The weather has been especially wet and cold this week. Think 30's and rainy. I have not felt inclined to spend much time outdoors. Stick season is in full swing. Nature's palette is a hundred shades of gray with a tiny bit of remaining rust thrown into the mix. My cat-like ways have me retreating indoors where it is warm and dry. Still, during the earlier part of the week, with the clouds low and heavy, the daytime felt like a blink in time. I was having a hard time keeping up with days of the week and I was beginning to feel lost and disoriented. I could feel that darkness creeping into my being. The weight of it felt like being stuck or trapped under a boulder. I can easily swing from hopeful to numb to desperate and alone.
The great news is that with a little self awareness and compassion, I can work to crawl out of those dark spaces just by choosing to participate in life. I have always felt that if I can do just one creative activity a day, my mental health thanks me for it. This week some of the activities that helped me crawl out of the depths of my despair were: gathering kindling in between rain showers, baking cookies with Beatrix while jamming out to JoJo Siwa (it makes her happy that I can take a break from my moody taste to enjoy her tweeny pop choices), making chocolate over the wood stove, tending the fire (love affair, right there), reading the book Wild Folk, and snuggling my dogs. Honestly, it is often the simple tasks of homemaking that work to keep my brain in that happy meditative place. The place where thoughts and feelings might come and go, but not linger for much of any time. It is easy to forget but simple to remember that it's often what we deem the mindless work that helps me find my mindfulness.
How do you crawl out of your own funky moods?
