so on. However, for some reason I wasn’t worried about it at all and believed that something interesting was about to happen.
And then miracles slowly began to happen in my life. The most real ones.
Literally a week later, a new friend from university suddenly called and offered to jump with a parachute:
“We’re getting together here with a whole group of about ten people, we found a jumping instructor we know, he’s reliable and doesn’t charge a lot of money.” We will jump with a parachute on our own! Come with us!
I happily agreed, although I was terribly afraid. The jump gave me a huge dose of emotions and adrenaline. For the first time in a long time, I felt 100% alive.
Then this same friend began inviting me on small hikes: the guys took tents, went into the forest to some lake and played mafia or crocodile all night, sitting around a fire. My wishes came true one after another: a big cheerful company, songs with a guitar, night swims, delicious porridge over the fire...
Then, in one virtual competition, I won a list of open rooftops in St. Petersburg where you can walk and take photos.
Then my dad started teaching me how to drive my grandfather’s old car, a bright orange ’76 Troika. And at the same time - shoot in the forest with a rifle and pistol.
The more dreams come true, the more interesting life is.
Then there were paragliding flights, flying at the controls of a sports plane, diving, water skiing, acting courses, photo plein photography, walks along the most beautiful roofs of St. Petersburg and little madness.
For example, penetration to the top of one of the pylons of the Cable-stayed bridge in Obukhovo in St. Petersburg, to a height of 126 meters! Luck? Well, maybe. But I always found myself in the “right place at the right time.” It was a miracle that I was included in a small group of four people I didn’t know, who were planning a foray onto the Cable-stayed Bridge - a random acquaintance called me.
It was unforgettable! We climbed into the “insides” of the bridge at the very beginning and crawled for about forty minutes in the darkness along the internal structures, lighting the way with headlamps, accompanied by the roar of passing cars. Then we climbed the steep stairs inside the pylon for another half hour. And we almost went blind from the bright sun when we climbed out onto the platform at the very top!
Cars rushed by below us, looking like toys from such a height. Gusts of wind raised my hair on end. Tiny boats scurried along the smooth surface of the Neva. And a little further away the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral sparkled in the sun...
And suddenly money was found for a trip abroad. True, thanks to my mom for this! I was still studying at the time and just starting to look for a job. Moreover, at that time I did not know how to save money and travel on my own, so I obediently took money to travel agencies.
When I finally started working, everything started spinning even faster and brighter:
"black slopes" at ski resorts in Norway,
mountains, sea and nightclubs of Barcelona,
pretentious capital of France,
crazy bike rides in Denmark,
ancient ruins in Rome,
nettle beer and horror museums in Prague,
Thai boxing classes in Crete,
life with local couchsurfers in Hungary,
walks through the snowy taiga in Siberia,
walks with a wind of 26 m/s in the Far North,
and meeting seals in the wild in Kamchatka...
At home - training in Thai boxing, fencing, participation in amateur tournaments, yoga and aerial yoga classes, meditation, working on a book, cleaning up garbage on the Vuoksi islands in a competition format, military-sports team race “Race of Heroes”...
What difficulties might arise?
1. Of course, fear . At least that's how it was for me.
I'm afraid of too many things. Something that an ordinary person does calmly, without thinking. For example:
tumble,
drive a car in the dark,
post your articles on the Internet,
communicate in large companies,
fly on airplanes (not always, although every other time),
come alone to unfamiliar places,
ride extreme rides...
I'm afraid of an awful lot of things, I just like this feeling - when you step over your fear. You immediately begin to be terribly proud of yourself... Until the next fear 
2. In addition to fear, external factors can hinder the fulfillment of desires - lack of money, lack of time .
Yes, on the one hand, if you really want something badly, it seems that the whole world is helping you... And you find the means to make your dream come true.
On the other hand, it’s easy for me to say this, not burdened with anything: for now there are no children or anyone to look after, who would depend on me...
So I won’t say categorically - everyone’s situations are different.
But still, if you have the opportunity to choose... For example:
Between regular barbecues in nature and a visit to the rope park...
Between buying a new handbag and trying out water skiing...
Between kitchen renovations and travel...
It's better to choose the second one.
Gradually, the pieces will form a whole mosaic of a bright and interesting life.
What is this all for? “Side effects” of a vibrant life
You start to feel truly happy.
You feel the fullness of life.
A good mood becomes a habit and becomes the norm.
The former lethargy and apathy dissolve.
Increased energy.
Outbursts of irritation disappear.
Strength appears for daily tasks.
You always have something to talk about.
Let's sum it up
If you feel like your life has become too boring and ordinary, add some bright colors to it.
1. Make a wish list of things you’ve wanted to do for a long time, but didn’t dare or simply didn’t have the occasion.
2. Set aside a little money, find a little time, focus on fulfilling your desires - and perhaps you will notice how well the circumstances have begun to develop in your favor.
3. Start “checking off” the items on the list and carefully “putting” new impressions and colorful emotions into your collection.
Self-development #dreams #joy #lists
Don't be afraid of change
You should be happy about changes, they are new experiences and fresh impressions. Yes, they are not always pleasant, but there is no use hiding from the negative side of life, it will get you even within four walls behind seven locks. Positivity will not come to you on its own; you need to chase it. The phrase “no matter what is done, everything is for the better” should become your life motto. Don't worry about unplanned changes, even if they take you by surprise. Have you been fired? A reason to try yourself in a new position. Abandoned by your loved one? You are open to new relationships. Don’t try to avoid stress, it will still happen, just remember that the best is always ahead of you, and the past dies as soon as it ceases to be the present. Live for tomorrow.
What does it mean to “live brighter”
Everyone has come across texts on social networks like “10 ways to get rid of boredom”, “10 tips on how to live brighter”, and various other lists of 10 tips. First of all, you need to understand what it means to live brighter. For myself, I have determined the following - my life should be filled with meaning, goals and impressions, then it will be richer, easier and more interesting. She must satisfy me completely. Try to imagine an ideal life? Yours should be exactly like this.
There is no single way to improve the dull everyday life of different people, so it is best to read the rules for a bright life and make your own list. It doesn’t have to be 10 points long - it can contain a couple of tips or an A3 sheet covered in small handwriting, the main thing is that it works in a specific situation.
Reach for emotional food
It is the emotions you experience that give life brightness and richness. No matter what complex and important events happen to you, you will remember only those to which you reacted as vividly as possible. Thus, any little thing that is important to you will take precedence over an incident of a universal scale only because the little thing awakened an emotion inside you. Finding sources of emotional food is the task of a person who lacks brightness. Emotions can be drawn from:
- in a relationship;
- in hobbies;
- in the arts (theater, painting, literature, dance, music);
- in sports (meaning competitive sports).
