What would life look like if we started building it around the things that make us feel good? Not just finding occasional moments for the things we enjoy, but making them a bigger part of how we live every day. It’s a question I’ve been thinking about recently, prompted by the ordinary things I keep noticing in the lives of people around me.
It’s watching someone get off a train and chain their bicycle at the station, ready to use it again the following day as part of their journey. It’s seeing someone out running in the rain, people enjoying an afternoon walk or friends heading outdoors with their dogs. It’s listening to family talk about the benefits of sea swimming or enjoying a sauna beside the beach. Hearing about people joining running clubs, discovering new walking routes or simply finding ways to spend more time outside. Nothing particularly extraordinary, but each little observation has started to make me think about the life I want to be living.
I used to cycle to work, swim in the sea throughout the year and run in the rain. Being outdoors was simply part of how I lived. I didn’t need perfect weather or a particular reason to get outside. It was normal, and it worked well for me. Then life happened, priorities shifted and those activities gradually disappeared from my routine. Not because I stopped enjoying them, but because other things took their place. It’s only recently, through noticing what others are doing, that I’ve started to realise how much I miss those experiences. And perhaps that’s what has surprised me most. Sometimes it takes seeing someone else enjoying something to remind us of what we’ve been missing in our own lives.
Of course, there’s the reality of everyday life. How do you build a life around the things that make you feel good when you’re working, commuting, managing a home and trying to fit everything else into the hours that remain? Finding space for those experiences isn’t always straightforward. Could a cycle become part of the commute? Could a walk become a regular evening habit? Could swimming, running or exploring somewhere new become part of the week rather than something we hope to squeeze in when everything else is done? Not everyone has the same opportunities, energy or flexibility, but perhaps small changes are where a different way of living begins.
Maybe that’s what building a new normal really means. Not reinventing ourselves or chasing an idealised version of life somewhere else, but recognising what we’ve lost along the way and deciding what we want to bring back. We can’t always return to the lives we once had, and perhaps we wouldn’t want to. We’ve changed, and life has changed with us. But we can take the parts that mattered, the things that made us feel good, and find a place for them in the lives we’re living now. Perhaps the answer isn’t about creating an entirely different life, but reconnecting with the things that made us enjoy the one we had.
And there’s no day like today to start something new.
