No, I’m not dead, although you’d be forgiven for thinking that I was. Hey, speaking of which, I was going to do a very depressing blog post for my first one back. I had various plans about what I was going to write about but they were all super depressing. I guess that’s just the type of thing on my mind right now. I had some good ideas lined up, with potential entries such as “A Life Less Pathetic” and “The Villain of the Story” and “4 Likes On My Last Facebook Post” being hot candidates.
However, I figured that hey, maybe writing about misery, hardship, worry, distress, fear, anxiety, stress, and anger just isn’t the way to start things off. So, I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide.
(If you knew that last sentence was from Lord of the Rings, give yourself a big ka pai!)
MEISTER PRESENTS:
“TIPS FOR LIVING”
or
“DEALING WITH THE ENDLESS DISAPPOINTMENT THAT IS YOUR LIFE”
Now, this isn’t going to be a post with a lot of grand, sweeping statements. This isn’t going to be things you’d put on an Instagram post with the background of a sunset. It’s going to be solid, practical advice that helps makes days better. I’m also going to try not to include obvious ones, like “exercise often” or “drink lots of water”. Those are kind of a given. These things are the things that have worked for me. Your mileage may vary.
1. Start Your Day With Stand Up Comedy – Or Whatever Makes You Laugh.
In the morning, I often start my day by throwing on some sort of comedy. For me, this is usually clips of stand up comedians on YouTube. Some of my favourites with good short clips on YouTube are Dara O’Brien, Jimeoin, and Billy Connolly. It doesn’t need to be stand up comedy though, you could throw on a short sit-com or similar.
I shouldn’t need to talk about how powerful laughing truly is – and if you can start off this way, it usually carries through the morning at least. Just be careful not to wake your flatmates with your belly laughs.
Dara O’Brien
Jimeoin
Billy Connolly
2. Hit Those Tunes
Music is encouraged at any time, but again, it works best for me in the morning. I often put music on during the drive to work, and it usually works pretty well. It’s important to note that often I don’t feel like music or singing when I first put it on, but forcing myself to sing often works. By the end of the half hour drive I am pumped up and feeling good. The caution for this one is with the sad tunes. Catharsis is good, but sometimes you can overdo it. Too much of The Veils maaaaay have adverse side effects. (Definitely go and check them out though, man they’re good.)
The Veils
3. Take a Shower
Honestly, this one sounds obvious, but it really does help. My days off are often my worst mental health days, and that tends to be mostly because I feel useless. In these cases, it’s often because I have gotten up and done nothing. While that’s not so much a problem in itself, not showering often tends to make things a lot worse. Also, if you have a bad day, I like to visualize removing everything about that day and starting fresh, so a shower helps with this, too. Just watch where you’re putting that loofah.
4. Fix, Clean, Organize, or Improve Something
Often my worse days tend to be when I don’t have a sense of accomplishment, and this one is key for, uh, fixing this. Fixing something around the house is best, but sometimes that’s not possible – either because nothing needs fixing, or you have the handy skills of a snake on crack. That is, no hands and drug fucked. That’s not really the best comparison, but I’m fuckin’ tired so it’ll do.
The other option for this is doing everyday life organizing stuff. My ex-flatmate had a theory – if you do even one thing during the day, you won’t feel useless. This can be as simple as cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry. This is also kind of similar to a saying we have in my group of friends: “didn’t do nothing”. Always do something. Drill the dangly bits.
5. Catch Up Your Contacts
If you’re anything like me, there are at least six people you need to text back at any given time. Man, not only is that super not cool, but talking to people about anything usually helps, so there are lots of reasons to do it. On the bad days, make special effort to catch up with someone, even if you don’t feel like it. Sometimes you might even improve their day, too.
At present, there are at least three people I’ve been meaning to contact, and man, I hope it doesn’t take me too long to get around to. My apologies if you’re reading this and you haven’t heard from me in yonks! (This goes double if your name starts with S).
6. Podcasts and Audiobooks Fix Thoughts
I’m an overthinker, often terribly so. I’ve also been told by several people that I take things too personally, and I’m sure this is also true. I find it is most common for me to dwell on these things when I am in bed, at night. I usually struggle to fall asleep, and my mind loves to have a party at these times. And by party, I mean pity party, cos I don’t stop thinking bad thoughts.
However! Podcasts and audiobooks are the solution for this. I now only fall asleep to one or the other, and it stops my mind from doing its own thing. Plus, it helps with learning, vocabulary, and writing. The only difficulty I’ve ever had with this one is that I sometimes get too into whatever is playing, and then I don’t want to fall asleep at all. I guess this could be considered a win.
Thanks for reading. Stay safe out there.
- Meister
The Meister Mentality 