I haven’t started cuddling yet but I do have habits I’ve developed to stay in a peaceful, loving frame of mind. I meditate every day using the app Headspace. I say affirmations and gratitudes every morning that I learned from an online class by Louise Hay’s HayHouse Institute titled Loving Yourself: 21 Days to Improved Self-Esteem with Mirror Work. It taught me how to give myself that sense of being loved by looking in the mirror and honestly telling myself “I love you. I got you”. And it works. Because after this class I do love that guy in the mirror. And I’ll be with him forever. Yet I’m not able to cuddle myself in the mirror. I’ve tried. ?
checking out nature is very therapeutic sometimes if you're at all into the nature scene. meditation around nature just makes it that much better.
@stellarosass - Sometimes I walk to our local lake and sit on a bench overlooking the water. I take my binoculars and see what birds I can spot. We get herons, cormorants, coots and several types of ducks. There are also lots of turtles in the water that occasionally pop their heads up. Unfortunately, it's too hot at this time of the year to go out.
Oh wow.. I wouldnt mind meditating under view like that one every morning
Gym is good or listening to Bob Marley or Enya.
@Ukguy, by any chance did you take that lake view picture?
@UKGuy :here’s a heron for you I scared him from his fishing spot . I get all kinds of wading birds , shore birds ,waterfowl , turtles come up and lay their eggs , I have a kingfisher nesting on my creek bank. I hear the marsh hens ( rails) cackle at night ( you never see them )
@choicesvital - Yes, I took the lake photo, it's the lake where I live. The lake is pretty large and there are many different spots where you can sit and admire the view. But it's well over 100 degrees outside at this time of the year, so it's not pleasant to linger outside for long. I've seen many different kinds of birds there, ducks, cormorants, herons and egrets.
@ukguy, thats a very professional looking photography! Plus a soothing one too.. Awesome!
I like to get away from the city and head to the forest for a full pack hike with the versatility of turning it into a camping trip if I'm not ready to return that day.
Or I'll load my dogs into my truck and take a 4 hour drive into nowhere land to see my parents for a weekend and put some work in on another old truck I have at their place.
If I can't get away I'll head to the indoor shooting range and practice on targets for about an hour. There's something meditative about controlling your breathing, your stance, concentrating on an object, calmly making adjustments, until everything is in sync and centered. My zen.
Either way, for me it's getting out of the city and closer to nature or to your roots, or finding a balance to daily stress by focusing on positive stress activities.
@Bobby_M82 " There's something meditative about controlling your breathing, your stance, concentrating on an object, calmly making adjustments, until everything is in sync and centered. My zen." I used to to this with my compound bow till the day my appartment was robbed. I haven't ever replaced my bow, so it's been a while.
@galowglass, I'm sorry to hear about getting robbed. I know the feeling too well. For me it was all my craftsman handtools and some power tools out of the trunk of my car the night the parking lot lights didn't turn on at my apartments.
It depends on what may also be affecting me. I usually read or blast music to lose myself in the characters, emotions being conveyed by either or the noise.
However, if I'm sick, I get scared or lonely easily. So, I'll put on a favorite movie - something slow-paced and meandering for the sake of my brain (if I choose to actually comprehend it instead of using it as background noise). It's like having someone there. Then, I rest. Cuddles would be preferred but this works in a pinch
Conversation with actual adults with something to say is great.
Music, and distance.
@UKGuy that's such a beautiful scene! i wish i could touch the water!!
Your browser does not support HTML5 video! https://i.imgur.com/IOzwcxF.gifv
@galowglass , I am so addicted to it.. I recently paid 65 for 1 hour of scalp head massage at Thai massage place close by.. It was trans state experience..
I chill with my cats. I’m also a slight insomniac so unfortunately to chill I need some Trazodone, sometimes Ambien as well...and even with those, I’ll sleep for like 3hrs, wake up and can’t get back to sleep.
There is nothing good to do at 4 AM. I can’t call friends, everything on cable is stupid infomercials and there’s no where to shop because no one no one is open.
