Why does every day feel the same?
Am I in the 90s movie Groundhog Day, or something?
Whenever I find myself feeling drained by my monotonous daily routine, I know it is time to shake things up to feel alive and be excited by life. Below I share 10 ways to overcome apathy and feel excited by life again.
- Spend Time in Nature
- Switch Up the Routine
- Write in a Mindfulness Journal
- Dive into a Hobby
- Catch Up with a Loved One
- Start a Daily Challenge
- Reorganize a Room
- Plan a “Me” Day
- Reflect on the Apathy
- Practice Gratitude
Let me know in the comments below which tip you are looking forward to trying.
1. Spend Time in Nature
One of my favorite ways to find the magic in life again is by noticing the magical natural beauty of Earth. If you read my post about being comfortable doing things alone, you’ll know that most activities I suggested you try solo involve the outdoors.
Reconnecting with nature is a wonderful way to not only get some much-needed fresh air but also feel your part in the grander scheme of things.
You do not need to plan a multi-day trek through the wilderness, although that does sound amazing. Fighting through the mundaneness of life could be as simple as taking a weekly walk around the neighborhood or reading a book at a town park.
Any intentional activity that leads you from the four walls of your home and into breathing in fresh air is perfect for finding the magic in life again.
2. Switch Up the Routine
Another easy yet effective way to break through feeling as if you have a mundane life is to switch up your routine!
- Make a different meal for breakfast/lunch/dinner.
- Eat or brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand.
- Take a different route home from school/work.
- Choose a movie to watch you normally wouldn’t pick.
- Opt for a book instead of watching TV at all.
Any of these minor alterations will help create newness in your life that can aid in overcoming the monotony of life.
Even if your meal turns out terrible or you hate that new movie you watched, there was a difference to your routine that broke you out of living the same day over and over again. Plus, I like to have something to complain about in life – haha!
3. Write in a Mindfulness Journal
A journal prompt I love to use whenever I am feeling the dullness of life is:
What is something that made you smile today?
This is one of my favorite journal prompts because there is ALWAYS something that makes me smile in the day. Sometimes there is something that made me laugh out loud, and I love recounting those scenes to imprint them in my memory.
If you are struggling with feeling apathetic about life, focusing on something that made you smile, or at least something that didn’t suck the most that day, can help pull you out of the dread and start seeing the magic in life. I truly believe this.
I generally like to keep up with writing a response to this journal prompt daily for at least a week or two to fully find happiness in my life again. Extra brownie points if you can keep up with it for a full 30 days.
4. Dive into a Hobby
I suppose any hobby works, but I find that creative hobbies work the best to pull me out of a rut and help me find the magic in life again.
Hobbies are something we enjoy. Be deliberate with scheduling time for joy in life to break free from apathy and be excited by life again.
- If you play an instrument or are interested in learning an instrument, take 30 minutes of your day and allocate that time to practicing.
- If you are a photographer or videographer, plan an excursion to a new spot this week, specifically for taking photos or shooting videos.
- If you are a dancer, spend a couple of times a week moving around to music at a dance studio or even within your home.
- If you are a painter, spend a couple of hours of deep work creating a new piece.
I practice photography, create videos that I share on YouTube, and dance around with hula hoops to feed my creative imagination and practice self-expression.
If you are curious about hula hooping and its positive impact on my life, check out my post about it here.
5. Catch Up with a Loved One
“Life is all about you and not at all about you.” – IN-Q
What a lovely quote to help us remember that although selfishness is expected, selfless moments are important to living a full life. How can you be of service to others today?
Another easy, nearly effortless way to break out of apathy is to speak with a relative or friend to see how they are doing. Focus your energy on how you can be there for them and learn about what is going on in their life.
Am I asking you to set aside your own feelings about life to hear some excitement and stories from them about their life? Yes.
It can be beneficial to listen to how a loved one is doing and look at life through their lens. Allow their stories to bring you out of your rut as you pour your energy into being a good relative/friend/partner and feel happy and excited by their stories and successes.
