In a bleak, dreary world where we are bombarded with death, violence, hate, stress, endless scrolling, likes and comments, things can get unnecessarily overwhelming on our devices yet increasingly underwhelming in reality.
It’s drilled into our heads by society to be the most productive person in the room, with the busiest schedule and the most going on, that our day-to-day ends up amounting to mundane tasks we force ourselves to do with little to no passion.
We drown ourselves in our work, then bore ourselves by scrolling on our phones as soon as we get home.
We are so used to waking up and going through the motions that we forgot to add little joys to the uneventful parts of our days. We are burnt out on life.
By adding more whimsy to the normality of our lives and adjusting our mindsets to have a more romantic view of our day-to-day routines, we can have more fun instead of getting bogged down by what we’re used to.
Add sprinkles into your daily yogurt bowls, get ready for no reason, pick flowers on your weekly walks, use that hair mask on a random Tuesday that you’ve been saving for “the perfect time.”
We are conditioned to think there’s less to life than there actually is, but we must take control of our own lives first, instead of waiting for the whimsy to come to us.
Oscar-nominated actor Timothee Chalamet, who is known for his whimsical yet inquisitive outlook on the world, said in an interview in 2023, “You could be the master of your fate. You could be the captain of your soul. But you have to realize life is coming from you, not at you.”
Life is coming from you; embrace that and don’t run from it.
Most of the time, our attitude toward our daily experiences plays a larger role than what is actually happening to us.
The media puts consumers in a constant state of comparison because of the endless flow of information and the things you should be buying, doing and changing.
In actuality if we remained our most child-like, whimsical selves instead of feeding into the capitalist view points of more, more, more we would live more simply and happily.
In theory, we should be able to gain new and exciting ideas for changing our lives for the better, but in reality, we are suffocating because we aren’t meeting the unrealistic standards of life.
Our current world is more about looks and appearances rather than feelings and personal connections and our daily lives are experiencing the repercussions.
“It [whimsy] is inherently imaginative, shape-shifting and often intangible, a product of our imagination rather than an aesthetic to emulate,” Nicole Aherling, a writer for The Good trade, said.
Get more ridiculous, be weird and don’t be afraid to do things for the fun of it, not for the Instagram-worthy picture.
So lean into whatever season it is through scents and styles, take the long way instead of getting everywhere as fast as possible, take your book or journal wherever you go, compliment strangers, be more colorful, laugh more loudly and sprinkle whimsy into each part of your life in a way that boosts your spirit instead of dampening it.
As you work to uncover the most fun-loving and whimsical version of yourself you’ll have a happier outlook on life in general.
The world is grey enough, so add your own special take on life with a little more colorful fun than just existing rather than performing.
