(photo by Mike Baird, Flickr.com)
If you're a writer, it's worth your while to do what you can to "wake up" in your day-to-day life.
The more alert and present you are in your daily life--commuting to work, hanging out at home, spending time with friends or on your own--the more creative, responsive and awake you'll be at the writing desk.
Today's post continues with more tips to help you experience your daily life in a fresh and wide-awake way.
With Others
5. Dig deep.
My two-year-old daughter is learning basic conversational skills, and yesterday we practiced basic social dialogue over and over:
"How are you?"
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Doin' great!"
It's important to learn how to chat with others, but lively, sincere, thought-provoking conversation takes practice and skill. Good connection is the kind of social interaction that can really wake us up.
Next time you're with someone you've known awhile, challenge yourself to know them even better. Ask your companion a question about their past, or spark a debate with them about a controversial current event. Inquire about their beliefs, or challenge them to define, in their own words, their understanding of the big intangibles such as "love," "justice," "freedom," "success."
Life's too short to skate on the surface.
6. Do something different.
Ever notice that when friends come to visit, your town or region seems suddenly more exciting, more interesting?
It can be easy to get in a social rut. We may have a standing date ("Fridays at the Mayflower") or a comfortable routine ("meet at the benches and walk around the reservoir twice") we enjoy.
Next time you have a free day, talk your friends or family into pretending you are tourists in your own town. Grab the free news weeklies and look for a local festival. Go to a new neighborhood and browse the shops and talk to locals. I've gotten more tips for great restaurants and off-the-beaten path hiking trails by striking up a conversation with folks riding the same bus or dining at a nearby table.
If this "tourist-for-a-day" idea doesn't work for you, spend a morning getting around town in a new way. Walk to the store or ride your bikes across town. Instead of driving, take a bus to the river or park.
Sharing new experiences together is a great way to wake up our relationships.
On Your Own
7. Treat yourself.
You can easily wake up your senses with just a little effort and money. Ideas to get you started:
- Choose a new recipe from an Asian, Indian or African cookbook and shop at a local market for the ingredients. Enjoy new scents and tastes right in your own kitchen.
- Go to your local Border's and spend an hour sampling new-to-you music at the listening kiosks.
- Read up on aromatherapy, and choose a new essential oil to add to your bath.
- Visit an out-of-the-way local museum (or just sit near the large-format books at your local library and look at pictures in art, anthropology or science books).
8. Reflect on what you've already got.
Got an overflowing junk drawer? A bookcase in need of weeding?
The past few months I've been going through things (slowly, slowly) and simplifying my life. Living in a small house with a toddler was great incentive to get me started, but weeding, sorting and organizing has become a meditation on abundance ("I have so many useful things in my life"), and the good feelings I've been getting from this practice have motivated me to continue.
Look at your possessions with new eyes. Are they still useful to you? If so, are you using them now or would you like to begin doing so soon? If not, would they be useful to someone else?
Making intentional and specific decisions about what you want and don't want in your life helps you live more consciously and wide-awake. And this practice works for people, attitudes, and situations as well as things.
