Are You Tired of Being Stuck in Routine? Here are 8 Ways to Break Out

I used to work in a psychiatric outpatient clinic. One of the steps in treating mental health disorders is to put the patient on a schedule. This is to provide some stability in their daily lives and stop their minds from dangerously going haywire. But what if you, as a sane person, have too much stability in your life? It's boring. It's stagnating. It's debilitating. And it may lead to depression ...

So why not go a little haywire in your daily life? Living in the moment is dangerous. It can open you up to all kinds of new experiences. You never know what might happen.

Here are some ideas on how to break out of your daily routine:

• 1. Change your path. Take a different way to go to work, school, shopping. Look around you and really take in what's going on around you. Be aware of the sights, sounds and smells of your surroundings and the people you encounter.
• 2. Create something in a medium you have never used before. Knit a scarf if you have never knitted (This one's for guys, too. In Turkey, it's only the men who knit.) Paint or draw, if your usual medium is writing.
• 3. Eat something you have never eaten before. It doesn't have to be snake or chocolate-coated termites, although I can recommend ostrich steak for red meat lovers.
• 4. Celebrate being alive. Gather some friends and throw a party. If the climate allows, have it outdoors.
• 5. Take a day off work and go on a mini vacation. If you're a really conscientious person in employment, make sure you go on a day you're supposed to be at work. Shock yourself and take a sick day. Enjoy your day off by following your nose. Do exactly what you feel like doing in the moment. Except for feeling guilty for bunking off work.
• 6. Do something really silly and childish that makes you roll in laughter. Or just be a kid again. Take a ruler and challenge someone to a fencing match. Grab a co-worker and do a tango. Slide down a slide or swing to your hearts content. Take a friend along and you'll soon be laughing yourself silly.
• 7. Boldly go where no man has been before. Or at least where you haven't been before. If you can afford it, visit Paris. Or visit the wrong side of the tracks in your town. Or the right side of the tracks, if you're on the wrong side.
• 8. Spread some art around. I once printed and decorated a whole stack of cards with positive messages on them and spent the afternoon surreptitiously hiding them between the products in supermarkets and in menus in restaurants. It's the opposite of stealing, but feels naughty.

Routine suffocates creativity, so make a little space to live in the moment. What do you really want to do now? Follow your instincts. You may find it such fun and so liberating, you'll want to do it more often. And more often. And even more often. Until it takes up not only part of your life, but is your life. Go on, live a little. You won't have to call the medical emergency services.