Instead of calling a friend to complain about how boring your life is, take a step back and hear out what is happening in their life.
6. Start a Daily Challenge
I love a good 365-day challenge.
I am always challenging myself to complete a specific task within a certain time frame. Last birth year, I read 27 books since I was 27. For 28, I chose to hula hoop daily for 365 days. In the past, I had daily yoga challenges, journaling challenges, photography challenges, and everything in between.
I truly believe that challenging myself in this way allows me to fight through the monotony of life and feel excited by life, daily. Even as the task becomes embedded in my routine, completing the task for the day is a small victory that I look forward to.
You do not need to jump right into a 365 daily challenge like me. Try something more obtainable like a 7-day challenge or 30-day challenge. The shorter time commitment will be easier to achieve and less likely for you to back out of it. Plus, shaking things up with newness is a great example of tip #2.
7. Reorganize a Room
To help find the magic in life again, change up your living quarters. This could be a closet or two, a bedroom, the kitchen, the living room, or even your entire apartment.
Become an interior designer and reorganize your space!
By physically rearranging your home, you are providing a physical response to an emotional blockage. The idea is to create a new layout you will look at and maneuver through to help form new thought waves as you travel through the room. This helps with shaking off those apathetic, every day is the same, feelings about life.
I tend to combine reorganizing a space with going through my stuff and downsizing, decluttering, and getting rid of items that (incoming buzz phrase) no longer serve me. Another physical metaphor for letting go of the depressive attitude about life.
8. Plan a “Me” Day
To be honest, every day is a “me” day for me since I live a pretty selfish life and have no other person to care for but myself. (Yes, I am in a relationship, but we live pretty independent lives and do not try to control the other person. I will write about this in a future post and share that here after I publish it.)
The planning process is quite fun and amps up the exciting feelings in life since you will be thinking about a nice day you will have for yourself in the near future.
It is helpful to not only have these me days but also recognize the benefits of the planning process.
I think I enjoy the planning process just as much as the me day itself!
If you are looking for ideas on things you can do by yourself, this post here discusses 10 ideas.
9. Reflect on the Apathy
This tip is for those who like to dive deeper into their emotions and truly understand the why behind the what.
One way to deal with feeling like life is empty and meaningless is to sit with yourself and journal about it. Use pen and paper to better understand why you are feeling this way and determine the root cause of the emotion.
Journal prompts to help you start reflecting on why you are not excited by life are provided below:
- Free write.
- Journal about anything and everything as it comes up. There is no real prompt here, only a stream of conciseness journal entry. I find it helpful to write out the muck and suppressed feelings before diving into journal prompts.
- What areas of my life am I feeling stuck?
- Why do I feel stuck in these areas?
- If I had unlimited powers and could control the universe, what would I change about my life?
- How would changing these things release me from feeling stuck?
- What is stopping me from achieving that in my life?
The idea is to break down into plain words where in life things feel monotonous and unhappy and write to understand that it is in your control to change those things about your life. I strongly believe that we are in control of our lives, through and through.
You can check out my post here to learn more about shifting that mindset and taking accountability for your life.
10. Practice Gratitude
Ah, yes. Last but certainly not least: gratitude, the all-powerful feeling of appreciation.
Practicing gratitude can look different to different people. Some folks like to use a gratitude journal. I am much simpler and prefer to thank God, the Higher Power, or whoever is out there for the day and go over in my head what I am grateful for.
I tend to focus on expressing gratitude for the people in my life, past, present, and future. I also imagine that being grateful for anything else and expressing gratitude for those things are welcomed and impactful in finding the magic in life again.
There is so much to be grateful for and appreciate in life, so why not take a moment to recount these things to yourself in some way and whatever God is watching over us.
See how consistently doing this for a few nights helps improve your overall outlook on life. I know it works for me. Whenever I forget to take the moment to appreciate all I have in life, I recognize blah emotions resurfacing. Remember to practice gratitude!
Summary
Thank you for reading. See below for a recap of 10 ways to find meaning in life again:
