So many of our days are the same. We get up eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, come home, make dinner, watch tv, go to bed. Rinse and repeat. If you have kids, add their schedules to the mix, and it’s exhausting. There never feels like there’s enough time in the day. It’s so easy to get lost in in all. Our sense of identity disappears, our lives don’t seem to be governed by what we want, but by our obligations. So many of us battle with depression and anxiety as a result.
When opportunities arise, we have difficulty changing anything about our lives, even though we know we’re miserable. So we escape in ways that keep us in the same patterns. (TV, p*rn, sex (or sexting) with strangers, partying- and this is not to say that these are inherently bad, but they’re compensating for something lacking in our own normal life.) These thing are patterns of disassociation or fantasy. We are numbing out difficult feelings any way possible.
Most of the time, we avoid difficult relationship conversations. We stay with the same friends and the same community long after their expiration date. We don’t step out into the uncomfortable change because we become complacent in our misery.
How do we escape? Embrace change. Talk to a stranger. Get deep and vulnerable with your partner. Take a class on a subject that interests you. Realize the things that inspire you. Step into those things as often as possible. Don’t be content in misery. Do at least one thing for yourself, something that makes your soul catch fire, do it once a day. If you can’t manage it once a day, do it once a week, and work towards making it once a day. Walk in the park, drive a different route to work turning off the gps, paint, rearrange the furniture, talk to a stranger and listen to their story, pick some flowers, listen to an orchestra, listen to a real debate about things that you’re interested in. The list goes on and on.
The more you step into the you who is inspired, the mundane will fall away, and you’ll feel alive. Passion will set your soul on fire and while many of the tasks may stay the same, passion will change your life. You will have escaped the mundane.