Cheering charms

[pegkerr]

As a theoretical exercise, I am attempting to compile a list of things to do to cheer myself up. Feel free to add your own personal suggestions of things you think I might like.

•A balloon.
•A manicure
•A pedicure
•New makeup
•Ice cream
•You know that stack of stuff you have, either mental or physical, that you really, really want to do but it keeps getting pushed out of the way by important stuff like laundry, and bills, and cleaning out the fridge? Say to yourself, now is the time, and do one (or even more). (i.e., sew ribbons on ribbon coat.)
•Take a run/walk around the lake.
•Go to a gorgeous place and have High Tea.
•Throw a fit and scream in the shower.
•Go to a multiplex movie theatre--pay for one movie and sneak into another.
•Watch a Jane Austen movie.
•Think of wonderful memories of your family.
•Visit someone who has an infant and hold it.
•A candlelit bath with something soothing on the stereo.
•Reading a favorite beloved book
•Gardening
•Load CD player with favorite music
•Make tea
•Make coffee
•Add Baileys to the coffee
•Go out for coffee with a friend
•Read the "attagirl file" [my file of good reviews and positive response letters I've gotten about my writing]
•Send an e-mail to someone who's willing to "listen."
•Self-hypnosis
•Cook
•Pretend you are a tourist in your own town
•Getting a haircut
•Getting a facial
•Getting a massage
•Buy a magazine
•Buy a CD of the type of music I like which puts me in a really upbeat mood.
•Cut flowers and greenery, and then arrange them inside. Or get flowers from florist or farmers market and arrange
•Eat chocolate
•Go dancing
•Go for a drive.
•Make mulled wine
•Sit on my front porch and read (in nice weather) or just watch the wind blowing through the trees
•Light candles
•Listen to Prairie Home Companion
•Volunteer to do something nice for someone else (especially someone who would never expect it, and especially if you can do it anonymously. (There is some basis in fact for this; helping others is considered an effective way to counter depression -- like volunteering to read to someone, visiting an elderly folks' home, serving at a food shelter, that kind of thing.)
•Read the hilarious fan-fiction based on the work of a favorite author
•Yoga
•Meditate
•Make a collage
•Try something you have never tried before (Rock climbing at REI?)
•Try a new restaurant
•Browse a creative-type store: Bead Monkey

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

Once, as part of a college care package to my sister, I took just a 12 exposure roll of my son making silly faces and then one with him posed all sweet and innocent. It only cost $4 to develop single prints at the time and then I taped the edges together and folded them as an accordian. When she took it out of the envelope, it looked like this sweet photo of her nephew, then it unfolded to show him sticking out his tongue and making all those goofy faces at her. She still laughs about it.