Try a Little Spontaneity to Spice Up 
Your Life

Way back when you first started high school, you probably heard your parents describe these years as the best years of your life. This has been the normal trend in thought because once you were out of high school, it was nothing but work and responsibility the rest of your life. You were not expected to sit back and enjoy life until you retired. This no doubt posed a problem if you died before you had a chance to retire. These days, as we move into uncertain times, all of that is about to change.  People are realizing there is more to life than rigorous planning and structure. Also a pastor down in Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen to be exact (popular with more than just Christians), was quoted as saying “no one ever came to the end of his life wishing he had spent more time at the office”. This could be a sign of collective personal growth for society as a whole.

Being too intense can cause health problems

There is nothing wrong with planning ahead in the business world. It is actually seen as wise. But being spontaneous has its benefits too. For example, if plans get cancelled, then you are not taken solely by surprise and can easily reschedule. Also, people who are more structured are also more intense. These types of people have a hard time enjoying life. A little spontaneity would go a long way towards loosening them up a little bit.

There have been married couples who were so caught up with the business of managing their family, working, and paying the bills, that the tension begin to disrupt their sex life. They overcame this by being spontaneous and going out on the town and acting as wild and crazy as they did back when they first met.

When you first start to study the field of Psychology, you begin to take notice that there is no such thing as a mental or physical illness. Every illness has one holistic cause. Western culture, with its practice of allopathic medicine, is prone to treat each and every symptom as its own condition.  The underlying issues of the majority of illnesses, that are not simple birth defects, is usually related to stress and anxiety. This is usually brought about from pushing ourselves too hard to keep up with the demands of society. It can also be caused by taking life too seriously.

Do not get in too much of a hurry to grow up

This is probably the same advice that you give your children. However, many parents should learn to practice their own advice. What is the difference between a child and a grownup? The child goes off to school until he is traditionally 18 years of age. The adult goes to work and makes money to pay his way through life. Aside from that there is not much of a difference. You make friends at both; though the child plays on the playground and the co-workers may go to the local bar and kick back with a few beers. As one housewife noted, there was not anything different about men (and women too); both genders may get older but they still play with toys. These toys just tend to get bigger.

In light of the fact that you never truly retire, you definitely do not want to get so caught up with work that you put off enjoying life until the phantom day when you can stop working. Studies actually show that the longer one works, the longer one lives. Many people who quit working as soon as they could collect social security actually were dead within a decade. For that matter, the purpose of social security is to be a supplement so that you do not have to work as much. Plus if you make investments, then you can live off those or start a small business when you reach the prime of your life.

Just knowing that you will never truly retire is motivation to live life one day at a time and stay centered in the present. You know you have the rest of your life to reach your goals. And if you die young, then those goals will not really matter anyway. This living in the present takes a commitment to self-development and personal growth with the end result being freed up to live life more on your own personal terms.

A wise teacher in the bible said to “be as a little child.” A child is carefree and enjoys life. It never has doubts because it knows its parents, or God, or the universe already has everything worked out. It is when we grow older that we get so caught up with the demands of life that we begin to forget this and we become less in tune with our emotions which leaves us prone to stress-related illnesses and anxiety.  But by understanding how the mind works through Psychology, we can commit to personal growth and take steps to reprogram ourselves. As we commit to self-development, we often find that life and the universe has a way of restoring the years we lost while we were struggling along.

E Bishop Wooten

References:

http://dailyevotionals.wordpress.com