There's this relatively new concern people experience: fear of missing out (FOMO). In short, it's when you're worried something really interesting or fun is happening without you. Unfortunately, it's fairly easy to suffer from FOMO, what with all the many extraordinary activities there are to do and intriguing people to meet. Even when you are in the middle of an epic adventure, you can still feel like something even better could be happening to you someplace else.
On one hand, FOMO is that sense of unease that gets you outside after sitting hauled up in your room for a week. It pushes you to interact with the world and allow life's greatest wonders to greet you.
However, it's also not a horrible idea to ignore your FOMO and simply...well, miss out.
Like I said earlier, there is so much to see and do in the world. You can spend every waking hour of your existence living life to the fullest, and there would still be a bunch of things left to accomplish. So why try to fit everything into your life? Sometimes, it's healthiest to take a quiet moment (or day) to just breathe and do nothing.
If a calm day of idleness gives you anxiety over all of the possible activities you could be doing instead, then you need this break more than anyone else. No matter how stressful FOMO is for you, it's good to miss out on things every so often. It gives you a chance to take things in, to fully collect and connect to all the adventures you've gone through. If you just move from one activity to the next, your life can become a blur. You start doing things without actually experiencing them. To truly construct a worthwhile event, you have to participate and remember. Otherwise, you lose all emotional connection to the experience, and it's almost as if you didn't do it at all. Besides, which is better, to simply say you did something cool or to relive something cool through your memories? The latter takes "something cool" and turns it into something truly epic and magical.
Yeah, so maybe giving into your FOMO keeps you active in the real world rather than stuck in front of your computer screen. Maybe it pushes you to try new things and forces you out of your comfort zone. But basking in that uncomfortable void of inactivity only makes those once-in-a-lifetime adventures more magnificent. Besides, sometimes it's nice to just have some peaceful time alone where your mind (rather than your physical being) can wander and have an adventure of its own.
