Having trouble enjoying my life.......

OP - are you married? Have children? Honestly these days most of my "fun" time revolves around my DH and kids. Do you have any hobbies or interests that could involve getting involved with a community group?

Do you have any hobbies? I cross stitched in my younger days, then took a several-decades break. I picked it up again 2 or 3 years ago. I get a lot of enjoyment from it. And not only from the actual stitching itself, but from thinking about new projects to do, finding supplies, etc. I’ve made multiple friends online and we even have a zoom group where we get together to chat while we stitch. It’s all been giving me a lot of pleasure.

I would be curious about why that is? Are you just tired or don’t have the energy to seek out anything fun after work or do you really have no desire to do anything “fun”. The latter would concern me and be a reason to talk to my doctor. Depression can present like that even if you don’t feel like what you think depression does if that makes sense. But I will say that covid was a real fun sucker for our family the past year and half, so life doesn’t have the same variety and spontaneity it did before.

Do you like to read ? I have a couple of friends who do not read and they are always bored, their words. Reading can take you to places that you couldn’t normally go to. Just knowing that I have an exciting book waiting for me brings me a lot of joy.

I don't know where you live or what attracted you to living there, but one thing I did when I was in your situation is I found out which places were open to visit and went by myself.  I went to a planetarium, I went to the movies, I went to a local park and listened to music, I found out about a street fair a few towns over and went.

I love farmers markets, flea markets and yard sales so I started going to those.  I didn't have much money but I would give myself about $20 to spend on whatever caught my eye.  Then I took my new find home and enjoyed it.

I also walked and decided to visit different places in my town to check it out.  So I would go downtown and walk around.   I loved taking photos so I would try to find interesting pictures to take.

All of these things helped me so much to get out of my house and do something.  I eventually met a friend and we went together sometimes.  Looking back it turned into something I looked forward to each weekend.

Lastly, I remember after work I would make myself go out for a walk.  It seemed to help with energy and doldrums.  Hope some of these things might work for you!

I agree with the poster who mentioned reading. If you go on goodreads and "rate" some books you like, it will give you lots of suggestions. It kept me busy for a couple of hours when I first signed up a couple years ago.

I am a sahm, and I still feel like that sometimes. My youngest starts college soon, so it will be so hard.

My husband is very busy at work and has been working 10 hr. days, has a 45 min. commute each way. So he has been getting home at 8:00, watches tv, goes to bed. During covid, we taped the local news, World News Tonight and Inside Edition. We wanted to keep up with covid news. Our family has been fully vaccinated for a while now, but we still watch all the news. I am trying to get my husband to watch something "fun" or do something else. We don't have covid worries now, so let's get away from the news. He is usually too tired to go for a walk. So just wanted to say that he feels the same as you mentioned. I hope you get some great ideas and I will share them with my husband.

I found this as well. We're finally opening up this week and I'm hopeful that will change - just to be able to pop into a store without a line up will be a delight.

I'm generally pretty happy to be home and work on various projects but there were always trips away for a couple days or weeks at a time to spice things up. That hasn't happened for so long now and it definitely has made it tough to get out of the everyday rut of living some weeks. We have been on lockdown for so long where I live that even visits with local friends and family were pretty hard to do.

I finally decided to try some new activities that I could do while we were on this never ending lockdown to help me find something to change up my routine - I found Let's Make Art and have enjoyed the calligraphy and watercolour lessons. They have lots of free resources so it was pretty much a risk free venture and I have enjoyed learning some new skills. I walk daily and I have found that I look at things a bit differently now that I think I can paint.

I’ve been feeling a bit like this since I was made redundant . I miss my job so much and am still gnashing my teeth that I was in all truth fired - for asking for the practice to be cleaned after 3 cases of COVID ( it wasn’t kept very clean even before that, myself and 2 colleagues agreed but I was scapegoated). I haven’t been able to find a p/t job that fits around my caring responsibilities.

My recent break in routine that has helped seems bonkers, but I’ll take it 😬 we had a flood 2 and a half weeks ago and have had no electric in the kitchen - no fridge freezer, cooker, washer dishwasher since. I’ve had to start washing up by hand - which I’m finding strangely soothing- and I’m going to the launderette twice a week, where I’ve met some nice people . There’s also a lovely little coffee shop next door run by a friendly Italian family.

