I was really inspired to start writing this by Steph Yu (aka happyandhealthy96). And not to say that she's really a special case or anything, because I find myself getting inspired by so many people every day. It's like every month I find a new instagrammer or blogger to get so utterly inspired by that I almost model my life entire life after them, how they eat, what they do. But Steph has inspired me in a different way; a way that makes me want to model not just the insignificant things after her, but on a general scale the way she lives her life. Two months ago she started traveling all through Australia and New Zealand I believe, and after literally reading every single blog post documenting her travels, I'm kind of at a loss for words. She often describes this concept of living until you can't live anymore; like at the end of each day you feel like you've lived as much as you could possibly have lived that day. And I can't think of any better way to live life. I've always loved that feeling, in smaller scales. Like some days where I was so busy and had things to do all day, going from one thing to the next, never stopping in between, and getting home past midnight feeling utterly exhausted but so thoroughly fulfilled. I felt like that when I used to intern at a bakery, working Fridays after school until night. Volunteering at a farm Saturday morning, then going straight back to the bakery to work until 10 again. Getting home utterly exhausted and sleeping in all Sunday. I remember being so tired but loving it so much. And now that I think about it, I'm definitely not living my life that way. And I sometimes even come to think that I'm actually wasting time at school, repeating my monotonous routine every single day with little growth, little opportunities to challenge myself, little opportunities for change, adventure, dare I say education. And so I thought, ok, I've felt like this before, for different reasons, and I really let that get to me. All I did was cry and complain about school, and how I didn't want to go and have it hold me back from life so much. Well, besides making me more aware, that did nothing. And so now I'm actually doing something about it, or trying to. I'm trying to incorporate adventure into every aspect of my day, whenever I can. Not to say that I'm necessarily avoiding school, but I'm just not letting it get in the way of things I want to do. I want to go hiking? Why should I wait until the weekend when there are five perfectly good days before it, and so much time to do whatever I want. I want to go to the beach? Why wait for a special occasion? Why not get on a bus and go, right after school (I don't drive.......). And I took my first step in that direction Sunday, going on a spontaneous sunrise hike with my friend for four hours. That was a great day, and I felt so good afterwards; a lot better than how I feel after mindlessly doing math homework, scrolling on random webpages everyday just to pass time, and routinely engaging in my daily expected activities. At this point there's only one thing holding me back from really getting into this. People. And the fact that I don't really have too many of them to adventure with. Most of my friends are too busy with schoolwork, some are lazy, some can't hike, and most just aren't willing to wake up at 4 a.m. on a weekday to go hiking. Some are forbidden by their parents to go to a park or the beach because a stranger may murder them, and some just don't even understand what I'm trying to do. And so it's up to me to convince them that a life of adventure is a nice change once in a while, and having a homework assignment due the next day shouldn't keep you from doing something you want with the remaining 8 hours of your day after school ends.
Aside from this, I also want to start sharing aspects of my day, but positive ones. I was recently told that if I list 3 good things about my day, and things that I'm grateful for, in 21 days (I think) I can rewire my brain to think more positively. And I'm usually the first to roll my eyes at this positivity bullshit, but for some reason this statement really resonated with me. It just makes sense, and I love the idea that we can literally change the way we look at the world just with the power of our minds and perspectives. And so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Somewhat modeled after Steph's 365 days of gratitude (which I love), I'll be sharing the positive aspects of my day, and trying to see the negative parts with a positive eye, and documenting how much of my goals I actually accomplish every day, my adventure, photos I take along the way, exciting things I do. I'm excited.
EDIT: well that shit hasn't really been happening huh.
(also I'll occasionally throw in a song of the day/week, because they usually affect my general mood of that day/week and are almost like a photograph, in that sense, of me and my life)
today's song: sweet disposition, the temper trap
No comments:
Post a Comment