There's plenty of reasons these days to be depressed or discouraged, and it's
always tempting when you feel down to seek solace in things that are
addictive or self-destructive (you know what I'm talking about). Here
are ten better things to do, that can also make you feel better:
Learn
Something New: Delve into and explore something useful or
interesting, something that will engage you, distract you, get you
thinking in new ways and new directions. Something to add to your
repertoire of talents or knowledge. From TH White's Once &
Future King:
| "The best thing for being sad,"
replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something.
That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling
in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder
of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about
you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the
sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn.
Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which
the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never
fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing
for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn--pure science,
the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime,
natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have
exhausted a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and
theocriticism and geography and history and economics--why, you can
start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty
years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing.
After that you can start again on mathematics, until is it is time to
learn to plough." |
- Talk It Out:
Find a sympathetic listener and just think out loud, get it all out. Or
just get together with someone you love and talk about something else
entirely, just to take your mind off whatever is haunting you, give it
a break. If you can't find someone to talk to, then do what crows do
when they're alone: Sing.
- Move:
Exercise. Dance. Run. Walk. Get on a train. Go drive somewhere you've
never been. Movement is calming, relaxing, inspiring. Rock-a-bye, baby.
- Move Forward:
Do the next step in some project. Start something you've been putting
off. Finish something. Get something done. Check it off and feel the
past receding.
- Play:
Spend time with animals or children. Play, run, lose yourself in the
products of your imagination. Exhaust yourself. Laugh. No competitive
stuff, just play for the sheer joy of it.
- Help Someone:
Do something small for someone else. Rake the lawn or shovel the snow
of a senior neighbour. Help someone obviously looking for directions.
Smile at strangers. Wave back at children. Give authentic compliments.
Do small favours. Send someone an unexpected letter or gift. Doesn't
even need to be explicitly appreciated. You'll know.
- Open Your Senses:
Listen to music and get lost in it. Go somewhere you've never been and
just take in the sights, sounds, smells. If you're stuck inside, watch
a travelogue, look at funny pictures, listen to comedians or children laughing or nature sounds or new music. Sense something new and you'll feel different, better.
- Flirt: Just for fun. It's marvelous therapy for the blues. But remember to follow the Oxford rules so you don't inadvertently get yourself in trouble.
- Create: Make something. Draw something. Cook something. Invent something. Paint, sculpt, compose, rearrange. Make it up as you go.
- Avoid Vexatious People:
Some people just can't help rubbing you the wrong way. Some people get
off on it: putting others down makes them feel better. Life is too
short to put up with such people. They should be made to wear signs.
Yeah, I know I haven't mentioned the two things that sad
people spend most of their time doing online. I'm not a big fan of
escapism, and I see far too much of it. Such a waste, such a cost, a
demeaning of time. We need you, blue or not, here, now, in this world.
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
