Tuesday, March 20, 2007

He gave me back my smile, but he took my camera to sell

What do you do on those days when your brain feels like an old sock? How do you snap yourself out of the fog?

I was getting pretty draggy for the past few days. I know that a large part of it had to do with the fact that it had been raining for several days in a row. My SAD lamp does wonders for keeping me coherent and not crying all day, but there's still a difference between cloudy and sunny days, I find. It also didn't help that I hardly moved around and I didn't leave the house. Oh, and I was also feeling really directionless and like I didn't know what I was doing anymore, academically-speaking.

Yesterday morning, I got frustrated with all of my dragging about that I've been doing. I talked things through with my goal group, and then did the following:

1. Played my Mary Poppins record;
2. Danced around the living room;
3. Ate a bowl of dilled carrot soup;
4. Bounced on my exercise ball;
5. Had a cheerful talk with the Crazy Mommy;
6. Phoned my mother;
7. De-cluttered the living room;
8. Cooked an elaborate supper.

By the time Chris got home, I was so bouncy that I think I frightened him a little.

Today, I tried to keep up the encouraging stuff, but start getting work done. The first thing I did when I got up was finish an editing project that I've been avoiding for a week. I printed it off and it's sitting beside me, finally off my conscience. Then, I walked to the post office, picking up a healthy snack for the walk home. Now I'm going to read through one of my books from my comps list, but force myself to move around while I work (I may sit on my exercise ball for a while again).

How do you get yourself out of a funk?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've started to keep a journal. If you were to read it, you would think, "wow, you really hate yourself, don't you?!" When I write, I only have one rule: what goes in the book stays in the book, and is not allowed to be carried around all day long. So, in order to de-funkify myself, I write it down, get it out, and move on. Some days are definitely better than others, and my journalling is sparse, but the bad days usually end up being therapeutic, because I give myself a way to admit my frustrations and work through them in a somewhat efficient way. When I don't get to my journalling, then it's a BAD day, which usually means I don't leave the house (i.e. skip class), don't eat properly, or shower, or do other normal, healthy things. Exercizing also helps a lot. I love my runner's high!

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Shannon said...

Getting out of a funk is the hardest ever. Usually I have to force myself to do something I don't feel like doing, at which I almost always have fun and start to get over my funk. The problem is, while in the funk I hardly ever force myself to do anything.

Hope the sun comes and chases away the funk.

krisluvswool said...

Sitting in my cheery office helps me feel better-- but I don't get to do that as much as I should. Otherwise, I have been in a funk for about, oooooooooooh, 4 months now. So I can't share any ideas ;)

Anonymous said...

When I am in a funk, I need to hang out with people. I find that by knowing in advance when I am likely to be in a funk (after class, when no one is around), I can plan in advance and avoid them.

If I am already in a funk, I go shopping.

Anonymous said...

I need to feel purposeful. Keeping busy - having things to do, places to be, people to see - helps me to not stay in a funk. I've realized that I need people - to be around other living human beings - in order to not get into a depressive state. Also, doing nice things for other people (like unexpectedly doing the dishes or cleaning the apartment for my roommate) sometimes helps - it makes me feel like I have purpose.