Tags
advice, arrival fallacy, carpe diem, future, happiness, Health, john green, lessons, present, self-care, self-love, success, the happiness project, tips
“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (…) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” (John Green, Looking for Alaska)
Carpe diem. The answer’s been there for thousands of years and still we are all conditioned to always want more. Shoot for the highest, and give up today for tomorrow. At the beginning of the past school year, I made a point of not falling into the arrival fallacy: I would not wait around and leave my future up to time and chance, I was going to go seize it. But in heading out to seize my future, I ironically forgot to seize today. I wore myself so thin this year trying to move forward that I was too exhausted to enjoy what I was doing. It arguably paid off at the end of the year, but not in the moment. In real life, there is no end of the year, no break. There is always more that can be done, and in always striving for more, we are giving up the joys of the present. That is not a sacrifice I am willing to make anymore.
When productivity and happiness start to have an inverse relationship, it’s time to stop. Slow down. I lived in a constant state of high tension this year because I was always on the move. I enjoy being tired at the end of every day but when exhaustion seeps into the beginning, middle, and end of all days, productivity decreases anyway. Regaining calm and balance can come with just ten minutes of rest to refresh. Take them.
Self-Nurturing Activities:
- Take a warm bath
- Get a massage
- Buy yourself flowers
- Take a walk
- Visit a zoo
- Get a haircut/mani/pedi
- Watch the sunset
- Relax with a good book
- Soothing music
- Watch a funny movie or TV show
- Dance like nobody’s watching
- Bake
- Go to bed early
- Look at the stars
- Fix a special meal
- Call a good friend, or several
- Go to a new restaurant
- Go to the beach
- Go for a drive
- Meditate
- Buy new clothes
- Browse in a book/record store
- Buy a fluffy stuffed animal
- Write or journal
- Spend time with a special person
- Go to the theatres
- Go to the park and swing on the swings or climb on the monkey bars
- Go to a museum or gallery or festival
- Allow yourself time to dawdle
- Do a puzzle
- Do BuzzFeed quizzes
- Hottub or Jacuzzi
- Window shop (online works too)
- Listen to a tape
- Exercise