Emergency measures

Some days you can’t escape it. Maybe it’s seeing that specific couple, or there’s no reason at all. But your head is clogged, and you need a plunger.

You tried out the methods above, but today it just won’t go away.

Even with the best training, when most days are perfectly fine and you can go several weeks being content, there can be a sudden relapse with a particularly bad day.

I have a secret stash for that. There are many stashes out there, but this one’s mine.

What emergency measures to use is up to you. Finding them might take as much as a full week of thinking about it, or a lucky break and realize hey, that works.

Me, I have a couple strong contenders for how to get me out of a mood. One is usable nearly anywhere: music. My moods are massively influenced by what I listen to, I don’t know how widespread it is, but music tends to plainly overwrite how I felt before. For good or bad, sad music can make me think about how things were so much better in the past and angry music can make me go from sleepy to ready for sports, while calm music makes me feel like the still center of the universe. Even at work when I can’t get a headset on, my imagination is strong enough that I can play a track or several until it gets me in the ideal mood and it’s usable anywhere.

My other method is old movies, it can’t be used at work for obvious reasons. Some I’ve already watched, others I have on the backburner, but I have an easier time immersing myself in stuff that hits the nostalgia vibe than more recent productions. I bloody love Tim Curry, watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue more times than I can count, and I will always have an enormous soft spot for the original Indiana Jones trilogy and the first Gremlins movie. Same for Jackie Chan movies. It’s not about the fights; it’s about the creativity and physical performance of his scenes that make my eyes go wide.

I put on one of these movies, and I’m off. Doesn’t matter how I felt before. And afterwards, I have that afterglow you feel after watching a good movie and still having parts of your brain processing it.

However, I’m very careful that this nostalgia doesn’t turn into melancholia. I know I’m receptive to the latter, and it’s suddenly like life has gone by. It’s a horrible state of mind, hence why I don’t overdo the nostalgia trips and always keep projects to work on that make me feel like I’m moving forward. When it comes to movies, I mix up old and new for that same reason, it’s easier to live a life where I can see new things that are worth it than to believe all the best stuff has been done and the rest is just a pale imitation.

Finally, if I’m home, haven’t worked the legs, I go for a run. I’m too tired afterwards to have any thoughts at all.

Relevant goals:

• Find your emergency measures, note them down. Some can be used anywhere, some only at home. List all of them.

• Try them out on bad days, note how well they work to narrow down your list.