We're all very good at telling each other how and why we feel depressed etc. but we're not so good at telling each other what makes us better:
so here goes:
When you're low, what makes you feel better.
What makes you feel better in the short term and in the longer term:
For me:
Short term feel better things:
Long Term Things
so here goes:
When you're low, what makes you feel better.
What makes you feel better in the short term and in the longer term:
For me:
Short term feel better things:
- Exercise.. specifically running (outside if the weather's ok, or on a treadmill)
- Walking - hill walking... being on top of a hill or moutain in whatever weather makes me feel alive. Looking up at a hill/mountain and knowing that in a few hours I'll be up top, makes me excited. Getting to the top and I feel great for having achieved something I set out to do.
- Sex.. if it's good sex: I feel great for ages. Not so good sex: I feel good for a few minutes - but overall generally always feel better afterwards. This is much more true if the sex involves someone else (and not just myself) LOL
- Watching a good film - I have a couple of favourites that always make me feel better.
- Getting some really good music on and then cleaning the kitchen or bathroom - somehow other rooms aren't as rewarding when they're cleaned, kitchen and bathroom look best when they're tidy
- Sitting on sofa with my dogs - sometimes they piss me off when i'm down, but they're persistant and always wear me down
Long Term Things
- St John's Wort.. helps me stay "normal"
- Having clear, achievable goals: yeah it sounds like "therapy speak" but it really does help me stay focused:
- Eating properly: i.e. for me, no Bread, chocolate and not much sugar. No chips either (gives me farts) and plenty of good quality vegetables.
- Volunteering for my local MIND group (the mental health charity)- really does help me realise that in many ways I've had it easy - puts my whinging into perspectives at times, teaches me lots about myself and others, and damn it, just makes me feel like I'm doing something useful.
- Being Fit: feel dreadful when I feel unfit... notice how much happier I am when I'm fitter.
- Keeping busy.. less time to stress out, less time to get dragged down into my own little microcosm.
- Work: when I do good work I feel brilliant, when I don't do good work or fuck up, I feel terrible, but I do learn from it, and know that I won't fuck up in the same way next time. Knowing that I need to learn more in order to do my job better, means I always some more progressing to do (no one likes to stagnate!)
- Realising how far I've come in life... sounds a bit bollocks when I express it out loud but when I do sit down and realise just how much I've changed over the last few years (for the better mostly) it does make me feel happier in myself.
