The Little Things

It’s been a quiet weekend in the Relaxing Lavender household, mainly because I have had a cold and a cough so have had a sofa weekend.

Watching movies and tv shows has been good despite being surrounded by snotty tissues and cough mixture and honey and lemon drinks with the occasional whisky added!

It’s been interesting, barely moving and having a view out of the window, a mixture of roofs and trees and water and birds…many birds. I have watched pigeons trying to woo a mate, seagulls sunbathing, crows dancing like they are in a club and sparrows jumping about from roof tile to roof tile picking at the moss or insects that must live there. This was no ‘Rear Window’ or ‘The Women in the Window’ experience but watching birds throughout the day inbetween the horror movies and tv show catch up fest was relaxing. Nature goes on, day by day regardless of what is happening in the world. It doesn’t matter that a cruise ship has just appeared in the Forth or the planes are taking off at regular intervals, the birds are going about their day, living in the moment and doing what they have to, to ensure a positive succesfful day.

It made me think about all the things we do in life, the little things, that are not important for our survival but are for our enjoyment, entertainment and satisfaction. Nothing wrong with this at all. We have to have these things in our life otherwise life would just be purely focused on ensuring we stay alive.

So the fact that I watched a jumpy horror movie, to give me a scare or that I learnt some Spanish words on an app and read a chapter of a book means I was kept entertained and happy but my survival wasn’t in the picture.

We have evolved so much, with so many hobbies and interests to keep us occupied that on a daily basis the majority of us don’t consider surviving another day as a conquest. If we are ill and have a terminal illness then maybe we do or a doctor or someone who works and deals with life and death on a daily basis, but they are in the minority.

I am not saying we need to stop what we are doing and think about our mortality, not at all. But just think how far as a species we have come. Our lives are taken up with characters in movies and dramas, soaps and comedies, we invest time with them, we laugh and cry and are shocked when their lives play out. We like to immerse ourselves in books where we feel the pain of a character and are overjoyed when in the end their luck turns round and they live happily ever after…just like most Disney movies but not like my horror movies!

Getting away from our daily life and being in the presence of fictional characters gives us a chance to decompress from our day at work and shut it out or just to give our minds a break. There is certainly nothing wrong with it.

Sometimes our hobbies can take us to a tennis court, football pitch, ice hockey rink or can be creative – painting pictures, taking photographs, knitting, whatever your hobby is, your passion for it is there otherwise you wouldn’t do it, you don’t do it for survival but to get away from the daily grind, to give us something fun to do, make us happy and get our heart pumping.

If you think about it, our hobbies and interests and watching tv helps us to survive. They do wonders for our health and wellbeing. They help to calm us and reduce our stress and anxiety and lead us to a happy place and to a sense of achievement. When watching horror movies, it raises my heart rate, gets adrenalin pumping and makes me more alert (you know when you hear the creaking upstairs, making you think the horror movie has crossed over to your real life!) Now this is what happens to me and obviously the occasional down side can be difficulty sleeping :-), but I do feel better after it! Plus sometimes you learn something that you can take with you through life:

1. Always check the back seat of your car – Urban Legends
2. Always, always switch lights on – why does nobody do this!
3. Never ever leave your friends, you will deal with the horrors together otherwise you will not make it.

Anyway, that’s something for another post. What I am saying is that these little things we do each day, are helping us with our wellbeing. Whatever hobbies you have, whether outdoors or indoors, if it makes you happy, makes you think, makes you create, makes you laugh, gives you enjoyment then it is great for your wellbeing and ultimately your life.

Go into this next week, thinking about the little things you do that ultimately make you happy!

Have fun and look after you.

Love Emma

xxx