Here’s something to occupy your mind: figuring out the reason two of your friendships just collapsed.
Build something, a bird house, a terrarium, a model ship.
Hah, thanks, but I know the reasons. One of them was my own doing, and the other is the culmination of a lot of mistakes. While I’m not distracting myself, I’m figuring out how I can improve myself so I won’t screw up so badly again.
That’s the most important thing that’s been said in this thread.
Mainly, I try to behave in such a fashion that I don’t need to be distracted from my feelings.
I don’t mean that in an obnoxious way. It takes experience (like you’re going through now) in knowing what kind of behaviors are going to lead to feelings of regret and then not repeating them. We’ve all been there before. I just found it much more useful not to be distracted from the uncomfortable things.
Anyway, I’d say that exercising is most effective for focussing one’s mind in the moment. And for me, drinking and pot smoking (usually combined with movies/music/TV) are most effective at releasing my mind from worry.
But, those are just escapes. They’re not actually techniques of addressing problems which is a more important thing.