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Kicking Quarantine Boredom Into the Ol' Shelf Where It Will Not Bother You Again.

In my last blog (if you remember it), I talked about sharing and friendship. I recounted how I'd made myself feel better about letting some of my burden off my chest, simply by talking to someone I trusted.

However, sharing and making friends is just one of the ways I've coped with the pandemic. This blog is about another, and I hope this one, with all of its cheesy philosophy (if it can be called that) help you, the way it helped me.

Ever since lockdown, we've been cooped at home, often on our own (because families, even if you love them as I do, can be annoying as hell). And, I mean, how many things are there we can do? There's a limited option, and even if you enjoyed them at first, they could get pretty boring.

That's what happened to me. In July last year, I grew sick of everything. DIY crafts were dull and useless (always failures), no books piqued my interest . . . and writing?–well, it could have taken the long road to Timbuctoo for all I cared. Everything was dull, tiring, and honestly speaking, made me miserable. Such energy suckers.

Then, lying in bed and staring at the moving fan was the most fun I had. Eek.

That period of jaded fatigue continued for quite a while, and I had no clue how to get out of it. Or even if I want to.

Eventually, I dragged myself out of it by forcing myself to do things. I forced myself to read. I forced myself to write. I forced myself to eat. It wasn't easy, and it didn't the excitement I used to feel while doing those things didn't come back in a day, or even in a week. It took a bit of time, but it did come.

Looking back, I realise that what I did wasn't exactly the best way to push myself out of the phase. Heck, not even close. It worked because I'm used to pushing myself to new limits, of doing things I'm not fond of regularly. (Math homework, anyone?) But if I fell into that phase again, would pushing myself work - again?

Chances were it wouldn't push me into happiness and hope like it once had, but rather to the edge of an emotional cliff. Ouch.

I stumbled upon three brilliant books, Principles, by billionaire investment genius Ray Dalio, Brain Rules, by psychologist John Medina, and Originals, by Silicon Valley buzz-generator, Adam Grant. (Yes, they're all non-fiction, and have a lot of psychology and economics in them, which I happily devoured, because they're my favourite subjects.) The points they talked about and discussed would become the set of rules I kept myself in check with, and continue to do so till today. They're my mantra - and you're going to be hearing about them a lot.

The point I stumbled upon that helped me through the phase was a simple point written in Principles: you are who you surround yourself with. In other words, we're influenced by the people around us, and when it comes to doing what we love, that has really profound effects.

Ray Dalio wanted to make the point that, if we wanted to stay excited - to feel the lovely burst of adrenaline or hope whenever you do something you like, you need to have people boosting you up in a constructive way. You would want to be surrounded by people who share the same passions as you. For me, that is surrounding myself with other people who love to write for fun, to make communities and host events for everyone to be a part of. And that's exactly what I did - I surrounded myself by them. For someone else, whose passion was, say baking. Find friends who love different recipes, who are excited to cook.

(Gimme some of 'zat food, I command thee!)

We can't always be machines of excitement - to constantly stay happy. Every now and then, we will feel down and hate the things we normally love to do; i.e. feel discouraged. And that's why we need to find someone who loves the same things as us, to give us that little boost and remind us why we love doing what we do.

While we're still on the talk of doing what we love to do, I'm off to finish the next chapter of this 'lil book I started. Eek, I'm going to type my fingers off if I keep this up, but, like, who cares? 'Zis is fun!

And now, while writing blogs that have a lot of 'I's and 'me's, and have a lot of self-talk in them is fun, I can't write them till I die. So toodles till next time (probably tomorrow).

See you soon,
XOXO,
Maxxie [ queenieexxx ]