Ever notice how work life makes you do the same thing day in and day out? Hit the snooze button on your alarm at 7am, jump out of bed 45 minutes later, shower, read the paper, catch a crowded train, go through the motions at work, head home in another crowded train, watch TV and hit the sack! It makes me wonder: Is that all I'm supposed to do everyday of my life for God-alone-knows how many years? There's got to be more to life than the "9 to 5"! And there is. All it takes is breaking the routine!
That's why I put together a few things I think you should include in your oh-so-busy schedule that will bring back that zest for life.
Try new things
Do you know happy people try out new things? No, I didn't make that up. Here's a study that proves it. So go out there and do something different.
Give up your usual haunt every now and then to try out a new restaurant/ a foreign cuisine, watch a play or experience a new spa therapy (say a Doctor Fish foot spa?). It doesn't even have to be expensive. My new mission is to visit places I haven't been to in my own city. So a few weekends ago, I took my nephew to the Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai to star-gaze! Our next trip is to the Prince of Wales Museum :)
Make a difference
We all want to change the world but resign ourselves to the fact that we can't! But what we can do is contribute a little to change. Now, if you think that donating to charity counts, it doesn't. Get hands-on. Volunteer at an orphanage, a hospital, an aged home or a school whenever you can. My youth group organises a Christmas party for orphanage kids year after year and I can never tire of seeing those kids' faces light up when we arrive!
Appreciate nature
Why spend your life-savings on a European tour to experience nature? Our country has so many beautiful places that I bet you've never been to. Take at least one trip every year to discover a new place. Trust me, you'll come back rejuvenated and your productivity will improve too. But you don't have to wait for those trips. The other day I was sitting at the promenade and just the sight of the sun disappearing into the horizon did it for me!
Read for inspiration
The newspapers are so depressing… bad news and more bad news! So how about reading something refreshing/ inspirational? I find reading my Bible on my commute to work helps me shut out the noise and get my mind off the long day ahead! But if that's not your cup of tea, spend a day at a library. Skim through books, discover new authors and learn new facts. In the words of Mark Twain, 'The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them.'
That's why I put together a few things I think you should include in your oh-so-busy schedule that will bring back that zest for life.
Try new things
Do you know happy people try out new things? No, I didn't make that up. Here's a study that proves it. So go out there and do something different.
Give up your usual haunt every now and then to try out a new restaurant/ a foreign cuisine, watch a play or experience a new spa therapy (say a Doctor Fish foot spa?). It doesn't even have to be expensive. My new mission is to visit places I haven't been to in my own city. So a few weekends ago, I took my nephew to the Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai to star-gaze! Our next trip is to the Prince of Wales Museum :)
Make a difference
We all want to change the world but resign ourselves to the fact that we can't! But what we can do is contribute a little to change. Now, if you think that donating to charity counts, it doesn't. Get hands-on. Volunteer at an orphanage, a hospital, an aged home or a school whenever you can. My youth group organises a Christmas party for orphanage kids year after year and I can never tire of seeing those kids' faces light up when we arrive!
Appreciate nature
Why spend your life-savings on a European tour to experience nature? Our country has so many beautiful places that I bet you've never been to. Take at least one trip every year to discover a new place. Trust me, you'll come back rejuvenated and your productivity will improve too. But you don't have to wait for those trips. The other day I was sitting at the promenade and just the sight of the sun disappearing into the horizon did it for me!
Read for inspiration
The newspapers are so depressing… bad news and more bad news! So how about reading something refreshing/ inspirational? I find reading my Bible on my commute to work helps me shut out the noise and get my mind off the long day ahead! But if that's not your cup of tea, spend a day at a library. Skim through books, discover new authors and learn new facts. In the words of Mark Twain, 'The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them.'
Take on tasks
Watch foreign cinema
I can OD on mindless romantic comedies. In fact, I can watch three films back-to-back on a Saturday. While I'm not about to give that up, I've lately come to appreciate some less commercial foreign films. No that I'm anti-desi but the non-clichéd plots, refreshingly new characters and just the sound of a new language (though I can't understand it and have to follow subtitles), is stimulating.
Meet old friends
Work really causes us to lose touch with people or worse still, stay in touch 'coz we never know when we'll need them'. Relationships need nurturing and you don't need me to tell you that. Pick up the phone; call a school friend, a long-lost cousin or an ex-colleague who you really hit it off with. Plan a meeting next weekend and make the effort to stay connected. You don't want to be a poor ol' lonely soul when you are old and grey, now do you?
Help a stranger
Everyone appreciates a random act of kindness. And there's nothing to beat the feeling you get doing some nice for someone you don't even know. Offer a seat to someone in the bus, let an elderly person get ahead of you in a queue, help a child cross the street. The other day it felt so good to just give a cabbie my cell phone to call his family. He hadn't gone home in two days!
