Variety? Am I joking?
‘Variety is the spice of life’ they say, but it may be lacking in your life at present! You might think there’s not much you can do but stick to a very narrow routine. Many people need routine, as it gives structure and familiarity to life, but you can have too much of a good thing. Routine can make for boredom, which can lead to depression, and there’s enough of that around. I have written about coping with Lockdown, but this is something else that may help us all.
What variety is available?
Think if there’s anything you might enjoy that you could do but you’re not. We’re all different and I can’t tell you what you would enjoy. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, but here are some things you might be able to do, even in Lockdown.
- Read
- Write
- Blog
- Tweet
- Watch TV/ DVDs
- Listen to the radio
- Listen to music
- Play an instrument
- Sing
- Do puzzles
- Exercise indoors
- Walk/run/cycle once a day
- Talk with someone on the phone
- Join a virtual meeting
- Talk with someone in your house
- Play with children or even adults in your house.
Not enough variety there?
You probably won’t want to do all those things, although you could try a few and you might be surprised! But how about varying things within each of those activities?
- What do you read? Books? What kind? Novels? Biography? Non-fiction?Try a different genre. Run out? Read all you’ve got? How about Kindle and other e-books? What about papers and magazines?
- In the same way, you cloud try different stuff on TV, different types of music. Different games or puzzles. Different physical exercises.
- When you go out, is it always the same route? I’m lucky enough to be near a park where I can walk in different directions. Make the most of what’s near you.
What about weekly variety?
Are all your days the same? Why not develop a weekly cycle, making each day special? Christians have got a head start here, as Sunday is still special for us, although for some in St Paul’s Penketh, it’s Thursdays.. The actual day is not crucial, as I explain in How to Cope with the Church, but you can use it to break the monotony of the week. These last few Sundays, I have enjoyed different kinds of services online, as well as keeping up my daily prayers and Bible reading. I also get prayer requests by e-mail and news of answers to prayer.
Mondays are becoming the day I link online with a writers’ group, but what could you do to make certain days special?
How to cope with Church: Practical advice for would-be Christians,: there’s a variety of ways of worshiping God
St Paul’s Penketh, Warrington. The building is closed, but the church is still open in a variety of ways.
Variety on your plate?
We all know it’s good to have a varied diet. Hardly any food is all-good or all-bad. However, many of us can’t get what we want, In our house, planning of meals had had to be… flexible. Some would describe our diet as eclectic. In other words, we eat what we can get! So far, that’s been OK. There are plenty worse off.