Do Something That Interests You Daily!

I firmly believe that ageing well is aided by feeling vibrantly engaged.  Think about it — If you wake up in the morning and are reminded that you have something fun or interesting on your calendar for the day, doesn’t that knowledge infuse a little extra kick in your day?

If your answer is “yes” or even a reserved “maybe,” then it makes sense to develop a  practice that includes making sure you plan to have something of interest to you as part of your daily routine.

Okay, does this require some planning on your part?  Most likely the answer is “yes,” but what you choose as your “interest” element of the day doesn’t have to be demanding or expensive.  Once I realized the value of staring this practice in my own life, ideas just started presenting themselves.  I rely on a printed monthly planner and have done so for a long time.  Seeing a visual representation of how my week is taking shape has served me well in many ways.  For one thing, I can get a good sense of what I refer to as the “rhythm” of my week before I find myself in the midst of it.  If I see that I have several days back-to-back that are pretty full, I generally plan a couple of more open-ended days to follow a busy pattern.  I find it easier to plan what I’m cooking for the week if I can get a sense of how busy I will be.  If I have plans to meet others for lunch or dinner, I can factor in that information as I’m planning menus for the week.  If I feel like I’m in need of some quieter time, I plan something that is more low key and calming.

Once you are experienced with this practice, you may find that the energy you feel from an interesting experience carries you for more than a day as you revisit the experience mentally and emotionally.  I find it helpful to have “lots of irons in the fire” or ideas at your disposal so that you can choose from a variety of ideas until you find the one that fits you on a given day.

And, just because I have given some thought to creating a list of interesting things to do doesn’t mean that I am locked into that schedule.  If I have made plans with someone else or have paid in advance for an experience, I tend to honor those commitments.  But sometimes when I wake up I’m                              inspired to do something totally different from what I had planned earlier.   Here are some of the “usual suspects” that are on my list of interesting things to pursue.

Making Time to Read.  Whoever invented the notion of Free Libraries for All should be canonized!  Libraries are wonderful resources that provide such a great collection of resources.  They supply us with a vast amount of fiction and non-fiction, and in recent years have added music and movies for us to enjoy.  If you are fortunate like I am to live near a city, you may find that your local library is part of a network of libraries that all share their collections electronically.

Libraries also offer opportunities for social gatherings.  Many libraries have something resembling a community room where local lectures or other communal events are held.  There are reading rooms where if you feel a desire to be around others, you can find a comfortable chair as you read a magazine that attracts your attention.

I subscribe to the New York Times Book Review and it is one of my favorite weekly pleasures to devour it with delight.  As I read about interesting books – not always new books but sometimes books that have been published earlier – I mark the ones I want to request from the local library.  Now that collections are online, I can request books from my home.  If there is a downside to this process – which I don’t actually consider to be a downside as much as an observation – it means that some of my weekly trips to the library I find that I have 5-6 books ready for pick up.  It’s a bit daunting, but  I like having choices about what I want to read.  Sometimes I have 4-5 books going at once, and if I don’t get to all of them, I just return the books when they are due without feeling guilty or overwhelmed.  I can always request them again; occasionally I can renew them if they are not on the best seller lists and therefore they are usually not in high demand.

Rainy days are excellent for curling up with a good book, and snowy days are the best.  Hey, if reading on the couch leads to a pleasant nap, all the better!

Cooking Can Be Fun.  My eating habits have changed over the years, and while I have a substantial collection of cookbooks, I also collect recipes, mostly from cooking magazines.  I’ve organized the recipes in a filing system that makes them easy to find.  Generally I just copy the recipes that I really enjoyed in a magazine and then recycle the magazine so that I’m not overwhelmed with clutter.

I’ve always enjoyed cooking something new, even though I frequently recycle my favorites.  Almost every time I host a dinner for others, I add in at least 1-2 things I’ve never cooked before.  I like the learning, the creation of something new, and sometimes I like the challenge of it as well.  Most of the time it works, but there are occasions where at the end of the effort I decide the recipe is a bust so I don’t make it again.

One of my recent interests was learning how to cook celery root.  Now that there are more   health-oriented grocery stores around, there are more vegetables and fruits available for purchase than when I was growing up.  As a result, preparing a fruit or vegetable I’ve never eaten before is a new learning experience.    Celery root looks like something alien if you’ve never seen it before, and I kept wondering how you peel it.  Low and behold, I picked up a cooking magazine from American Test Kitchen (ATK) – a very reliable and instructive source – and it had not only a recipe for cooking celery root, it also showed how to peel it. It turns out peeling it is quite simple, and the end product was delicious.  It may sound corny, but I was excited that I mastered something I didn’t know how to do before.

Taking Time for New Discoveries.  If you’ve read some of my earlier blogs, you’ll likely recall that I enjoy walking, and I like a variety of paths to choose from.  So when my tried and true routes start to feel less interesting, I know it’s time to expand my choices.

So how do you find new routes?  First think about what’s important to you in a walking path.  If I’m walking alone, I don’t like to be in a path that feels very isolated – no other walkers, and I don’t like the distractions associated with walking on busy streets.  Once you know your preferences, ask other walkers what some of their favorite paths are.  You can also check the Internet for walking paths in your locale.  I am a member of the Audubon Society, and they have walking trails that are fairly clearly marked.

Check Out Short Courses or Classes in Your Area.  One of the things I love about living in New England and in the Greater Boston Area is that there are so many things going on, and many of them are free or very inexpensive.  I’ve been trying to learn about Ayurveda cooking for several years, but the books I’ve read on it aren’t helping me understand the process.  To start with, you have to complete a quiz that identifies your dosha and body type, and every time I try to complete the quiz, I fall somewhere in between the available doshas.  Recently, however, I discovered a short cooking class on Ayurveda cooking that will be held a local farm this coming Fall, so I’ve signed up for it.

And the list could go on and on…..Doing something each day that interests you  is definitely a practice I encourage. Good luck figuring out what you want to add to your list of “usual suspects.”