When I was in my 20s, my favourite music to dance to while doing household chores was a mixed tape (ignore the age reveal) with Bruce Springsteen, Cindy Lauper, Madonna and Billy Joel, oh and the whole Dirty Dancing soundtrack. OMG, the 80s were THE decade for music that could be danced to, worked along, and used for a road trip without ever getting tired of it. These days you have playlists for every minute detail in your life and the concentration playlist is not interchangeable with the morning chill. Then life got in the way and technology decided to flip everything upside down, so music became an even more expensive form of entertainment, and had to compete with the internet.
There was a point in my life where I had a designated time for household chores and they had to be done as quickly as possible in order to do the other errands in town. So there was no time to dance around with the mop, boogie with the vacuum cleaner or do the chacha with the broom anymore. Sad but true. Lately however, I decided enough was enough and I determined to have fun again while cleaning the house but the question was – who with? I discovered that Ed Sheeran was perfect for the job, especially if you have the “Essentials” playlist from Apple Music, but if you want to spice it up, I recommend adding Beyonce and Lady Gaga, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a playlist and then the chores aren’t so daunting anymore!
Where am I going with this? This is part of my continuing pursuit of joyfulness throughout the day. Not everything on your to-do list has to be dull and dreary. Allow yourself the element of frivolity, and detach from time pressures altogether. So what if it takes you longer to tidy up in the kitchen because you were busy dancing? Or you took infinitely longer to chop the onions because you were belting out a song by P!nk? Just because we got older doesn’t mean we have to become grumpy. After all, age is just a number is it not?
The other morning I had my coffee mug in hand while moving from the dining table to the kitchen but stopped to dance with my hands in the air to Light Follow’s Live Your Beautiful Life. Listen carefully to the lyrics and crank up the volume!
Did I care that I was still in my nightgown? Nope, not one bit. It was horrible weather outside but I wanted to dance at that very moment and didn’t care how loud the music was (the advantage of living in The Shire) or that the cats were startled.
Don’t let others curtail your sense of fun. We’ve lost the thrill of spontaneity of our youth, and buried it layer and layers beneath our deadlines and obligations. Lousy weather outside? Create your own sunshine indoors or grab an umbrella and waltz in the rain. You don’t need to have a designated time to drop everything and dance, I highly recommend it especially if you are under a lot of stress and reach an impasse of sorts. Step away from the source of the stress, the let music dictate the moves and just let go. Who cares if you are in the office (I did the conga at work one time and several jumped in, the rest sat back and grinned at us, envious of our lack of inhibitions). Sure, you can also do breathing exercises or Reiki instead, but life should be much more fun than what we are allowed.
FrogDiva Thoughts 