Distractions for distress - #45
May these serve you well.
After my dream job turning into, well, a completely different job last Thursday, and then Roe last Friday, and then finding out my mom has a brain tumor last Saturday, I spent much of last Sunday staring at the ceiling. Our ceiling is beautiful. In the kitchen, in the office, in the bedrooms, even in the bathroom, the ceiling is notched pine. Unpainted, plain, just beautiful, knotty pine. I stare at it when I’m overwhelmed, and I think about the trees they came from. The birds that nested in them. The shade they provided. And what they now provide me.
After several days of just looking up at the ceiling, I could appreciate still having health insurance. I found some fight in the political despair. And my mom’s tumor was deemed benign, and non-urgent enough that she could take the trip she was so looking forward to and deal with the growth in August.
But I wore myself out. So instead of wearing myself out further, I wanted to share some of the distractions I’ve been leaning on.
The below piece on campsite reservations systems run amok. I love Cole’s newsletter as a dispatch on enjoying (or trying to enjoy) the outdoors. Plus if you’ve ever tired to book a campsite, you’ll read this and go “I fucking KNEW IT!!” which as a Capricorn, is my favorite feeling in the world.
Rewatching Chris Morocco’s Reverse Engineering. I imagine if you like Top Chef or Bakeoff or puzzles, you will enjoy this.
Dance Church. It is not church. It is not choreography. It is simply pure head-phoned joy and an amazing way to get out of your head and into your body.
Living in a different reality by pretending these are the originals.
When I’m really overwhelmed, I turn to my favorite spreadsheet (I told you I was a Capricorn.) It’s called “Take Care” and it’s simple: one axis has the days of the month, the other has the habits that make me happy. I tick things off when I do them. That way I can easily see if it’s been ten days since I read a book. Or five days since I went hiking. Or, you know, a month since I flossed. Whoops. But I print out this sheet, hang it in the bathroom, and it helps me take care of myself. You’re welcome to copy it and give it a go. Obviously you can change change the headers. What makes me happy is obviously not universal (spreadsheets.)
What do you do when you’re overwhelmed?
Whew whew whew. That is so much to absorb. Sending love to your mom. I've (weirdly) had three friends in the past three years that have had benign, slow-growing tumors removed from their brains. All were successful, all have recovered well, prayers that it will be the same for your mom. Thank you for "Dance Church"! And what do I do?
Whew. Well usually I go outside for a walk and try to feel my feet as they contact they Earth. If I can't do that (like last week when I found myself in a hospital room tethtered to an IV so I couldn't even go further than the door of the room) then I do a lot of breathing into parts of my body, especially my feet and legs. I sometimes use body scan meditations (all of my meditation apps have them - here's a free one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DTmGtznab4) because I find those calming. Actually I found the meditation app so so so helpful last week because just having someone else guide things is good when I'm reeling. And last year I learned the basics of Jin Shin so I will do different Jin Shin holds and breathe into them. This too was complicated by the whole IV thing, but I could at least do finger holds - which is as simple as it sounds. Literally just gently hold one finger at a time until you start to feel a regular, rhythmic pulsing in that finger, then move on to the next finger. (Alexis has lots of free videos on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheArtofJinShin.)
All the best to you in your trying situation. Perfect post for it! That's how you tend to business and be good to yourself at the same time. We may utterly disagree with the covers on your playlist but "whatever gets you through the night..."