Sleep.
Sleep seems to be the most contradicting thing in my life. So often I wish I didn’t have to sleep so I could do more in my day, yet I fucking LOVE sleep. I’d sleep centuries if I could. There’s something nice about the thought that every day, you just switch off for a little while (except for dreams which are awesome in their own right). Plus, I find the subject of sleep absolutely fascinating, as you probably gathered from my pile of ARK posts…
Air banding like crazy in your room because no one is watching.
May have rocked out to Are You Gonna Be My Girl for a little while… Anyway, singing/lipsyncing and dancing and playing air guitar to a sweet tune is most definitely a simple pleasure I cannot live without~
But I am nowhere near as cool as the Cool Cats:
Cooking without a recipe.
I love cooking. My mum is a super-pro cook and one of my happiest memories of childhood was eating homemade meals (still is). Cooking in general is fun because you get the instant reward of eating it, but what’s even more fun is that you can do whatever the hell you want… within acceptable limits. Cooking by a recipe can be fun, but going by feel and changing around stuff is even better! And best of all, you can make your own recipes.
What I find the most fun regarding cooking is that you can get creative with various ingredients and see how it turns out. It could be you’re making something from scratch, or trying to recreate a meal you had somewhere else. I mean seriously, it’s like Lego that you can EAT. How much better can it get? Sometimes I look at the limited supply of food in my fridge and take it as a challenge.
For example, you can go from easy things like fried rice where you can pretty much dice up whatever and toss it in a pan:
…to more complex things like sweet & sour chicken, which I always have fun experimenting with (it’s really not that complicated tbh…):
But of course nothing beats the joy of making…
FRIED CHICKEN.
Taking time off to do something fun when you can’t afford to.
This is most relevant to my life right now with my O&G OSCE (clinical examinations) on Friday, short cases (biggest clinical exam of med school) next Tuesday and two gigantic exams (testing us on literally everything we learnt in med school) the week after that all crashing down at once. The sheer pressure of all of this is really pushing all of us (5th year med students) to a point of anxiety, depression and insanity, and without some way to relieve that stress somewhere, we’d probably end up jumping off somewhere tall or go on a shooting spree.
I personally believe human beings feel the happiest when they are enjoying a luxury they cannot afford. For example, having a nice dinner out once in a while even though your budget is straining. The same applies to time. No matter how busy life gets, just stop what you’re doing and take some time for yourself. Whether it be spending a couple hours having lunch with a friend, playing card games for half an hour, or singing a song on your guitar for ten minutes. Hell, go to the park and lay on the grass for even five minutes, doing nothing but staring into the blue, blue sky. Trust me, it will make a huge difference to your mental health and work productivity.
Here’s an analogy from an old ARK post:
There are two clocks: a still clock and a clock that is always a minute late.
Which clock is more accurate?The answer is the still clock – it tells the correct time twice every day, but the other clock is always wrong despite the fact that it constantly ticks.
Sometimes when life gets you down, it is better to stop and rest instead of trudging on forever, always out of sync.(Source: https://jineralknowledge.com/two-clocks)
Slipping into a warm, cozy bed while a thunderstorm rages outside.
Nothing soothes me and puts me in the right mood like a roaring thunderstorm and torrential rain~ When I’m warm and cozy inside and not drenched in rain that is. It just makes me feel so… safe and relaxed you know? Also, it’s perfect weather for napping, reading, gaming, snuggling, or whatever else 🙂
Being in flow state.
If you don’t know what flow state is, I urge you to learn about it:
https://jineralknowledge.com/flow (yes I’m linking you to an ARK post as always).
For me, the things that put me in flow state include playing my guitar, writing ARK and obsessing about a topic and reading everything about it. It’s so hard to describe, but in that state you feel like nothing else matters. It’s just you and whatever you’re doing. The moment.
One of the best advice for having a happy life I’ve found so far is to discover what your flow is. Whether it be playing an instrument, engaging your creativity or sweating it out through sports, if you find even ONE hobby that will put you in that state of mind, trust me, it’ll change your life.
Of course, one of the best flow states to be in is when you’re so engaged in a conversation with a person that time becomes infinite and you never want to leave that conversation.
Doing groceries.
Yes, yes, I’m weird. But I find it enjoyable to crank up the music on my earphones and go shopping…for food. I tend to take my sweet time too, meandering about checking out different items, picking out fresh ingredients and trying to decide what I want for dinner for the next week. Sometimes I’ll even look up recipes on my phone and play it by ear. Like today, I needed an idea for baking for tomorrow (last day of O&G woooo), and I was like hmmm…CHEESECAKE. So there’s a green tea cheesecake setting in my fridge right now.
I can’t wait for when I’m older and start shopping around farmer’s markets and gourmet ingredient shops (when I’m earning money OTL). It’s so fun looking at all kinds of food, smelling and tasting a myriad of ingredients and foods~ You know what they say: don’t forget to stop and smell the roses…and eat them.
Surviving a tough rotation and getting good feedback at the end.
I survived obstetrics & gynaecology!!! The team I was on is infamous because the consultant is well-known for…yelling at students if they do something wrong. Won’t go into detail but we (two other students and I) must’ve been the first group to go the six weeks without being yelled at. Even got very positive feedback today for last day assessment! She wrote on the form “encouraged to consider O&G” (I’d never). Still it’s been rather stressful because of the sheer pressure and time spent in hospital. And I have an OSCE (clinical exam) tomorrow morning, yippee.
The end is in siiiiiight. Just OSCE, short cases and two exams until freedom! May Robert Downey Jr. watch over me.
Coffee.
Need I say more? No (non-alcoholic) drink comes close to the aromatic, life-giving liquid that is coffee. Especially handdripped coffee or a very nice flat white mmm~~~ Seriously, where would I be without it? Probably a world without a caffeine addiction that’s for sure. But I can’t help but love being a coffeeholic 🙂
Sharing a brainwave with a friend.
It’s always awesome when you find out you and a friend is thinking the exact same thing at a moment! Whether it be something random like what to have for lunch or something more complicated like plan of attack for exams. Still yet to reach the awesome level of telepathic communication as seen on HIMYM though haha.
