🧵 Thursday Thread: "Weird trick(s)" for surviving turmoil and tragedy ...
We all know the usual advice around staying sane through an unfolding dystopia, but what about the less usual? The curious, off-kilter, maybe all-the-way-off-the-rails strategies?
I love Billie’s drawing this week! If only all chaos were so charming as our dogs getting into the recycling and other mischief.
The truth is, I can barely stand following the news right now. I can barely stand it.
Back during the height of Covid, my main strategy for survival was to bake cakes. Friends, I baked so many cakes my family couldn’t keep up with the job of eating them. “We need to do our cake work,” Billie used to say. Just a tiny sampling here, not even close to representative.
I baked so many cakes. Also, I perfected—and I mean, really perfected—my GF chocolate chip cookies.
I do still bake, but not to save my life like during Covid. Partly because I’m so much busier—the world might be ending, but it’s not shut down like during quarantine. Meetings, deadlines, obligations, nothing has slowed in response to the train wreck. It’s dissonant, the way everything keeps marching along “like normal” when it’s not.
So my coping mechanisms aren’t cake this time. Here are a few small ways—other than the obvious, like nature and family/friends/community, extra walking, extra sleeping, etc.—I’m keeping my head on (mostly) straight while the world spins off its axis:
Fire. As often as possible, I’ve been staring at flames (in candles, in our backyard fire pit, inside in our fireplace!). The color, light, and movement mesmerize me, the collapsing of logs, the sparks, the embers, the way it all keeps changing. This occupies my mind in a meditative way.
Purging. When my stress reaches peak levels, I dive into a bathroom cupboard, a kitchen drawer, or a section of my closet and start packing things up for the Goodwill and/or the trash. I swear that with every item I move out of this house, I feel a little bit better. Does it last? Not completely—the good feeling wanes—but it doesn’t disappear entirely.
Floss. Something about flossing my teeth feels … normal and in control, illusion though it is. It helps.
Music. Okay, this one isn’t weird—I know lots of us heal through music and are leaning on that now. For Jon and me, this has involved playing various songs over and over, singing along, learning lyrics, looking up concerts, finding new artists adjacent to the music we like, etc. Highly recommend.
Thrifting. I love perusing the Goodwill and Ebay for bargains. Dresses and other doo-dads for my grandchildren, sweaters for me, etc. I know this runs counter to the purging, but thrifting has always, my whole adult life, been a source of calm for me.
Sex. It kind of feels like Jon and I are clinging to each other for dear life, and I’m glad for it. Since we’re in our Writing Toward Pleasure intensive, this seems on theme.
How about you?
What are you doing to keep from losing your breath, your balance, and your mind right now?
Even if our strategies don’t work for each other, at least we can make each other smile, or even laugh.
And thank you for your incredible hearts.
Love,
Jeannine
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