Creature Comforts N°4

A relaxing little (late) Sunday self-care to replenish and reset yourself for the week ahead—from your Guardian Angel of the Lagoon.

Photo: Joana Abreu

I’m dumbfounded that it’s Sunday night. My days are mixed up because I was dealing with work stuff from 8am-5pm today. It was chaos. Have you ever had one of those days where everything that can go wrong, DOES go wrong? This special day, however, was incrementally more tolerable because I didn’t drink. And let me tell you—there were hundreds of glasses of champagne at this event.

A word about bad days

I’ve come to realize that nobody gives a rats ass if you had a bad day. Nobody wants to hear you complain. And nobody wants to hear that 2005 Daniel Powter song “Bad Day.” Look, it’s NOT your fault if the celestial bodies orchestrated a fucking awful day for you. It happens. It IS your fault if you let yourself stew in it for too long though. I’ve been struggling with this lately.

Consider what’s in your control—and what isn’t.

Life has been a struggle for so damn long that stewing in the struggle has become familiar. Even though it’s uncomfortable, maybe it’s also a slight comfort as well, just because it’s familiar. This week, I challenge us to pay attention—not to the shitty stuff, but—to our reaction to it.

When something challenging, shitty, exhausting, or annoying happens, try to view it outside of yourself. Pretend you’re viewing things through a snow globe. Shake it up. Don’t forget you’re the one holding the snow globe, and you can look elsewhere whenever you’d like.

On the Menu for the week of October 8, 2023

• Instead of expressing a complaint to someone, write it down on a piece of paper and then burn the paper (safely).

• Another more esoteric version of that: go for a walk. The beach or the forest or whatever. Find a rock. Pick it up and complain to the rock. Let it all out, then throw the rock as hard as you can into a river or canyon or ocean.

• Pick a time of day to clock your mood, and clock it every day this week. Think of it as taking your temperature. You could jot this down in your notes app, a notebook, a text, email to yourself, etc. If you’re in a good mood, notice it. Be thankful and enjoy it a little extra :-) If you’re in a shit mood, take note, and take a turn. Grab a coffee or go for a walk. Intervene.