OK,
I’m feeling the weight of the world at the moment and mentally railing about things which I have no control over (and a few that I do). During this existential …crisis I went wandering about the interweb and ended up here.
Watching jello fall at 6200 fps led me to here which made me realize that all the crap I’ve been worrying about is essentially self correcting over time or utterly beyond my present means to fix.
So, my question to you wonderful people is this; what event or thing has pulled you out of a funk unexpectedly. I’m pondering the absurdity of Life and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter…
Well, today I laughed so hard for so long with my best friend on the phone as she was telling me about how she took a toilet paper tube, tore it up, smashed it in her fist, and then it looked like a turd, so she, several times and with several different people, asked them if they did that, as she bent over and picked it up off the floor with her bare hand while they wondered if she’d gone crazy all of a sudden.
This is why she’s my best friend- she can literally take me from crying in despair to laughing as hard as I can, within seconds.
There is the dream where I’m fleeing a murder charge and I wind up at Aleister Crowley’s haunted cocaine palace. Fortunately Crowley isn’t there, but certain other people are and they aren’t very nice. Meanwhile my mother is on my trail. By the time she pulls into the driveway I’ve managed to get all the terrorists into the closet but the closet is a portal to Hell and when I go down I meet Stalin.
Stalin, shall we say, doesn’t have good intentions but at the last moment Lou Reed rescues me.
So I wake up knowing I’m forever beholden to Lou Reed. I hope this helps everyone keep their problems in perspective.
[Yeah, going a bit Koan-ish here. And, if by “funk” you mean my former depressive self from 30 years ago, then, yeah.]
The fallacy you are operating on is that things external to you impose their will upon your psyche. By allowing them to affect you (for good or for bad-doesn’t matter for the point I’m making), you have given your power over to them. You’ll never achieve true happiness this way-you always be chasing your tail so to speak, endlessly. Let the joy flow the other way-from inside you into *any and all *activities that you do, without exception (and even when you get mad about something, which is natural, you can laugh about it too and not let it get you off your game!).
I’ve recently managed to do just that (after several years of work on same), and frankly I think I might be like this for the rest of my existence. Every Day, Nirvana*.
*[Well, the political ad aside-sorry about that.:smack:]
I’ve suffered with chronic depression all of my life.
One week in college I was feeling down, and a biology major friend of mine came while I was at class and plastered bright, colorful pictures of sea slugs all over my dorm room door. He had described them to me before, but I never actually saw one, and he knew they would cheer me up.
I was absolutely delighted that such a thing exists in the world. In that moment it was like, ‘‘Sea slugs are a thing, and it’s going to be okay.’’
Eleven years later we are still friends, and when I graduated with my Master’s degree he made me this. When I’m really feeling like there’s nothing left to live for, I go look at pictures of sea slugs, and it helps to know they’re out there.
My dogs help me keep everything in perspective. They like food, and their family-pack, and a nice warm spot to sleep. They don’t worry about their double chins or their wonky eyes or how silly they look when they roll around on the floor with their paws in the air. I wonder sometimes how people who don’t have pets are able to be cheery all the time! (Of course, perhaps they’re appreciating the lack of muddy pawprints in the kitchen.)
Not to sound like a complete toadie … but, this place.
Last night I was in a right foul mood - just feeling sorry for myself and being all pouty and shit, so I started reading back on some of my subscribed threads.
This posthad me literally curled up on the floor fighting to breath I was laughing so hard. And I literally mean literally.
I’m not even sure I laughed so hard at it when it was first posted, but last night it just grabbed me and got me into a good mood. “I’ll give you 4/3 on the little fella” - priceless.
So, I suppose I should thank **jjimm **for keeping me on an even keel last night.
You make a good point John, but I’ve read enough D.T. Suzuki and the Tao Te Ching to realize that point and for the most part, I have avoided the trap of looking to external things to make me happy. At the same time we all have to be “open to the thrust of grace” to (mis) quote Bruce Cockburn.
The question I would put to you is what to do when those actions and thoughts that previously made you light just don’t anymore. That’s the reason I posted.
I also know from other reading that faking a smile ( or a good mood) will actually change your brain chemistry into putting you into a better mood. When I look at the injustices, stupidity, and sometime cruelty of people I impotently rage; and so I seek means to alleviate or take my mind off the issue. Now, quoting me “Give me the strength to change what I can…” is all fine and good but that doesn’t stop the feelings.
“Being heavy is easy, being light is hard”, is what comes to mind. How do people stay light?
BTW, The Cult has always been one of my favorite bands ( I know I’m dating myself…)
Actually, they all still do: music, nature, little kids, animals. They all seem fresh to me each time I see them. For example, off the coast here is a huge seabird called a gannet, which will do spectactular plunges at 60 MPH into the water after fish. I watched them for about 15 minutes today, and never get tired of watching them (tho having like 50 of them doing it at once is pretty mind-blowing). Yes this is something you have to mindfully cultivate, but once you do it will always seem brand-new.
I learned that when I was a cashier during my Dark Days-that actually helped because interacting with the public brought me out of my self-contracting ways of the time. I found that actually being sincere about telling customers to have a nice day really did work to keep the work pressure bearable and made me feel better too.
Again, you have the control over this, said events don’t. Yeah, I get pissed when I read the latest Repub glurge (I actually can only handle it in small doses), but I don’t linger on it for a single microsecond afterwards.
I thought I saw every ep of Big Bang Theory, but never seen the Hulk one. Sheldon is an asexual physicist who gets talked into having a date with a girl (played by Danica McKellar?) when Raj offers to give him Hulk Hands to date her. I did NOT even expect that reply from Sheldon!
The other hilarity was reading the reviews of CittyKitty, the toilet training cat program. How some cats were holding in their poop rather than use the toilet.
