It is funny how finding what makes you happy in life is only half the battle to getting to your happy place... it's actually making time for those things, making them a priority... and actually doing them that becomes the real challenge. It is weird that it is the happy, fun, nice things, and not the unenjoyable, unpalatable things that I tend to put at the end of the list. I mean I guess it's the crappy things - laundry, dishes, work, bills - that take priority because it's sort of difficult to get by without doing those things unless I want to end up on Hoarders, or in the food stamp line or something.
Still, the disagreeable details only take up so many hours in the day... leaving me with plenty of time to engage in some of the more pleasurable enterprises life has to offer. The thing is, I tend to spend a lot (if not most) of that free time in front of the tv (or sleeping, if that counts as a hobby). In some ways, I do get a lot of enjoyment out of watching real housewives and fake celebrities, but more than entertainment value, I think it's just the mindlessness of it all that helps me to decompress after a stressful day. I do find that my vast knowledge of terrible television makes me more interesting at parties and makes awkward conversations with people who are otherwise boring me a little more tolerable, so there's that fringe benefit as well. I do kind of just love doing nothing, too. If "being lazy" was a hobby, it would probably be one of my favorites. Nonetheless, there are several other activities that I find ultimately more enjoyable than television-watching (and sloth), but the real problem is they just require more effort. And I'm tired... so tired.
So, one of my goals this year is to make more time for the things that make me more happy (and more better). It's sort of a win-win.
I made some progress this weekend. First, something easy. I find that coffee and I don't get along that well. It makes me feel jittery and anxious -- but it also makes me feel high (in a good way) and energetic, and I just love the smell and the warmth and just all of its general coffee-goodness. Mmmm.... coffee.
I have found, over time, that I can get a lot of these same benefits, without the drawbacks, from drinking tea. Plus, tea is full of antioxidants and all sorts of things that people say are good for me - and I choose to believe them. Recently, I have fallen back on the coffee wagon, so I really wanted to be back on the tea team. My parents bought me some really nice tea from Teavana (you can find them here), which is such a fabulous place if you have even a marginal interest in tea. They sell theirs in loose leaf form (not in a bag) so I had to buy something to make it in. I ended up with this new gadget that I'm super obsessed with as of yesterday.
You can see here that you steep the tea leaves in the water in the thingymabobber on top and then let the tea steep in the hot water -- once it is done, you put the thingmabobber on top of your new, neat, Monty-Python-quote-baring mug, and it just pours fresh tea goodness right into your mug. Best thing ever :-)
And, I suppose I should state the obvious, which is that, yes, I do realize that making and drinking tea may not seem like much of a hobby and you thought I might say that I was going to run a marathon or something actually exciting... you can now see that when I say I decline to do things that make me happy although they require minimal effort, you can now see what I'm talking about...
However, I did throw in some physical activity this weekend too and went to yoga for the first time in a long time. I have had a couple of yoga phases and I always loved the way that it made me feel. Of course, yoga costs money (sometimes a lot) and certainly requires the exertion of energy -- so yoga and I haven't been that tight in recent times. But, I have a good friend that I haven't seen much of in awhile and we are trying to get back in touch -- and she happens to be doing a lot of yoga lately... so, it was kind of perfect. We went to Orlando Power Yoga, a place I had never been before but a style I am familiar with. I paid $40 for 40 days unlimited, with the idea that if I pay for it I will go, although this exact line of reasoning has failed me many times (it turns out that laziness just always wins over everything, even money). It pretty much kicked my ass (and a girl in the class straight passed out -- so gangster), but it felt good to be back in the namaste groove.
Anyway, I feel great today and am definitely motivated to continue doing things that make me happy. I know, like that's hard...
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