Life is often presented in various ways fueling a source of imagination in your head. When watching movies or shows, reading books, or traveling, you can’t help but think what it would have been like if you were to grow up differently. How would your life be now if you were raised in a small coastal town where there were yearly town traditions, where every family knew one another, where there were secret spots people would throw parties at after football games? Would your summers have been like the ones seen on TV? Where they take their boats and hunt for treasure or solve an old town mystery the sheriff couldn’t. Or would it have been lavish where you attended parties with champagne at the country club and fell in love with someone your family did not approve of? What about school? What if you went to boarding school in the countryside of England, but had to leave someone special behind? Or if you went to the only fancy school in town where some sort of drama occurred, and you figured things out that you wish you didn’t about the people around you. What if you started dating a celebrity? Would it have made you happy for real, or is that what your mind keeps telling you to believe?
There’s no way of telling how life would have turned out for you so far if you lived something completely irrelevant to how you grew up, but there’s that constant conscience in your mind that asks you “What if”? It’s normal to have these thoughts on a daily occurrence. In fact, it is important to have these thoughts in order to make them come true.
Many of these imaginative thoughts derive from delusion. You create picture perfect moments that you often spend time thinking and dreaming about knowing it won’t actually happen in real life since the time frame has passed or it is unrealistic. Therefore, it stays in your head. When it comes to dealing with this, you have to focus on what is going on in your life right now. While it is fun and all being “delulu”, at the end of the day, it will make you more upset that you’re not fulfilling those dreams. Obviously, while being delusional is not the right mindset, it is essential for survival and to successfully achieve your goals.
Being delusional helps create a safe space within you. It’s not really helpful for your overall mental health because half of those delusions are unattainable, but that does not mean that they are impossible. Something to help regain purpose in your life while being delusional is finding a distraction. In this case, something you are passionate about. When you find something that is distracting but also somewhat enjoyable, you get motivated in a way to focus on making this hobby a part of you. Whether your passion is reading, art, going to the movies, cooking, playing sports, taking pictures, etc. there is something that will interest you and change the way you are living. With a passion or few, it becomes easier to make it a habit to use/do everyday instead of being alone and stuck with thoughts that do not actually benefit you. With your delusional mind, it also helps by creating fake scenarios that could possibly happen when executing these hobbies. Therefore, it makes you want to do them more, in case those scenarios happen to you in real life.
Do something you have never done before. It’s like challenging yourself. You’re forcing yourself to try something new and to go with your gut. Go skydiving, take a class on a topic that excites you, go on a trip somewhere you’ve always wanted to go, take a long drive with no destination while blasting your favorite music, shoot your shot with someone you like or are attracted to; the possibilities are endless. In all honesty, the only thing that is stopping you is yourself. Whether you are young or old, you can always do what your heart desires. As many people say, listen to the heart and not the head. Those delusional thoughts and the “What if?” questions are all stuck in your head, which is why it’s important to make your heart want it instead.
Life is too short to be delusional and to not make it a reality. If you wished you were brought up differently, make that choice right now and figure out what will make it happen. If you are “delulu” about your celebrity crush and want to date them, then work towards it- make connections, message a bunch of people in their circle, go to events, travel, attend shows, or just make a move. What’s the worst that can happen? You get rejected or it doesn’t work out- then move on and find something else to excite you. Make memories that you will cherish forever and do something that gets your adrenaline going. There is so much you can do to make all these fantasies in your mind come true if you put yourself out there and choose to find a way to make it work. You can even use manifestation for your goals because it gives you motive. Instead of asking “Why”, start asking yourself “How” or “When”. Regain purpose(s) in your life that allows you to feel content.
At the end of the day, you are in charge of the direction you want your life to go, whether it is forcing delusional thoughts out of you and making it come to life or whether you would rather stay delusional and not do anything about it (that is okay, too).