Katharina Buczek
The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer, Katharina Buczek.
Do you ever wake up and feel like you are the star of your very own “Groundhog Day?” Each morning, you probably step out of bed at around the same time before heading downstairs to prep some coffee or tea.
Then, you participate in the same skincare and makeup routine before heading out the door to sit in the same old traffic on your commute to work.
Finally, by the day’s end, you might return home, walk your dog, cook your dinner, and turn on your favorite comfort television show. Around this time of year, mine is “Gilmore Girls.”
Now, this might not sound like that bad of a day. In fact, I’m sure that many people would be grateful to have stable employment with “normal” hours, food in the fridge, and a streaming service like Netflix ready to help them decompress every evening.
But if you have all of these things and still feel unfulfilled, uninspired, or kind of empty inside, you are not overreacting, and you should not feel “ungrateful.”
Instead, this “hamster wheel of life” can take a very real toll on your mental health, no matter what industry you work in or where you live.
Nowadays, high productivity and habit stacking are the touted ideals of our society. It is even quite impossible to go on social media without encountering at least one “daily routine” video– which features the same monotonous tasks completed in the same mindless order every single day.
Don’t get me wrong: routines can be great. The structure can provide people with feelings of stability and consistency and help them maintain valued areas of their lives– for instance, physical health or a clean home.
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