I agree with this guy and Katriona!
As far as physically active responses, creative writing is recently helping a lot. (Shrink’s suggestion and for me a good one.)
Working out is always good, even though it’s a pain in the ass. I do a half hour five days a week, split evenly betwteen the treadmill and elliptical machine. If you can make the time I think it’s very helpful.
Oh, yeah, and drinking. 
I have a healthy dose of cyncism, but that also makes me pleasantly surprised a lot.
Bitterness is a waste of time, people are who they are. I don’t get mad at a bird for flying or a lion for eating other animals, by the same token what’s the use at getting mad at people for their personality. Just stay away from them.
Anyway, I can usually find a good side to just about everything, that’s what I do. And stay busy, find hobbies and interests, and pursue them.
I’m bitter and cynical about my job and co-irkers. Chevy Chase keeps me sane. Sadly, I’m not posting this all for a joke. I really do say “Merry Christmas” in my head a lot when I have interactions with my co-irkers. In a perverse way, it helps me not take things too seriously…and it means I get the last laugh even if that’s only in my own head.
A few things.
Knowing that it can always be worse certainly helps. No matter how shitty your life is, there are hundreds of millions of people who would, right now, love to trade places with you. Really, almost everybody who has ever lived had it worse than us folks tapping away on keyboards here.
Spite. There is so much fun to be had in pig-headed refusal to go along with the universe’s grand plan to grind you down. Be a human weed (or roach).
Drive fast with your windows open. Play loud music. Sing badly.
Mock deserving fools. Like the CEO or that guy in the left lane who is driving like complete shit while it’s snowing. Only when they are not around, of course, and where there is no chance you’ll be caught. Even more fun when it’s done collaboratively with friends and family.
Escape plans. Come up with elaborate fantasies about what you will do when you accidentally dig up a cache of pieces-of-eight or your boss finally goes for the record books and gives The Stupidest Directive Ever Expressed In The English Language and you quit in disgust. Maybe you’ll print a thousand copies of your favorite bitter song lyrics on every printer on the network, then do an interpetive dance on the big table in the executive conference room, before painting flames on your car with a Sharpie and peeling out in a cloud of tire smoke and gravel.
If it ever gets so bad that you just want to end it all, don’t. Instead, go do something completely different. Even if it makes no sense, is completely out of character, and is economically infeasible. Try to be the ex-computer programmer (or ex-cement truck driver, or whatever) who dropped everything and tried to run a combination parrot sanctuary/strip club/muffler shop in Aspen. Of course you’ll fail, but it will be loads more fun than the alternative.
I don’t do bitter and I’m not all that cynical, but as to the making it through: I had a vision once, when I was really low. Won’t go into detail, because that doesn’t matter here. The core of it was the word zwyzyr, which meant “the humor/laughter that lies behind and energizes all reality”. There were also kites.
Anyway, although I don’t take the vision literally, I do see it as evidence for the way my mind works. So, for me, cruising a bunch of webcomics every day is a sacrament. It might not work for you, but then, what the heck, it might.
What choices are there? Sure, life is pointless and etc. but here we are. Suicide is too much trouble, and probably wouldn’t work anyway.
I’m not bitter or cynical, so this may not help.
But I think you should spend a moment contemplating how ridiculously improbable is the fact that the atoms in your body are assembled into a sentient creature (let alone one capable of the luxury of bitterness). Your time as such is absurdly short, and you can choose how to use it. Choose wisely.
Yep. I see cynicism as the life raft that gets me through this believes-anything-you-tell-it world and, well, bitterness is just sort of the sunburn I get while on that raft.
I have the ability to switch my brain off and zone out. If I don’t think about it, it can’t bother me.
Denial and porn, porn and denial.
Expect the worst and anything else is a bonus.
I’m just waiting for the unavoidable day when everything goes finally to hell, and then I’ll get to be the one screaming: SEE? I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!!
Interesting question. I used to be bitter and cynical but now I think I’m pretty much the opposite. I fix the things I can fix, and I don’t worry about the things I can’t fix.
What’s different? Each of these are small things but the amount of benefit I get from them is disproportionately large. (I guess the cumulative impacts help.)
[ul]
[li]I have a dog who thinks I’m the greatest thing ever; it’s hard to be cynical when your dog is pestering you to scratch behind his ears[/li][li]I ride my bike to work every day (which has the dual benefit of (a) making my body healthier - fresh air and exercise, and (b) keeping me out of rush hour traffic, which I’m convinced makes EVERYBODY bitter and cynical) [/li][li]I have figured out various ways in which my diet affects my health, and removed things that my body didn’t like. This was a very long term process, and not always easy, but I can’t tell you how much it’s affected my outlook - when your body isn’t feeling right, it’s easy for your brain and heart to feel down too. I know that I can induce lethargy and depression in myself just by eating certain things. In general, I have noticed that people often feel a lot better if they cut back on refined sugar. [/li][li]I made a conscious decision not to spend time with people whose company I don’t enjoy. This seems pretty straightforward but I’m constantly surprised at how many people do not share my approach.[/li][li]I make occasional and considered use of various drugs with the right people[/li][li]I worked in customer service and I found that my job was so much easier (and my outlook better) if I smiled and acted pleasant to people, even if I didn’t want to or feel that they deserved it. This is true in almost every circumstance.[/li][li]I found a cool volunteer gig where I really felt like I was doing something useful, and where people were always happy to see me. Also it gave me perspective on my own life and problems.[/li][/ul]
Try to avoid things that suck and look for things that don’t suck.
Every six months or so I have to read “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie.
OK, it’s a bit dated (and the God stuff isn’t for me) but the sentiment is right up to date.
That’s poetic.
Besides the thought of my kids not having me around, I have some little tricks that keep me going and help me not be so bitter and cynical.
Music. Find your genre and rock out. Mine is R & B- ain’t nothing some Prince or Mary J. can’t fix.
Pets. Studies show they’re very beneficial to your health. I have a kitten and a cat and they are very stress-reducing. Snerk.
Sweepstakes. I started doing sweepstakes a few months ago- I fill out forms online (mostly automatic) for things like cash, trips, big TVs, etc. Once you learn the ropes it’s quick and easy. Right now I have about 40 that I enter every day and one or two one-time sweeps every day. I only do very legitimate name brand ones, direct from the sponsor’s website and I keep a separate email account for them. I will admit that I have not won anything yet, however, every day I wake up thinking that this could be the day I win that $5000 or that weekend trip to NYC. It probably sounds silly, but sometimes it’s just those tiny possibilities that keep me going- not just sweeps but it’s also a metaphor for the small possibilities of life in general.
Good food. Oh so comforting. I had to give it up recently and start making do with the fruits and the vegetables and the chicken and the fish, but if you are young and/or naturally thin, eat some macaroni and cheese or a steak, and you won’t be so bitter, I promise.
I’m quite cynical. To quote Donovan:
ie: Whatever I want out of life, it’s up to me. I can’t count on anyone/anything else. I’m not bitter, though…that’s just the way life has been for me.
sir, you are a god.
Or, as Edward Burns put it in The Brothers McMullen :
“I *like *being a pessimist. It helps me deal with my inevitable failure.”