Some Ideas for Having Fun in Daily Life

without spending a fortune or drinking too much.

My first naturally dyed fabric!

I’ve been consciously trying to find more fun in my regular life. Not with big things like booking a vacation, but with little things, like how I spend my time.

The time after work, the time on the weekends, the time when I am doing things like cooking dinner or driving.

And here’s how it’s been going so far…

I had a sleepover with my two best friends. This is was not necessary because they each only live a little over an hour away so a day hang is completely possible and something we often do. But this time they came to my place and we had a sleep over and it was so much fun.

We took a walk, sat in a park and discussed our careers, cooked dinner, and ate chocolate with laughing at a Melissa McCarthy movie. The next morning we sat around the table eating eggs, yogurt, sourdough, and berries and completely lost track of time. The best.

I signed up for a natural dyeing class at an art school nearby. Do I want to be a famous natural dyer? No. Do I have high expectations for the pieces I’m creating in this class? Also no. It doesn’t matter, it is so much fun to work with my hands, learn new things, and make new friends.

While arranging flower petals and onion skins on a piece of cotton, I chatted with two women who shared my love of reading and we shared book recs and connected on StoryGraph.

Natural dyeing supplies.

I drove (and sang) for an hour and half to visit my mom. Usually I am a contemplative driver, using the time to solve problems in my head and think through ideas. This time I turned up the music and got lost in the singing. It was great.

I had a sisters day. My two sisters came to my place and we spent the day eating, walking, perusing a book store, shopping for beauty supplies, watching a movie, gossiping, and teasing each other.

One sister referred to watching her “programs” and the other talked about making “supper” and there was no way I was letting those go. Clearly I laughed a lot.

I listened to danceable music while cooking. Instead of listening to a podcast I turned on upbeat music and danced around my kitchen while preparing dinner.

I created my own sewing project. I decided to hand stitch lace trim to the straps and hem of a plain black tank top. I did this one evening instead of watching TV.

I prioritized clubs. I’m in three clubs right now- 2 book clubs and a cooking club. And I really want to find a mahjong club. I think clubs can feel like big commitments and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by that commitment. But I think it’s worth the effort.

I went camping with my partner and our friends. We spent a weekend sleeping tents, cooking over the campfire, reading, sharing stories, and listening to music. It was the first time we spent multiple days with these friends and it was such a good time that I’m looking forward to doing it again next Autumn.

We’re basically survivalists.

I realize that some of these things don’t fall in the Venn diagram of fun-having that I mentioned in this article, but I still have found these activities to make a big difference in my life…

…more time in a flow state, more time laughing, more time enjoying people’s company, more time feeling fun, buzzy energy.

And I think that’s because theses things are either done without an end goal in mind or without an expectation of success.

There’s a child-like joy that comes from doing stuff like this that we really do seem to lose our grasp on as we grow into adults.

But we can change that, if we want to.

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