what do you do when you're feeling down?

[ZenGwen]

When I'm feeling down, I make a list of everything that's good for my mental health, and just go through doing all of it. Going through the list usually alleviates some of my worries AND helps me relax and have a good time. My last list looked something like this:

-Answer those emails I've been ignoring

-Sit down for a few episodes of Star Trek and some knitting

-Go see a movie, and hit the DDR machine at the cinema while I'm there

-Lift weights

-Sit in a cafe with a nice cup of coffee and a book for at least an hour

-Complete a piece of work for one of my projects

-Tidy my flat

-Sit at the computer with some badass music and games for a couple hours

-Take a hot bath

-Go out dancing with friends

-Go to Meeting for Worship

I need to make a habit of doing those lists every weekend, really.

[scott82962]

I do 3 things, maybe not all of them each time I'm feeling blue/out of sorts, depends if it's more a stress-blues or emotional-blues. Here they are:

1) Do something nice for someone. I gave an umbrella to someone standing in the rain many, many years ago and I still feel good thinking about it. Open a door for someone and just say Your Welcome when he/she says thanks. Make a cashier laugh.

2) Dead lift. If you can't face 60 minutes in the gym just do a couple sets of dl's. Heavy dl's.

3) Verbalize your gratitude. I do mine in the form of a prayer, which is especially cool/wierd because I'm an atheist. Here it is, "Heavenly father, Mother earth, Brother sun and Sister moon. Thank you for the gift of life and thank you for the gift of this day. (Then I just add whatever else pops into my head that I "have"... kids, food, health, a car that works, etc.)

Oh yeah, one more trick I learned from a nephew. Sit down in front of the t.v. and try to do 300 pushups in a half hour. That's almost 10 per minute...I've never even come close but I keep trying.