Finding joy in the ordinary - is a superpower
With so many people home bound these past few months, indoors has become the new outdoors. So in this new outdoor, creativity and imagination are our new best friends. For some of us, it is easy to befriend them, unless you are one of those who thinks, who me? No, I can’t be creative. I did some art & craft in school and that's that. Now I work, sulk, and share memes.
Let’s see how to do we make friends with creativity then! My first instinct is to look around, what others are doing. Whether it’s my flatmates, neighbours or social media friends or Pinterest.
Creativity ( if you Google or use a dictionary) is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.
So yes, Imagination is the third wheel that trails by with Creativity around. As we pass our time exploring the different corners of the home, we may hit a wall, quite literally. And ask, what next? This is when we tame our superpower of noticing something ordinary and making it extraordinary — and here extraordinary is so subjective, you or your ideas are not competing with anyone in the world. It is just for you.
So how do we do this? What awesome skills do we need? to find magic in the ordinary?
Curiosity to try/explore/experiment with anything that you have around
Time ( even if it is just 5 minutes)
Keeping the devil voice away — What will others say? ( Log kya kahenge)
Hope, that there is magic in every ordinary being
Practice this skill daily, cause if we don’t consciously make it a practice, the mind has a tendency to forget. The brains muscle needs exercise and doing it every day will make the muscle stronger. Just like body exercise — this one also requires effort, time and intention
Here are some of the ways I tried to hone this superpower of finding joy in the ordinary and enjoyed the time while I did it:
Speaking to my plant with yellow flowers every morning
Listening to that one song, ( Titliyan — by Strings for this week) noting down the lyrics that make me go aaawww…and passionately sharing it with my friends
Shuffling one corner of my table and adding a splash of colour, by colouring the pen stand in whatever colours that were available to me
Reading a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip from a newspaper, then excitedly cutting that strip and pasting it on my work diary
Baking date and walnut cake, having a little piece every day with coffee
Signing up for a pen pal exchange on Instagram
Switching on fairy lights, and just looking at the yellow circles they create
Doodling & sticking up a quote every week
You may think, oh this is so ordinary! ( Yes, that’s my point) It is ordinary. It is how we consciously get a “spotlight” on this ordinary and make it more magical — that’s where the effort lies.
So I am curious, what ideas have you got in mind, after reading this, and you are willing to try?