5 Antonyms Of Apathy To Practice

As someone who is a very deep thinker and an avid overthinker, at times I have an interesting relationship to apathy. I think I utilize apathy as a way to not feel things so deeply because it can get really tiring. I think I use apathy as a way to deflect hard feelings, and I think apathy serves a purpose for me by saying I’m apathetic as a copout to really feel what I’m feeling and discover more of what I’m feeling.

All feelings are our information about what’s going on. I think feelings can feel very overwhelming, which is why I think I go towards feeling apathetic sometimes because to be honest I just don’t wanna feel anything sometimes. However, I know that I’m a deep feeler and a deep thinker, and because of that, I know that there is a power for me in feeling these really deep feelings. I think whenever I do feel everything but apathy is when I’m most connected to myself and when I am most apathetic is when I most disconnected or disassociating with my life and myself.

Because of this, I wanted to discover five things that are the polar opposite of apathy to have something to lean on when I’m beginning to feel a bit apathetic, or if I need some motivation to get out of that feeling of nothing.

Passion

If I’m feeling apathetic, I think leaning into passion is really grounding because to me passion is igniting something that you already feel inside you. My passion is definitely writing. It is something that I can do for hours. It’s not a chore to me. It is something that is exciting because I do connect with myself  very easily with writing. I think with passion it is just a reminder to bring out the parts of you that excel in you, and that you want to share with the world because it’s a natural flame that you have about something.

Interest

When I’m feeling apathetic, I think having an interest in something is kind of a baby step to getting out of apathy. I find that when I’m apathetic I’m disassociating from what’s in front of me, and interest is bringing me back into what’s in front of me and allowing me to have some kind of gratitude and appreciation for the moment and being in the moment. Interest isn’t necessarily a monumental feeling, but it is a good start and sometimes whenever you’re feeling absolutely nothing you just need a start.

Curiosity 

When I’m feeling apathetic, I think curiosity is a good way to get out of that apathetic feeling of feeling nothing, and can put you in a state of wonder. I think a state of wonder and curiosity can also kind of lead you back to your inner child and being curious about the world and wanting to know more about something or something about a hobby or something about yourself.

I think sometimes we revert to apathy because being an adult is so draining and there’s so many logical things that we have to do that sometimes coming back into that state of being not apathetic just seems really daunting. And I think using curiosity as a way to bridge that part of you that is back in present, but not back in that adult state is a good way to bring you back to feeling something. I think curiosity is a good way to bridge that gap to enjoying yourself and to do something fun.

Inspiration 

When I’m feeling apathetic, I think inspiration is a really nice thing to use for yourself because inspiration isn’t about you. It definitely involves you and it’s something that you feel inside of you connect to something on the outside, but if you’ve been going through a long period of feeling nothing and feeling just indifferent you’re probably tired of yourself. I know I get tired of myself whenever I just feel nothing because there are times when I want to, but I am just too tired.

I think inspiration is a good thing to lean back on in moments like this because it takes you out of yourself, out of your mind, and you are inspired by something else around you whether that’s nature, a book, music, art something that is for you to discover that someone else made that you have nothing to do with.

Ambition

When I’m feeling apathetic, I think ambition is a nice thing to fall back on when you have been apathetic for a while. Just like I mentioned intention being a quick start to fix apathy, I think whenever you’ve felt nothing for a long time you can utilize ambition in this area. There’s a distinct difference between self-love and self-respect and I think with self love you allow yourself to sit and accept whatever you’re feeling and not judge yourself and I think that’s good for a little while, but I think at some point self-respect has to kick in.

Self respect reminds you that it’s okay to feel how you’re feeling and if you do feel indifferent is valid, but I respect myself enough to do something that is for the person I wanna be. The goals that I have are important and even if it’s 15 or 30 minutes of something for yourself that ambition is something to lean on to give you that kickstart. Whether that’s going on a walk, writing in your journal, reading 10 pages of a book, anything small towards who you wanna be whenever you’re in a state of apathy is ambition.