Guest Post by Eric Peters
It is easy to get down when it seems that almost everyone you see looks sick. When society is ill – and you feel hopeless about it.
This happens to me, regularly. I think it is a sign of mental health to sometimes feel very down about things, given how things are. That is a normal response to a depressing scene. The sight of Freaks everywhere – who do not realize they are Freaks. Who look at you – over the crest of their Face Diapers – their eyes boggled in fear and wonderment that you don’t share their certain delusions.
It is hard to keep one’s equipoise given this. Given its ubiquity. Orwell wrote about it through the character of Winston Smith, in his famous novel 1984. He had Winston musing to himself about sanity not being statistical; i.e., that just because the whole world has gone crazy, it doesn’t mean you are because you haven’t.
The key isn’t so much to not get down – probably unavoidable, if you’re sane – but rather to not let them keep you from getting back up.
As someone who often gets down I thought it might help others similarly afflicted to relate how I keep from remaining down.
One, fuck them –
Profanity is vulgar but sometimes necessarily descriptive; no lesser word will convey the sentiment with sufficient gusto. Refuse to be beaten down by these vile people and the sad people the vile people are using as tools to try to keep you down, both literally and psychologically. Take heart in the fact that they have not turned you into one of them. It may have cost you – friends, family, your job. But you have kept your integrity as well as your sanity. Hold fast to it. And burn with resentment toward those who are trying to take it away. Anger can be a very effective muse as well as a restorative palliative.
Two, make your bed –
I instinctively did this, even before Jordan Peterson (very smart, very wise man) articulated it. I knew that by starting each day with order, the day felt less disordered. And so did I. The simple actions – getting up, making your bed, taking a shower and putting on clean clothes – help you to feel purposeful rather than dead in the water. An unmade bed, dirty sheets, clothes strewn all over the floor… makes it easier to just stay in bed or want to get back into bed.
Three, do something productive every day –
Whether it is mowing the grass or finishing a project you started or need to get started – like my chicken coop! – or just sending out your bills. It doesn’t matter particularly, just so as you’ve done something to make some headway. It is empowering to finish tasks that need to be finished and – important – it is how you avoid things needing to be done accumulating to such a degree that dealing with any of them becomes psychologically overwhelming. If you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do, don’t try to do all of them at once. Tackle one of them at a time. Then keep on tackling. The more you do, the less you’ll have to do – and the better you will feel.
Four, exercise regularly –
It isn’t just that exercise is physically healthy. It is psychologically healthy. The better you feel, the better you will feel about yourself. It is hard to be happy when you feel awful about yourself. When you look awful. When your clothes no longer fit – and you have to buy clothes that do. If that is the case, use your not-fitting clothes as an incentive. You fit in them once; you can – you will – fit in them again.
Do not upsize your clothes to fit.
Exercise also serves to structure your life. Routines – regular things you do on certain days at certain times – are another way to help order your life, which will serve to make your life feel less chaotic and depressing. It will give you something to do and something you know you should be doing. When you know you have something to do, something you know you ought to be doing, it is harder to just sit on the sofa and be . . . depressed. Get up! Go for a run – or just a walk. Go to the gym; take a class. Ride a bike. It doesn’t matter exactly or even how much – just so long as you do and that it is regularly done.
Five, eat well –
By this I mean eat good food in reasonable quantities. The eating of bad food – even more so than too much food – is probably one of the etiologies behind the wave of depression and physical sickness which afflicts so many people. I’ve learned – am learning more, all the time – about what has been done to food (e.g., the corruption of food, as via such things as the pervasive salting of practically all store-bought food with monosodium glutamate, a dangerous toxin; the metabolic effect upon the body of high fructose corn syrup, GMOs, etc.) and of the importance of eating as much healthy (fresh, natural, unmodified) food as possible.
I almost never drink soda or eat “fast” food. I have turned the FDA food pyramid on its apex and eat fewer grains and more meat. Try it yourself and see. You may find you think more clearly – and feel much better. This latter, in turn, will reduce your reliance upon pills – and that will make you feel much better.
There are almost innumerable resources, but as a start, I recommend (of all things) a book called No Eat Not Food. It seems like it’s for kids, but the message is for people of all ages.
Six, disengage –
Stop watching the TeeVee. It is radiating soul poison. No sane person can withstand being assaulted daily with hours of horror, almost all of it exaggerated but no less horrible for being so. The less you watch, the more you will see – of reality. That the world isn’t cracking apart. Death isn’t in the air. It’s nice outside; the sun is up and the weather is fine. Go outside – and turn that thing off. Go see a friend. Not on the screen of your smartphone. Go actually see your friend. Connect with people of like mind. See their faces.
It will affirm that sanity is not statistical – and that you are not alone.
via IFTTT
InoreaderURL: SECONDARY LINK