I know the feeling.
It seems like everything’s out of reach. You spiral and things get existential and a teensy bit scary.
Let’s put a stop to that because the way out needs only to be a small window.
Here are some tips for turning around your day:
Read five pages of any book.
Get your mind off your worries and into a fiction story.
Five pages give you enough to redirect your attention and to decide whether you might want to keep reading.
Reach out to someone you otherwise would not.
Heck, make it a party and reel off ten messages to ten different people. A lot of feeling glum has to do with disconnection.
Connecting with real humans is energising. Your network is nourished like a plant.
Speaking of plants…
Water your plants, or get new ones.
Buy flowers. Get a plant. Start a little garden on your balcony.
Bring nature IN.
Learn something completely unrelated to your problems.
Watch a 10-minute YouTube video about how cheese is made, or why octopuses have three hearts, or how ancient Romans built roads.
Curiosity is often the antidote to rumination.
Your brain can’t obsess over your life when it’s busy absorbing random, fascinating facts.
Do the one good habit you’ve been avoiding.
Often, giving in to a bad habit can put us in a bad mood.
We said we wouldn’t, but we fell for it. Now we feel crappy. So balance that shit out with a good habit. Go to the gym for 15 minutes. Clean the kitchen. Tidy your bed.
Something good.
Do something that scares you slightly.
Call that person you’ve been meaning to call.
Sign up for that class.
Send that email you’ve been drafting for weeks.
Fear and excitement are the same physiological response. Your body can’t tell the difference.
Channel that nervous energy into forward momentum instead of letting it eat you alive.
Leave the house and go for a walk.
Many bad moods are the result of stewing at home, in the dark in your underpants.
Walks give you something to do, your mind stills, and you’re on an adventure.
“Short walks solve 47% of your problems.
Long walks solve 89% of your problems.”
Create something, even if small.
It’s great to chill, but a lot of chill comprises consumption, rather than creation.
And over-consumption is the reason so many humans are miserable. They aren’t putting their human-driven creativity to good use.
Paint, draw, write, build.
Write a big, badass list.
There’s nothing quite like writing an exhaustive list of ideas that demonstrate how creative and audacious you can be.
Prompt your mind with a juicy question (like: What are 20 audacious goals for this year that excite the crap out of me?) and write down everything that comes to mind without censorship.
Dance like a crazed chimp on crack.
Good moods erupt when we loosen our hips. I’m not joking.
Most of our fears, insecurities and trapped sadnesses dwell in our joints.
When we dance and allow ourselves to be goofy (ideally to twisted German techno), it’s like signalling to our nervous systems that we’re better. We’re no longer succumbing to our own fabricated woes.
We’re beyond that now.
We’re ready to take on the world again.
Get angry.
Wait, Alex, how can you say that? Isn’t that aggressive and a little rude?
No, I’m telling you: get aggressive.
You’ve had enough, and you know it. Now is the time to take a look at the crappy patterns that have shown up in your life.
Now is the time to ride the wave of your frustration rather than to be smothered by it.
Draw a line in the sand, and make a fresh commitment to a new phase. A healthier, more dedicated phase…
What’s next for you?
If you’re done taking everything so seriously and want to rewire your mind to enjoy your life in less than a few hours…
You might like my Untethered Mind course.
This course guides you through a series of necessary insights about your thoughts to quickly reduce self-criticism.
When you overthink less, you’ll find it far easier to enjoy your life, bringing a creative energy to what you do.
And join us to support me and unlock all the locked archives:
Hi Alex. I love, love, love these suggestions. You are so right about curiosity moving us to a new perspective, dancing to great music, making a giant list, trying something that scares us a little, reaching out to someone and all of the things you mention. I regularly write and speak about these activities and mindsets that change our chemistry and our outlooks, too. As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression and had for years (and has been on medication for years, too), there are still some days that I, unexplainably, get into a funk and know I need to do all of these kinds of mood-changers that you (and I!) write about and know to be effective.
What I have written about too, and truly wonder about, is the initial motivation needed to do these things, when we are in the depths of it. You know what I mean? Like... what we need first, in order to watch the show about the Romans road-building, or sign up for the class, pick up our phone and reach out to a friend.
One thing that helps me move into the mode where I can actually approach doing these things is fresh air. Sit outside and breath. Watch birds.... Another is great music. At least sitting and listening to it. Sometimes this helps me move onto the dancing to to it, or then getting my phone. For me, it's that initial struggle to get out of bed to do ANYTHING on those really dark days, and what the motivation is for that. Any thoughts on that? I love your stuff!
They really have 3 hearts?