I just try to do something that gets my mind off of whatever is causing stress for me, sometimes that's taking a nap or thinking on random memories that make me laugh.
@BewzyBear I agree dancing helps with depression! I love being at a nudist pool and adults only club, but no pole dancing for me! Adult only tropical vacations!
@choicesvital , I do want to acknowledge the piece you did. I did notice immediately that it was two cute cuddlies. If indeed you "free-handed" the shapes even just choosing a pattern, I am doubly impressed as I have a hard time making stick figures look like sticks! When I look at that word art, it makes me think of the people on this site, it reminds me much better that a scribbled list that if my way of decompressing isn't working there are alternatives. Plus, I am becoming close to some of you on here so it has a fond connection also. Put cocaine or heroin in just because our lovable sidekick mentioned it a few times! Creating a memory of someone trying to elicit a smile on a thread about relaxing.
@cease2exist , how creative and special memory creating, it touches all bases really; the need to be known, the need to acknowledge that someone matters to you, and a great stress reliever for yourself. I have 3 grown children who are all gone from me now but my very nature is a nurturing, affirming individual needing a steady diet of physical touch. So even though my kids(man, woman, woman) are all grown, married/dating, grandchildren; they still miss each other. Where I'm going with that is, when they were young tv wasn't our fall back. I was mainly a single mom and broke, cable was a luxury not a basic; cuddle time, hiking, camping, creating music or plays to be performed, is what we did. I made a collage or two of some of our trips and one of those just resurfaced again over 10 years later! They all want it in their homes, they miss the memories that it creates just with a quick glance. That smile it brings to their faces, a feeling of being part of a larger group, a shared experience; and now reliving it as they tell the other people in their life about it! Giving my grandkids and my son-in-laws the chance to be indoctrinated into our special kind of unique craziness that is our family without having to be here! We all have that collage memorized - there is even a phone pic or two of it going around, and all anyone has to say is remember the... and it all comes back to us and we aren't so far away from each other anymore!
In our insular, selfish world it is so easy to begin to feel insignificant and disposable. When we finally choose to look up from our screens we see a dusty lonely place with no other meaningful human interactions. Oops, we better fix that, so most of us start looking for a human connection, and do a frantic clean of our space because we don't want anyone coming into this mess; but can't readily find one, so we get desperate and look harder, try harder, create more anxiety for ourselves. Until we finally give up, feel the siren song of that rotten device and succumb to the insular again.
Collages are so special, so meaningful, you indeed are creating a special place in their home. You will always have a special place, but even more so; when that person again looks up from that screen and wonders where everyone is, if someone in their life cares enough to ask about it, you will be shared with the new person, those wonderful memories. All of a sudden there is possibly one more person in the world who wants to know you, to meet you; expanding your sphere of friends and making the big anonymous world one person smaller! Or late at night when they can't sleep and no one is there to talk to, they see your memory, your affection for them and they aren't so lonely anymore. Just be sure to answer if they call!
Well done grasshopper, well done.
to both of you. smiles
~~I wouldn't mind having a copy of that doodle if you wouldn't mind.
@choicesvital -- oops! you did put it in there! sorry for not reading it better. But family. Family would be mine but since they are hard to find it's usually nature.
okay, as I've been reading more & more forums, i'm getting a bit peeved...
Removed sex related content due to numerous reports. The language was not particularly subtle either. [Mark]
and @respectful I agree one hundred percent. The Lord is my bridegroom and when he and I are close I do experience those moments of whole body tingling, tear inducing bliss, same as some touches. So well stated.
Chocolate... and reading... lol
Both help me destress lol
For me, reading a good fantasy book (Terry Brooks in particular). It is great to forget this world and be captured into another. Listening to or performing music is another stress release.
@Whisper5 - dark chocolate cures a lot of ills, except when I'm down to my last couple of bars, I get a bit stressed about running out.
Dark ambient music. This stuff touches my soul: