Chris O.Life is only mundane if you let it be. It’s not just what you do, but how you perceive your everyday actions that can help you live a happier, more fulfilled existence. We cannot let our entire lives feel like a routine: something we have been doing so long that it no longer seems important, or particularly memorable. If every one of our experiences races past us at the speed of a moving train, before we know it, our lived experience will culminate in a surprisingly fast conclusion. In other words, it will be over before we know it. There are ways to think differently about life — to make the otherwise mundane feel meaningful. Here are three ways I romanticize everyday life, and how you can too.
Mindful Pause and Moment-to-Moment Awareness
There are times when life feels like it’s passing us by at the speed of a fighter jet; before we know it, each moment is gone, never to be seen again. When we do nothing to slow down our perception of time, or to appreciate the everyday moments as they happen, we are bound to exacerbate this effect. None of us wants our life to feel like it’s in fast forward; that is why it can be highly beneficial to be able to slow things down somewhat.
That is where mindful pauses and being present in the moment comes in handy. A mindful pause is when you take the time — either based on a preset schedule or when the thought occurs to you — to focus on the moment and your environment. Rather than being a bystander in your life, you will become an active participant. You will become aware of each moment, as it passes, and treasure the experience. This will make your perception of time slow down, and you will be more likely to relish, enjoy, and remember the moments as and after they occur.
Have a Great Meal
There is nothing worse than eating nothing that excites you, day-in and day-out. It makes meal time — one of the potentially most enjoyable experiences each day — mundane and boring. Even if you are eating particularly healthy, that does not mean your meals have to be dull and forgettable. Preparing a great home-cooked meal is one way to ensure you have something tasty and memorable to enjoy. It could be from a family recipe, or something interesting you find online. Alternatively, you can go to one of your favorite restaurants and grab a meal you truly enjoy. Either way, you will be getting the most out of your meal time, and will be enjoying life more as a result.
Journal Every Day
One of the best ways to romanticize your day is to catalog it in writing. Journaling allows you to capture some of the greatest, or most memorable, moments of our day and commit it to writing. This way, we have a living memento of our lived experience — one we can come back to when we want to relive it, or to reference when enduring hard times.
Journals are both a memento of lived experiences and a gateway into greater creativity, playfulness, and joy. They allow us to exercise our creativity, and to explore different sides of our minds we otherwise might not have. Using either canned prompts or going off on a tangent or idea all our own, we can put pen to paper and see where our mind takes us. It might be that you generate a great, clever idea for a story, or that you produce something that otherwise surprises and excites you. Whatever the outcome, desirable or not, will be interesting and worth remembering should you choose to do so. Because of this, journaling is a wonderful way to romanticize everyday life.
Conclusion
It pays to reflect on your day and to make what might otherwise seem insignificant and mundane a powerful, enjoyable lived experience. That is why romanticizing your everyday experiences is so important, and so wonderful. Whether it’s a day that will stick in your mind for years, or one that is not as noteworthy as it otherwise would be, taking the time to reflect on your lived experiences has great benefits. If you would like to learn more about other lifestyle, wellness, or mindfulness topics, then please read our other blogs!
