Curate Life Experiences, Over Indulging in Things!
And Watch Yourself Coalesce Into A State of Flow
#1 How The Inkling of Curating the Experience of a Swim Popped in My Brain
I was feeling rather blue one of the days, last week.
Too much screen time.
Two days in a row that my trainer did not turn up, resulting in missed workouts for a couple of days, in a row.
Endorphins deficit.
My lunch scene with my best buddies got cancelled.
My hubby was ultra-busy to indulge in quality time with me. Feeling attention deprived. A doting wife needs that.
But the dogged spirit in me always makes me more solution-focused than problem-driven.
Many alternatives to make me feel better about life buzzed like a honey bee, flitting in a beehive.
Finally, an ‘aha’ that I knew would work.
In my head, I was like:
“When blue, think blue!”
#2- I have a thing for water bodies -they evoke in me a sense of calm
I have always found solace next to a water body.
Be it a beach with the ocean waves crashing high and low on the shoreline or a gurgling stream in the woods amidst forests.
Spending time next to a water body has always resulted in dissolving the overactivity of the mind, for me.
Whenever I have gone to the mountains and the hills and spotted a river, I have gone and sat by its banks and found my nurturing space. It has served as a place for self-actualisation.
Whenever I go to Rishikesh, and sit by the Holy Ganges, it seems to me that it has beckoned. For me to come and sit and contemplate on its banks, about the mysteries of life and the Universe.
In a matter of minutes, my flitting thoughts ebb and I enter a space of stillness and peace.
#3 — I’d rather curate a life experience in my memory bank, instead of mindless retail therapy
Obviously, I sought blue. Delhi is a landlocked city. I decided to indulge in a swim.
Spend on an experience instead of mindless retail therapy. I decided to go swimming in a nice pool. Read fancy place pool.
I didn’t want to go to a club or a coaching academy. I did not want to swim in a pool where I would have to jostle for space with other people.
I didn’t want to rub elbows with other people while doing my laps and feel like a tourist in a Phuket hotel.
The purpose would be defeated.
I wanted to enjoy my own company amidst a space of clear blue waters with very few people to unfurl an ocean of peace, in my own headspace. I went to a hotel that I knew wouldn’t be crowded.
It was a tad expensive but I decided to choose an experience over an outfit, that would just lay in my wardrobe. It was all the therapy that the doctor ordered and how?
#4-Why it Worked Better Than Any Therapy Would
As I dipped into the blue waters and started swimming, my frazzled nerves began to unscramble. The incessant chatter of words and phrases, on my Word docs, fixed on the template of my mind, was suddenly gone.
Whoosh! Like the delete button. Ctrl +Del.
It was replaced with the scintillating turquoise tiled floor of the pool. It was a mosaic-patterned tile floor in shades of turquoise and moss green.
Stunning, I know :)
Sometimes, not talking to anyone is also therapy.
Just indulging in water sports and gazing at the blue sky above is so cathartic. The grey smog layered skies had turned blue with cottony clouds bobbing here and there; owing to the sporadic showers of rain in Delhi over the last 10 days.
It was a fairly large pool and I could spot a few heads and limbs waltzing in the pool, doing butterfly strokes and floating on their backs.
There were a few locals and a few foreigners, from across the globe.
#5- Sometimes when you feel a particular type of emotion, you assume that people around you feel that way too!
No one was making an attempt to make PC with anyone. Everyone was doing their own thing.
It was as if everyone was devoted towards the healing of their own mind. Or so it seemed to me.
Very often, I have observed that when I am going through a phase of sorts, I interpret the people around me through a similar lens.
So, for example, if I’m there to heal my mind, I interpret it as everyone else present there, having the same objective.
I did a few laps. It felt so therapeutic. The bundled wool yarn in my mind began to unentangle.
In fifteen minutes I was all smiles. I love enjoying my own company whilst working out. I challenged myself to do more laps than my usual threshold. Nothing like a workout where you push yourself.
Kids splashing water and playing water games were a treat to the eyes.
The whole experience restored my joie-de vivre. Spending on that experience was uff-so-totally-worth-every-dime!
Suddenly, I felt that:
‘Why do I need to depend on my husband to fetch me a gunny bag of happiness?’
I can consciously curate my own experiences that coalesce me with my intrinsic fibre of bliss.
#6-Physical Activity Releases Feel god Hormones as Well
Physical activity releases endorphins. It is such a gratifying feeling to listen to your body and your mind. To prioritise it over your work.
Mental, emotional and physical health should never be ignored.
The massive expanse of the hotel lobby, in sight, with the well-heeled folks enjoying hors d’oeuvre with their evening tea added to the feeling of ‘let me enjoy the good things in life.’
At least for the time being.
Let me be.
And. Take. A. Pause.
My newfound enthusiasm egged me on to do a few more laps despite the fatigue that was accumulating. I began to swim vigorously.
#7-Entering a State of Flow- Feels Phenomenal!
Have you ever been so immersed in a physical sport, that you lose sense of time and space? My dear friends, you have entered the state of flow.
I suddenly forgot why I went to swim that day. I was swimming back-to-back laps, enjoying the laid-back and relaxed ambience, with a gentle smile suffusing my face.
I looked up towards the skies and giggled in my mind.
I was excited to be alive again.
A giggle is so carefree.
It is the pure unadulterated reaction from a child, a woman in love with herself, anyone that allows their spirits to soar high.
So our natural state.
‘Why-oh-why’ do we resist it so much?
I had become a harmonious symphony.
I felt in alignment.
I felt joy. I felt peace. I felt in sync with ‘what is.’
Ready to rediscover life.
With fresh eyes.
Indulging in experiences can unleash a high on life.
Curate an experience over a thing. Today.
Once a week.
Maybe.
Thank you for taking the time to explore the benefits of curating experiences over accumulating expensive things, with me. If this article entertained, inspired and gave you food for ideas, I invite your participation in the form of claps, comments, and follows. So that you can get to read more of the content that I put out there. And egg me on to keep churning out more of such compelling stuff :)
