maybe you're not bored, you're just overstimulated

| an insight into my own experiences about romanticising life and trying to escape it

I caught myself putting on a good playlist on spotify before taking a shower today, just because i didn’t wanna feel bored and i wanted to romanticize life, but the main question is, is filling my brain with soulful and joyous melodies such as Dancing Queen by ABBA and Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter really a good replacement for my own thoughts? Should we really be focusing on romanticising life in a way that we’re overstimulated by something constantly or allowing ourselves to take in a deep breath and meditate a bit?

Because I love love love dancing and humming to pop and jazz songs but i tend to overlook the possibility of something even more peaceful such as journaling or breathwork. A lot of times we confuse our desires to enjoy a moment by filling it with some kinda noise, be it a podcast episode, a self-help youtube video guide, a song or just the nth episode of Modern Family, those things give us joy and make us feel a tad bit better about life.

But maybe just maybe the peace that we’re searching for, lies in the silent solitude of sitting on your bed and sipping your tea while admiring the bird chirpings, cooking your favourite meal (in my case pasta ehe) surrounded by the sound of nothing but the knife hitting the chopping board and the onions and the garlic sizzling in the pan, maybe its more about re-structuring or parenting your own thoughts with a gentle voice (such as Bluey’s mom’s voice, i find it so soothing and so reassuring) and arriving to innovative solutions to your own problems. I know you can relate to this because we’ve all gotten solutions to our major problems when we’re in the shower and there’s no music playing.

I am a big advocate for romanticising life and have been doing so since more than 4 years now, but Studio Ghibli movies taught me that a lot of the times we don’t need an external sound or melody to give us an escape from the mundane things in life, instead the real key to escape it is in the perception of it all. If you consider watering the plants, doing the dishes, writing in your journal, studying for a test, shopping for groceries as a chore then that’s all it would be to you. However, if you give a purpose, a meaning to it all then it becomes so much more easier to accomplish, watering your plants because looking after them and admiring them gives you the energy to get through one more task of the day, just like you need some love and care maybe giving it to a plant first will encourage you to do that for yourself too. Because you deserve to have clean dishes, you deserve to gain all the knowledge you desire, you deserve to listen to yourself and how you felt today by writing in your journal.

I guess in the end, all am trying to say is life is meant to be lived and a part of it is to be bored until you find something that makes you inspired, but that doesn’t mean your life is on a pause, life will still go on and so will your heart-beat. I just hope you take some time out to listen to the beating of your heart while you’re healthy, full of life and not just when lying in the hospital bed at the age of 80.

This was my first ever article on substack hehe am so grateful to be here <33

xoxo

Aere