Chatter Post response
May. 13th, 2013 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serina_dsQuestion from this post: http://brigits-flame.livejournal.com/846092.html
"What do you do when you need cheering up?"
I'm usually a pretty cheerful person, so it's not often that I need cheering up. Mind you, that could partly be due to the fact that the things I do in normal life are often things that make me cheerful. Reading, listening to podcasts, cooking (and eating!) a lovely meal, baking a cake, talking to partners, cuddles, sitting in the sunshine. The normal, everyday, typical things in my life, things I call my happy-making activities.
For those days when the weather outside is dreary, and I'm feeling fidgety, and I need that extra effort to get to that mindset...well, first I meditate. I calm my body down, until I can feel every inch of my body (this is best done naked whilst on lovely soft fabric I've found). I listen to my heartbeat. I imagine sunshine pouring over me like lovely, warm, golden syrup. I bask in that for a while, and I remind myself of all the wonderful things in my life, and how very lucky I am.
Then I get up and do more of my happy-making activities! :)
"What do you do when you need cheering up?"
I'm usually a pretty cheerful person, so it's not often that I need cheering up. Mind you, that could partly be due to the fact that the things I do in normal life are often things that make me cheerful. Reading, listening to podcasts, cooking (and eating!) a lovely meal, baking a cake, talking to partners, cuddles, sitting in the sunshine. The normal, everyday, typical things in my life, things I call my happy-making activities.
For those days when the weather outside is dreary, and I'm feeling fidgety, and I need that extra effort to get to that mindset...well, first I meditate. I calm my body down, until I can feel every inch of my body (this is best done naked whilst on lovely soft fabric I've found). I listen to my heartbeat. I imagine sunshine pouring over me like lovely, warm, golden syrup. I bask in that for a while, and I remind myself of all the wonderful things in my life, and how very lucky I am.
Then I get up and do more of my happy-making activities! :)
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-13 11:45 am (UTC)I'm not sure. I think a big problem for me is *noticing* when I need to be cheered up; it's too easy to get stuck assuming that all those negative feelings are actually true.
But when something specific has gone wrong and I feel awful, I try to:
- take a complete break from it for a few hours (ideally a day), and do something else (read, watch a movie) to let my brain acclimatise to the facts and wash out the emotions without dwelling on it
- talk to Rachel, or my mother, or someone else who reminds me that people love me and I'm a worthwhile person even if this has gone horribly wrong
- be in sunshine
- don't let it write off my day completely -- even if I have to take a break, do something, even just routine household chores, so I have some momentum to continue tomorrow.
- later on, but not while I'm still upset, see if there's anything I still feel uncertain of and talk it through with someone