Skip to main content

A Few Bits and Bobs: little things to improve crappy days

My musical finds, read on to find out more...

Good morning folks! I hope you're all well. Currently, things aren't too great with me. I've been struggling a bit with the gigantic mess that is life and have been struggling not to use my rubbishy and maladaptive coping techniques. Therefore, I am writing this post to remind myself of things to that help when things are a little crappy, and to impart my wisdom (a bit presumptuous maybe? I'm hardly wise) on matters concerning mental health. Let's get to it!

A Small (Musical) Pleasure

This little tidbit is one of my ultimate favourite things to do, and one that I'd not done for quite some time until recently.  It is... Blind-buying CDs (or vinyls, if that's your jam)!

When I was a teen (oh, those many years ago...), I blind-bought CDs nearly every week and I was nearly always pleasantly surprised. I made my choice purely using the logic of who had the-coolest-band-name or a-bloody-awesome-CD-cover. I always chose bands that I'd never heard of, in attempt to remain blind in my choice and to expand my musical horizons. It's just so fun, unwrapping each CD, the anticipation so exciting for what was to come. The click of 'play' on my CD player never sounded so good.

I found We Are Scientists, Elbow (it was ages ago, okay?), Crystal Castles and most recently, Irit, through this method and they have come to hold special places in my heart.

Honestly, just give it a try, you never know who you might find!

A quick pic of today's outfit! I felt very confident in it.

A Self-Improvement Day 

I must say, I don't have fabulous self-esteem (does anyone?) and seem to be perpetually aware of my flaws and faults. But! I don't let this get me down. Instead, why not join me in taking (the new version of the self-care day) a self-improvement day? Inspired by Lavendaire, I recently wrote a couple of lists: my (few) strengths and my (many) flaws. Drawing from this, I began to brainstorm how I might improve upon and work on my newly listed flaws.

For example, one of my flaws is that I have a terrible temper and can be quite fiery at times. I then countered this by proposing that I attempt to leave some time between the initial anger trigger and my response. I would remain silent for a few moments and try to consider how I could act differently. Say my mother, or whoever, has a go at me for something housework-related, instead of snapping, I would simply say 'okay' or apologise. Saying sorry is a big step for me. I'm not very gracious.

Anyway, this tip can work for many things: say you want to be more hard-working, spend the day making a work-related plan, maybe a five-year goal list or ways to improve your work ethic (like removing distractions and outlining exactly what you want to achieve, incentives and all!), or even just spend the day doing the work you've been putting off.

Perhaps you want to be more worldly or skilled in a particular area? In that case, you could spend a day researching current affairs and world events or take the first step towards learning said skill. The world's your lobster!

This depiction of what goes on in my mind is pretty creative, in my opinion!

A Creative Mindset

Not good at art? Writing not your thing? Playing/composing music sends you into a fit of panic? If you answered yes to all/some of the above, I have an idea for you: why not enter into a creative mindset?

You might be wondering what I mean by this, I shall explain. The mind is our greatest tool, our most precious attribute, and what's more it's infinite in its possibilities. You can think (until you're dead, of course) to your heart's content, so exercise it. Think abstractly and think freely. Think of something, anything, and let the idea form into whatever it was destined to become. It often helps to walk when thinking, so you can exercise both mind and body. Don't be afraid to ruminate, sometimes new ideas can come from old thoughts. Remember things, indulge in nostalgia. Record what you find, even if it's just 'I had fish and chips for tea today', and it's okay if it feels idle sometimes. Ultimately, the mind is a treasure trove. You never know what you might find. So go explore!

Coffee is my all-purpose cure!

Right guys, I've shared some of my ideas for crappy days, I hope you enjoyed them. Thank you very much for reading my blog. We all know that life isn't always great, but we can exercise a degree of control over how we react to life's down days. Enjoy the rest of your day (and follow me on instagram if you like @jumper.dweller)!

Over and out!




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not-Dinner-Party-Appropriate: anecdotes from the mental hospital

 I feel like a time traveller. I've awoken in 2021, sleeping through a pandemic and my teenage years, now in my mid-twenties. I have no dinner-party-appropriate anecdotes. Only mental ill-health with bouts of questionable wellness. I have been in four different mental hospitals, which I predict could be four more than most people. No one talks about it, including me. Like, at all.  Whenever someone talks about mental illness, there is this most impenetrable silence, followed by: 'I knew someone who was depressed once.' Or a casual, almost nonchalant change of subject. I mean, we talk about mental health a lot - how to keep it afloat, how to do 'self-care' in a commercially-assisted sense. It's all body butters and face masks.  I don't like it when people reduce preventing mental illness down to looking after yourself or not. That is a large part of it, a whole team of people looked after me at my worst. Most things cannot be made better with a face mask.  It
3 comments
Read more

Imposters: a story about a Capgras delusion

  It's cold. I'm always so cold. My hands quiver blue and wrists bloom purple, after days of bang, bang, banging my wrist on the arm of my chair. I don't think I'm okay, but I don't think I'm not okay either. I think, I think, I think I'm breaking. I am on the children's ward. I have not seen my real parents for months. Some strange people visit sometimes. I hide from them. They are not my parents. They are often nice and I begin to trust them, then they'll do something off-kilter and I shy away again, like a beaten dog.  I had climbed out of a window, bawled through the lane outside the house and taken solace at a friend's home up the road. Gently I was led back to my childhood home and bundled into the car, driven to the hospital and admitted in hopes of finding a way to avoid another inpatient admission. We couldn't find one.  I arrive at the unit, brittle. Last time I was in this position, I had a home, but now I'm adrift. My parents
2 comments
Read more

Section three - a mental hospital anecdote

  There is so much that I can't tell you about my third admission, so much I can't remember. Illness blurs the details and the privacy I owe to my friends erases the daily minutiae of the unit. In short, I had been sectioned - section three, six months. A treatment order, that in retrospect, could probably have been avoided. Or maybe that is just what I like to tell myself when I think about it late at night.  I had found myself in a field, shivering in the early evening sun. It was July, I was in love, but still very, very ill. I had been taken on four occasions to our local accident and emergency department that week. I was, as I read later in my unit-admission report, 'no longer manageable in the community'. I was sad, but determined. I was determined to make an exit any way I could. Instead I was flown to Woking, heavily sedated - so much so that I have no memory of the journey there and was deemed 'unresponsive' in my admission interview.  I digress. So man
Post a Comment
Read more