Imagine a colour that you like, some music that calms you and a scent that you enjoy. Picture yourself in a room decorated in that colour, with that music playing and that scent in the air. What happens to you if you linger in this place? Now imagine a colour, some music and a scent that aren’t objectionable but which you don’t care for.
When I do this I come up in the first place with a kind of bluey green, Miles Davis playing All Blues and Andy Tauer’s Les Années 25 Bis. Imagining sitting in a room with these three things and nothing else leaves me feeling as if I am coming together. If I let my imagination go I start to daydream of autumn leaves and rooms you’d get in a film by Jean-Pierre Melville.
Then if I turn my mind to things I do not care for, which I won’t mention here, I realise I feel irritated having to be with them. I feel depleted. Some things run us down and take from us, other things build us up and give. Try to keep this in mind when you are around people: are they giving or taking? Neglect is a form of taking, of running you down. It can be very subtle. Life may feel monotonous, depressing, when you are neglected o neglecting yourself in some way.
Make your life more one that gives and you will find enthusiasm for it.