Why I Need to Embrace The Mundane?

Social media has become boring and despite being so over social media, I still went to scroll out of boredom. Today’s memory from 5 years ago popped on the screen.

I had shifted to Hyderabad, a new place that I had never lived in before. A lovely house, the most beautiful view I could expect, everything in it’s place and literally a place for everything; the different amenities, the conveniences all that I could be blessed with (I am truly grateful). Five and a half months into it, I habituated into it. The new normal!

It’s the Sunday evening; I’m not too excited for the next week to start. I’m kinda unsorted, feeling blah. I open the fridge to kill some boredom and pick the Oreo Nutella shake . One large scoop inside my mouth and the sweet-tooth me is beaming. The second morsel was yummy too, but the size of the grin reduced by a little, the subsequent bites were delicious but the smile didn’t retain as the beginning. It was an enjoyable 15 minutes. I was full, I was elated and in about 30 minutes straight was back to my fretful self.

Have you experienced anything similar? Do you recall a time when you wanted to buy your favourite car or go on that expensive holiday or maybe move into the dream house or get through that coveted promotion? Do you remember fantasizing about how happy you would be if you attained those things? We all must have had instances wherein in a few days after we get something that we badly wanted we found ourselves back to the same level of happiness before we had that item.

Why does this happen? Why is it that people who win lottery are likely to return to their original levels of happiness after novelty of the win has worn off?

It is attributed to a concept in psychology called as “hedonic adaptation”. It refers to the tendency in which we consider anything new as a norm quickly and therefore lose out on the joy we feel towards it. The hedonic treadmill is the proneness of us individuals to remain at a relatively stable level of happiness despite changes in fortune or the achievement of major goals.

Let’s be honest, life is majorly a bunch of doing mundane tasks over and over interspersed with some highlight moments and some low times. More or less we all follow a cycle, a way of going about doing things. At a time when technology is at our fingertips and there’re never-ending ways to entertain ourselves, it’s still quite strange that we would be a generation who gets oh so bored easily.

If anyone asked me Is life boring? I would say, definitely it is. At the same time, if someone were to ask me Is your life interesting? I would reply, undoubtedly yes. I’m not lying in either of the stances and both the opposite perspectives are as true as truth can be.

Waking up to the alarm or just before it rings; brushing, exercising, taking a shower, getting on work calls, managing the household stuff, breakfast, meals, work, stare, dream, everything just seems to work like a machine, just maybe not a well oiled one. We all reach a stage where any activity seems meaningless or worthless. This isn’t necessarily a purposeless life or a phase when everything around seems gloomy. But, it all seems so blah.

Moving to a new city, shifting into an exciting career, hopping onto some new activities, anything new after it’s honeymoon period, we’ll find the effects of the pleasures relatively fleeting.

I’ve seen this happen over and over again in my life that be it the most amazing or the most scariest events, adapting back to the baseline has always been quick.

However, it’s absolutely true that none of the joys would have any significance had there not been times of suffering.

Imagine if everyday you could get to just Netflix and chill, the phrase itself would lose it’s meaning. After you have slogged and worked, when you get to snuggle up warm with your loved one or by yourself with a choiced beverage in hand, whatever be your definition and you turn on the TV to watch a movie you’ll tend to enjoy it more.

As I read that Facebook memory above, I realized I had to embrace mundane. Life isn’t supposed to be exciting all the time. I’m not here to be chasing rainbows forever but to be creating them in the day-to-day activities.

And yes, my mindless scrolling had me pause on a mouth-watering recipe. I’m planning on trying it out tomorrow morning for breakfast. I’m back to my excited self now, imagining making the preparations, the little squeals of joy in trying out something new, enjoying it, putting my all into making it taste wow while knowing that after the meal that too would become boring.

But then, I’ll remind myself that the rhythm is in the tedium 🙂