Embrace the joy and fun in life and follow what you love
Pleasure and fun. Joy and laughter.
Has life got so buried beneath the chores and the routine, the trivia and the humdrum that you’ve forgotten to take time to savour the beautiful, the inspiring and the majestic in life?
When was the last time you could hardly stand for laughing, when the joy of a shared joke left you gasping for breath?
It can take an effort of willpower to sit down and remind ourself where our joy lies and plan some time to do it. And sometimes all it takes is being reminded that we need to find the time to do whatever it is that makes our heart sing?
It can be done.
I took up ice skating and for a few hours a week, thought of nothing else other than conquering my fear and feeling the thrill of learning and mastering something new.
I did feel guilty, for a while, feeling that the money should be going towards something more family orientated, that the time could be spent doing something practical and goal focused.
But now I know that it makes me feel so amazing that it has become non-negotiable.
And there are many things I would love to do but finances, school timetables and daughter hobbies simply don’t allow at the moment.
The wild part of me would love to pack a rucksack and hike in the Highlands of Scotland for a while, or sea kayak around some deserted island. I yearn to take off to live in a foreign country for a few months or ride bareback across the plains of Mongolia.
But for now, with the constraints I have, I need to content myself with joys closer to home. I swim in a near-by lake, I explore forgotten footpaths that take me deep into the local countryside and I have occasional days away where I pack as much into my time as possible.
It’s been fun. I’ve created magical memories and satisfied my need for a little something out of the ordinary. Gradually I’ve been flexing my adventure muscle, being creative, coming up with new ways to inject the out-of-the-ordinary into my life because I realise I’d become complacent with my pleasures, and used restraints as an excuse.
But the truth is that fun, pleasure (and in my case, adventure as well) are a state of mind. There’s always a way to carve out a little pleasure and fun and these don’t have to be money-draining or time-consuming.
Sometimes, they involve other people, family or friends. Sometimes they’re purely for me.
It’s the picnic in the garden, or in front of the fire on a cold day. It’s the walk under the moonlight, or the slow, indulgent bath.
It’s whatever you want it to be.
It’s allowing yourself to have more fun and pleasure in your life in whatever form that takes.
So yes, continue to do what you need to do, the practicalities of life. Carry on looking after the family, working, caring for others, all the 101 things that you do.
But it’s also encouraging yourself to have fun, rediscover interests long forgotten and try out something new.
Treat yourself every day to doing something you love, no matter how small and see where it takes you.
I’ll see you in the queue for the skydiving!