I remember the day I realized I was living my life but not actually enjoying it. Some days would fly by me and feel completely mundane — I knew what to expect, knew what my responsibilities were, knew what to-dos I had to knock out by day’s end — but when I’d go to bed at night, I still felt vacant. I’d think to myself about how busy my day was, yet how I still felt so numb. Like I was checking off invisible boxes yet watching all of life’s gems fly past me.
Something shifted when I became aware of this feeling. I didn’t want to just exist my life — I wanted to enjoy it.
This process wasn’t overnight. It took months of slowing down, really asking myself the hard questions, and understanding how to create joy in my life rather than waiting for it to happen to me. I realized it wasn’t about trying not to feel pain, having intense thrills every waking moment, or life without responsibilities. It was about learning how to live my life in a way that allowed me to feel alive even when life wasn’t perfect.
5 Ways to Enjoy Life
1. Practice Living in the Present Moment
One of the easiest ways we forget to enjoy life is living our lives in our heads. You can be sitting across from the person you love, but you’re thinking about tomorrow, next month, or a mistake you made years ago. There’s no sense in dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. The only moment that exists is now.
Once you learn to practice being present, you start to notice things you otherwise would have never noticed before. How the sun beams into a room, how a loved one’s laugh sounds, how your food tastes. Sure, these things may be small, but you’d be amazed at how much they can impact your day.
This isn’t some buzzword; practicing mindfulness has actually been found to increase your emotional well-being and life satisfaction. By practicing mindfulness, you train your mind to catch yourself when your mind begins to wander and redirect your attention to what is happening right now, no matter how mundane. The more you practice this, the easier it becomes, and you’ll find yourself enjoying life more just by simply being present.
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2. Carve Out Time For the Things You Love
Life happens fast, and so many people fill up their time with work and things they feel they have to do. We all have responsibilities, but how often do you schedule things you love to do? Whether that be reading a book, listening to your favorite podcast, dancing like nobody’s watching, going for a hike, or sitting down with friends. Creating time to do what you love is something you should schedule as non-negotiables.
Trust me, we could all use more enjoyment and pleasure in our lives! Not only does it feel good, but it’s been found that pleasure and enjoyment can help reduce stress and promote overall health and well-being. We can’t buy more time in the day, but we can decide how we spend it. You can create more enjoyment by taking breaks to do what you love throughout your day. Those few minutes of pleasure can add up and really help you enjoy life more.
Read also: 8 Signs You Don’t Love Yourself
3. Surround Yourself with Meaningful Relationships
Yes. You heard that right. People. You could meditate every single day for the rest of your life, but if you’re not connecting with others, you won’t feel fulfilled. Sure, you can exist as a human by yourself, but you cannot enjoy life without others. We are all wired for connection, and having supportive, honest, authentic, and respectful relationships with others will allow you to feel joy you never knew was missing from your life.
This doesn’t mean you need to be best friends with everyone you meet. In fact, I think it’s better if you connect with only a few people on a deep level rather than spreading yourself too thin and being acquaintances with 20 people. Give the people around you that you care about your time, attention, and energy. Listen to them, value them, and respect them. As you should be doing the same for you in return.
It’s been found that your relationships are some of the strongest predictors of long-term happiness and life satisfaction, including what’s explored in the Harvard Study of Adult Development. We all crave connection. When you allow yourself to be vulnerable and open up to others, you realize that we’re all in this crazy journey of life together. So next time you’re going through something hard, remind yourself that others care and want to support you just as you would for them. Enjoying life doesn’t mean it can’t hurt sometimes; it just means you don’t have to walk through it alone.
Read also: 6 Visualization Exercises for Manifestation
4. Practice Self-Care
If you’re running on zero sleep, eating junk food, overwhelmed with stress, and feeling drained, you aren’t going to enjoy life. When was the last time you woke up excited to start your day? You probably wouldn’t think of yourself as a pessimist, but I guarantee if you took care of your mind and body, you’d have more energy and enthusiasm for life.
How you treat your body and mind will determine how you show up for your life. Of course, we’re all human and you’ll have moments where you binge eat ice cream and sleep in late. But what if the majority of the time you got enough sleep, ate nutritious foods, moved your body, practiced stress relief, and FORCED yourself to be grateful? Not only would your mind and body thank you, but other areas of your life would start to flourish.
5. Accept Life Isn’t Perfect
The pursuit of perfection is another surefire way to kill all joy in life. You can plan your day down to the minute but guess what? Things will still come up. Good things, bad things, life happens. The more you try to control everything so it goes “perfectly” according to your plan, the more stressed and disappointed you’ll make yourself.
Letting go doesn’t mean you give up control completely and never deal with anything hard again. Letting go allows you to trust yourself that you can handle what comes your way. Letting go allows you to trust that life will be okay even if it’s not “picture perfect.” Acceptance is powerful, and allowing life to be life is allowing yourself to enjoy it.
Final Thoughts
Life will never be perfect. There will always be hard times, bad days, bumps in the road, and times when you feel like joy is nowhere to be found. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t enjoy life.
Life is about enjoying the little things, taking deep breaths, laughing with friends, smelling the roses, crying when you need to, and loving with everything you’ve got. When you practice gratitude, stay present, make time for pleasure, cultivate your relationships, practice self-care, and accept that life will never be perfect, you open yourself up to finding joy in every aspect of your life.
It’s in the quiet moments that we are truly able to enjoy life. Maybe it’s the calmness you feel when you wake up, watching your loved ones laughing with one another, the breath of fresh air you take when you step outside, or simply not rushing through life. The more you allow yourself to notice these moments, the more you’ll realize how precious life really is and how enjoying it has been there all along.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I feel busy but still numb at the end of the day?
Some days can fly by and feel completely mundane, and you can still feel vacant at night, like you were checking off invisible boxes yet watching all of life’s gems fly past you.
How do I practice being present when my mind keeps wandering?
By practicing mindfulness, you train your mind to catch yourself when your mind begins to wander and redirect your attention to what is happening right now, no matter how mundane.
What if I don’t have time for the things I love?
We can’t buy more time in the day, but we can decide how we spend it. Taking small breaks to do what you love throughout your day can add up.
Can I enjoy life even when life isn’t perfect?
Yes. Accepting that life isn’t perfect, letting go of needing things to be “picture perfect,” and allowing life to be life can help you enjoy it.
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