An often overlooked but essential ingredient in a good life is spontaneity. Without it, we may suffer from an excess of orderliness, caution and rigidity. We haven&#39;t danced in a long while.
A more spontaneous life means that we will be more impulsive in expressing emotion and thoughts. In our work, we might embark on a potentially life-changing initiative sooner than we imagined. In our leisure time, we might start to write a collection of recipes or poems.

Spontaneity could explain low-level sadness

Self Improvement

We stay fixed in our familiar spot because any movement out of the known and calculated is experienced as intensely dangerous. We ruminate too much because we are trying to exert control. We seldom act, out of fear of making a huge mistake.
Spontaneity is a potential within all of us. It is almost always something we have lost because circumstances have stripped it away from our characters.

We are rigid, because we are afraid

We’ll continue not to be spontaneous until we can understand how and why being spontaneous once felt so dangerous. 
We should recognise that many of our inhibitions are no longer necessary - that we can relax from whatever fear we felt as children. We can prepare areas of great order and logic but then allow for moments when we relax, feeling safe in the knowledge that not everything is at stake. We can try to dance a little or take off without too much of a plan.

Becoming spontaneous again

A More Spontaneous Life - Articles from The School of Life, formally The Book of Life, a gathering of the best ideas around wisdom and emotional intelligence.

On Talking Horizontally -The School of Life

On Despair and the Imagination

The Role of Love in Mental Health