I caught myself (pun intended) mumbling words from Paramore's song "Turn it Off" when I was exhausted while playing tennis with my dad in the heat quite recently. The lyrics I sang go like this: But turn it off in all my spite In all my spite I'll turn it off And the worst part is before it gets any better we're headed for a cliff And in the free fall I will realize that I'm better off when I hit the bottom I think the fact that I love the song, the lyrics' meaning and that it took my mind off what I was doing was what made it so potent. I would only have lasted half as long if I hadn't been singing it, I'm sure, and it was memorable enough that I still remember it now that a month has passed. My question to you is what do you do to cope with pain, sleepiness, boredom, sadness or hardship? Do you sing, like me, and if so what do you sing? Do you think about the beach? A loved one? The bright future that surely lies ahead if you can only keep going for one more week? Or do you drive fast in your car (oh, man, that was a bad one)?
I believe the Creator of the entire f*cking universe knows my name and wants the best for mankind and any adversity laid down in front of me is an opportunity to grow and become stronger. Or, when that fails, I do as @thirdwind does.
I tell my husband about it and he always manages to make it better - usually through some combination of food, alcohol, husbandly duties and coming up with solutions I hadn't thought of If that doesn't work (for example if he is the cause of the sadness!) I tend to go wild in the Kindle bookshop, then take myself to a nice cafe and have tea & cake and read all day. Basically, a cozy form of indulgence always works for me.
I turn to work. My favourite, obviously, is writing and I do that almost every day. There's also always a long list of jobs that need doing, chores, or preferably, projects on the go that I could spend a whole anxious, dreadful day, immersing myself into and forgetting all about it. Playing with my dog and cat, reading, gardening, singing, dancing and qi gong also help.
I talk to my friends. If that doesn't work I start listing a bunch of good things that have happened to me over a given time interval (say I might try to pick 3 good things that have happened to me in the last day) and focus on that handful of good things rather than the negatives. They don't even need to be really good things, just something that made me happy or puts a good spin on a bad situation.
Writing, playing music, and dancing would be my top three. If things are really stressful, I go into sleep mode.
That's probably because they're both Paramore references; "I Caught Myself" and "Fast in My Car" are both names of Paramore songs.
Interesting. I see that several people use alcohol for this. Personally, it depends on exactly what I'm dealing with. Sometimes I try to detach myself from the situation, sometimes I look at it from a different angle, and sometimes I try to transform a negative feeling into something more positive (anxiety can become excitement, for instance).
I draw things on Microsoft Paint. They're not web comic quality, or anything I'd want to submit to an animation studio, but they're decent enough for me to calm my mind. I found that it's not the adversity that causes stress, it's my reaction to it that causes stress.
I try to remember when I made it through some other adverse time. If I got through that, I'll get through this.
I was sort of half-joking with my alcohol comment before. More than anything, I've changed my way of thinking. The following story can explain it better than I can:
