We've all been there. What got you through it?
I'll start - for me, it's always been music and potatoes.
Surprising nobody, my answer is books.
Friends, another supporting human (cuddling!). Being grateful for everything else that is right with my life, or trying to remember the things I have the power to change, and focus on changing those. Comfort food is nice! My go to is either pho or nachos.
What's your favorite form of potatoes?
Beer 🍻 comfort food 🍔 music 🎶
Mmmmm potatoes. Video Games and fries
Hamster on a piano. Eating popcorn, on a piano. 🐹 🎹🍿
I reflect on how, at the core of things, existence is a bleak charade for sentient creatures. Furthermore, for mankind, the goals of being happy and content are exercises in futility that have been fabricated by a species with many gnawing needs—needs spawned from an overactive consciousness and that are, on a terrestrial and cosmic scale, utterly without importance. Many people would claim otherwise, perpetuating a conspiracy of fulfilment and joy for the sake of appearances, all while rushing towards a red light—the void.
This sort of thinking helps me. If the suck is inescapable, what can one do, truly?
@tashy Great question! If I had to say just one thing it's my dog. But also friends and certain pieces of music.
@UltimateChungus Of course I disagree with what you say. I believe that, mankind having evolved to be able to do more than just survive and reproduce, we as individuals should use that extra mental capacity to make our time on this planet as fulfilling and loving as we can. It may be of no importance or serve no purpose on a terrestrial and cosmic scale but it is to me as an individual. How long we will have that luxury I'm not sure - sometimes it feels like mankind is on the back foot these days.
@Plato33: Is that really a disagreement, though?
The satisfaction and enjoyment I get from a book is completely unimportant and purposeless in the long run—you agree with that, right? Eventually everybody dies, the universe itself ends, and it doesn't matter how much fun I had reading Brandon Sanderson.
@UltimateChungus isn't saying our joy is meaningless to us—just that it's meaningless ultimately. Which it is.
Now, me, I find more comfort in looking at the selfish short term (wherein my pleasure matters) than on the non-self-focused long term (in which it doesn't). But that's a personal preference thing, and doesn't change the facts. Which we agree on, right?
In the long run, nothing matters.
In the long run, there won't be anything for anything to matter to!
@DarrenWalker You are right, and so is @UltimateChungus - in the long run / cosmic level nothing matters. It's a matter of outlook and what we chose to focus on - I chose love!
@Plato33: Yup—whatever works for you.
Usually dark chocolate. Good music or good humour helps as well.
Edible gummy bears.
@spuds are there non-edible gummy bears?
For me it's escapist TV, rock/metal music and food. Unfortunately I rely on food for the most minor inconvenience and it's turned into full blown disordered eating over the years.
@BuggleBear I think he means THC infused Gummy bears...
Also yes it was one of my fave cartoons as a kid (I STILL have the theme song memorized, I was actually singing it at work earlier lol)
@LyleLuvsHuggles ohhhhhhhhhhh! That makes sense. I'm not overly familiar with terms like 'edibles' - I don't think we really have them in the UK.
@BuggleBear I wouldn't know the culture for it in your neck of the woods, Amsterdam and Iceland are about as close as I've gotten lol
Hot Chocolate, Hot long Bath and music that I can dance to. Works every time.
Less than inspirational, but I'd have to say it's the fact that I'm so used to everything sucking that it simply doesn't bother me all that much any more. shrugs yay unhealthy coping skills?
I once met a lady who told me about her worst day. She was married with young children. On the same day:
At 10pm that night she happened to be standing by the front door, having just seen the last visitor off the premises. The husband was in hospital and was expected to live. The children were staying with neighbours and the boiler man appointment was booked. The funeral arrangements were in hand. She hadn't had time to tell anybody about the cancer, or the job, but that would keep till tomorrow.
The doorbell rang, and unthinkingly she answered it. It was her husband's 14 year old son from a previous marriage. She had met him but didn't know him. He said, very simply, 'Could I sleep here tonight? It's just that my mum says she doesn't love me any more and I have to find somewhere else to live.'
(When I met her six months later, the boiler was fixed; the cancer was in remission; she had a new job; the husband was home and able to walk; and the mother was still dead. The boy had become very quiet while living with them but was about as sane as you might reasonably expect him to be.)
@CuddleDuncan Thank you for telling us about this account from your life. A good reminder that nothing is constant - neither joy nor sorrow, a good reminder not to be over prideful during the 'good times' and not to be over sorrowful during the 'bad times' because things will change. Also, actions have consequences so the change might depend on that too.
For me, personally, my hope in God sustains me when everything around me 'sucks'.
I would say my loved ones, my relationship with Spirit, and beautiful art - whether music, visual art, poetry, or films.
@BuggleBear Yes, I was talking about THC infused gummies.
I too enjoy the ultimate "nothing matters" but it's especially delicious when combined with the converse. I like that paradox and it's what orients me to the moment in a good way. Since nothing ultimately matters, and I'm going nowhere, and I'm here, why not sink my whole heart into it?
Try to do things I enjoy, see people that I care for and, inevitably, a new day comes and it ends
Chocolate
A fuzzy blanket and a nap.
I remind myself that suffering is temporary because life is temporary.
My faith.
Do not worry, it won’t last, nothing does.
Weighted blanket