Groundhog Day

The story has been told a thousand times. February 2 of every year Punxsutauney Phil comes out of his hole and if he see’s his shadow it’s going to be another 6 weeks of winter for us. If no shadow, winter is coming to an end.

There was also a pretty funny movie called Groundhog Day that I want to brainstorm a little bit in connection with the Phil. In the movie Phil Connors finds himself waking up day after on February 2, and reliving Groundhog day over and over. Every day he wakes up its Groundhog day again. He goes through the same exact routine, goes to work, does his job, etc.

If you stop and think about it we kind of live like that. We wake up and do the same things over and over. The routine becomes worse than routine. Life loses its luster and we get tired. Excitement fades. We find just enough energy to scrape through the day one more time knowing when the alarm goes off we are destined to repeat.

But why? In the movie he realizes what is happening and he does some pretty interesting things. He uses the time loop to his advantage and he starts to learn about the people around him. He takes piano lessons and learns to speak French. He has some adventures (most I would advise against) but nonetheless he does exciting things. He takes the time to learn about the woman he is falling in love with. He takes the time to develop some pretty interesting relationships with the people around him.

After all his efforts to learn as much about Rita as he can he tells her about the time loop. She helps him come up with a plan to break free from the time loop and it works. He wakes up and the same old routine has been broken. And he has the woman of his dreams.

I can see that and it makes sense to me. Routine and boredom, mixed in with loneliness and a lack of a heartfelt connected relationship will leave you sad and lonely. You get stuck in that horrible routine of mere existence. But tell me how it works in reverse? When you are in love with the woman of your dreams and you somehow allow life to slip into that dull boring routine. Where did you lose the excitement? What happened that made you just say dang I am too tired to do anything fun with this woman. And the routine grows and gets deeper. And one day you wake up and years have melted away from you and you can’t figure out what the heck happened.

HEARTWORK: Break the routine! Shake yourself and admit you and your relationship are in a terrible rut. If you don’t pull out of it you will continue to feel that sinking feeling of despair day after day after day. Write down an activities list for you and your lover. Sort the list from easiest to accomplish to the more exotic. Put some fantasies on that list of yours! Put that imagination to work. As you check the activities off the list you should find new things to take their place.

If you have ideas for the list send them to me. We can put together a Lovers Activity List and publish it. If you need help with ideas let me know. I have some doozies.

brainstorminglife@yahoo.com