I’ve just volunteered to help out at a charity rescuing cats as well. I’ve done my first day and enjoyed it .

I think all our worlds contracted with covid, I decided that I had to keep busy otherwise I would struggle. My solution was a number of craft projects, I specifically picked projects that had long timelines, one is a year long and started in Jan. I'm working in the garden, clearing beds, planting new stuff, continuing with my duolingo course.

I'm sure I've read of people helping children in other countries with the reading, maths etc thanks to the internet. Other projects I've seen are requests to read old historical documents and add the info to a database. If something along these lines appeal to you perhaps the peas can help you find a good fit.

That's really shitty! I am so sorry. Hope you find a much better job soon.

I've said this before but years ago I was constantly whining about being bored and a good friend of mine said, “ If you are bored, you are boring”.

I thought long and hard about what she said and I had to agree. I still occasionally get bored but I always remember what she told me and I snap out of it pretty quickly by doing something that makes me a more interesting person.

I don't necessarily call it *fun* but I also think this is a mindset, and is something that people can cultivate. I find beauty/joy/whatever-you-want-to-call-it in the smallest things, and quite a few of them are probably things someone else wouldn't even notice, or think was interesting or exciting, at ALL. I guess it's more that I try to be (mostly) in-the-moment and *present* in my day, and what I'm doing. Our lives are NOT "exciting" compared to what you see on Instagram-- we don't travel, we don't go out a lot, etc.-- but we like living our life.   
(every once in a while we talk with each other about how much we 'like our quiet little life' even though it might seem extremely boring from the outside.)
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Do you have a pet? Spending time with an animal is a good way to cultivate and see joy... animals are just so in-the-moment and enjoy life with no expectations, no burdens of mortgages, politics, news events, etc.  There is nothing quite like having my cat come up to me and pat my face with her paw so that I'll pet her, or watching the dogs tear around after each other, having SUCH a good time that I can't help but laugh.

Or on those rare occasions when I cook something from scratch, I get into the 'flow' of the details- cutting the vegetables begins to be enjoyable; measuring out the ingredients, mixing them together, the idea of *creating* something totally different from the individual parts (and hopefully tasty, too).

Or do you do any sort of art?  Look online for 'art journaling' or 'collage' or 'journaling' to get some ideas.  IMO, there's nothing quite like cutting pictures from magazines, books, etc. and gluing them together with other random papers, words, etc. to take you right back to the carefree days of kindergarten.  Or an adult coloring book!

Basically, I think doing anything that puts you 'in-the-moment' is a good thing to spend time doing...  It's sort of like meditating, except that you're not sitting there trying to force it.   And hey, if the thing you like doing is folding laundry, ironing, dusting, etc. (some people might like it, lol) then do some of that.

Just spend some time doing something you like.   Even just 10-15 minutes, and you'll probably want to continue with it for longer.   Heck, this morning driving to work I was tired and sluggish from the cloudy, drizzly weather... I played a Broadway show soundtrack I have on my phone, and I started singing along.  Eventually I was belting out the lyrics at the top of my lungs.  By the time I got to work, I felt SOOO much better- even happy!! (except for having to be at work, lol)

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ETA:  I just read the post where you say you're taking Zoloft for depression, and that your DH is a stick in the mud.  I'm married to one of those, too- and I don't let his inaction / lack of hobbies stop me from enjoying MY activities.  Sometimes we do go places together and he always says afterward that he wouldn't have done "X" on his own, but that he did have a good time after we got there, and he was glad we did it.  Yes, it does stink being the one to suggest things most of the time, but if that's the only way you'll get him to do them, then go ahead- make plans, and get him to come with.  

As far as the depression, I've taken an anti-depressant for over 15 years now, and I can tell that I do a LOT better when I also eat good-for-me food, when I get enough sleep, and when I do NOT drink alcohol.  If doing those kinds of things aren't helping you feel more like 'yourself' then maybe it's time to talk to your doctor about tweaking your medication or upping the dose.

Yes, everything crimsoncat05 said. She said it better than I did. But I do exactly the same things.

While I'm having my morning coffee, I even cuddle with all my animals in bed and sing Queen's Your My Best Friend to them. Always gets my day going in a good direction.

Point is, it's the little actions that you are mindful of and take pleasure in.