Things that Calm Me Down After a Bad Day

Recently there's been a string of unbearably hot days. For me, this has been amplified by the fact that I just moved into my new dorm this week. It's a great dorm- good room, center of campus, nice roommate, only three people to the bathroom- but it's also an old dorm. So we have no air conditioning (much like almost everywhere on campus). And since I've been running around campus for the past few days to do our special Sarah Lawrence registration process, I have been really tired by the end of the day. To be clear: I haven't been having bad days. Just long and tiring ones.

But it got me thinking about what cheers me up/calms me down after I have a bad day. For whatever reason: actual bad events, pointless depression/anxiety attacks, being sick, periods, the weather, exhaustion, etc. I made a list of the things I turn to that bring me to a better state after being shaken up by a bad day. I found that there was a pattern. There's a lot of things I like, even super love, that would be terrible for me after a bad day. (Like... I don't know. How to Get Away with Murder, Harry Potter analysis essays, discussing feminism, eggplant salad?) And some things comfort me but after a bad day are just TOO comfortable... like Disney Princess movies, hot showers, etc. The things that do help me both calm me down and cheer me up. I don't know what other qualities help with that, but I'm going to try and identify them throughout this post. I'm hoping that by doing that, maybe you, the readers, can try and pinpoint what would best help you after a long day.

So... list time! :) (it's gonna be super long so in case you're like me and you get compulsions to read the entirety of things: feel free to skip around, only read the things you recognize, look only at the gifs, whatever) (APPARENTLY BLOGGER DOESN'T LET GIFS WORK SO OK, FORGET THE HALF HOUR I JUST SPENT FINDING BEAUTIFUL GIFS INSTEAD OF WORKING. DAMMIT GOOGLE!!!) Have fun!

Parks and Recreation re-watches

 

Why it cheers me up: It's absolutely hilarious, it has beautiful and perfect ships that I love, it has some moments that just make me feel better about the world.
Why it calms me down: It's familiar. I've already seen all of it so I can watch any episode. It feels like home, even though it's set in Indiana.

Avatar: The Last Airbender re-watches



Why it cheers me up: It's such a well-done plot that I am always impressed. I love the characters so much.
Why it calms me down: It's cute and funny. Even though it's serious and intense sometimes, it's easy to watch. And also ships.

(Spoilers for the Raven Cycle I guess)
Ronan/Adam posts on Tumblr

Why they cheer me up: These two are intensely beautiful and poetic. I also can't get over how much I ship them.
Why they calm me down: The entirety of Tumblr seems to agree on a series of headcanons that are fluffy and cute despite the, like, murder-and-ravens feel of this ship in the canon? So it's lots of fluff.

Tumblr food posts

Why they cheer me up: I think about how maybe, one day, I will make these foods.
Why they calm me down: I can reblog them and then feel the nice, neat organization of knowing I have all potential recipes in my "Food" tag.

Ron/Hermione posts

Why they cheer me up: BECAUSE ROMIONE! BECAUSE "SHE FLUNG THE BASILISK FANGS OUT OF HER HANDS... HE RESPONDED WITH SUCH ENTHUSIASM THAT HE SWEPT HER OFF HER FEET... OI! THERE'S A WAR GOING ON HERE" that's why
Why they calm me down: Because nothing's more familiar than the feeling of Ron and Hermione gently bickering in the background while Harry broods about Voldemort. They're like, the most cozy ship.

A Very Potter Musical (and Sequel, and Senior Year)

Why it cheers me up: Because it's HILARIOUS, obviously.
Why it calms me down: Harry Potter is a beautiful thing, and I swear these musicals understand the core truths of the wizarding world more than the books themselves, practically.

The original Harry Potter books

Why they cheer me up: I'm not going to write a 20-page dissertation, but suffice it to say: because they're the most wonderful things in the world.
Why they calm me down: Because they feel like going home.

Music by Laurena Segura

Why it cheers me up: It's cute, it's happy, the lyrics are beautiful.
Why it calms me down: It often has a lilting quiet feel to it that you could almost fall asleep to.

Music by the Paper Kites

Why it cheers me up: The... I don't want to use the word "beautiful" again... the like, it works perfectly feeling. The way they strike chords in you with their music and their lyrics.
Why it calms me down: Particularly the songs in "Woodland" and some from "States" have very calming moods to them. Additionally, I've listened to the songs so much that they don't ever jar me with unfamiliarity in any way.

IISuperwomanII videos

Why they cheer me up: She's so funny, and she's so full of love that it warms my heart.
Why they calm me down: There's no pressure to, like, understand some Big Intellectual Thing like with some of the other channels I watch. Or to be cool or whatever. Superwoman totally gets normal people and it's comforting.

Vlogbrothers Thoughts from Places videos

Why they cheer me up: It's so nice to hear a different point of view on the world. I'm not denying that these videos are often pretentious beyond belief, but you know, we're all pretentious sometimes. So they're fun.
Why they calm me down: I guess the absence of background noise as you just watch lovely images pass by and hear John or Hank explain interesting thoughts on them.

Autumn everything (aka pumpkin-scented candles, apple cider, pumpkin/apple spice everything, autumn leaves, sweaters, pictures of autumn stuff on Pinterest, oh I don't know CRISP COLD AIR)

Why it cheers me up: The crisp awareness of everything dying. Love that stuff. It's also bright and brilliant outside in the autumn.
Why it calms me down: It may be bright and brilliant, but in a faded, cool, calming way. I guess the pressure of summer suddenly lifts and the world feels free to disintegrate. (What a shock, I'm getting into weird philosophical analysis as soon as we get to the seasons)

(I had some more on the list but they were mainly like "Nutella" and "hugs" which I feel are fairly obvious and not in need of analysis)

Anyway... it seems to me that, after breaking down these items, the main trends that appear are:

-Humor: Evidently humor cheers me up. It tends to be friendly humor: the cute jokes from Avatar, the optimistic feeling of Superwoman videos, the easy-to-understand inside jokes of AVPM, etc.
-Beauty and poetry: I love things that evoke inspiration. Not, like, staring-out-at-the-universe-from-the-Grand-Canyon level awe, but just being impressed by the ability to create music or art that reverberates somewhere in me.
-Lack of pressure: I don't want to feel the need to prove myself or to try and understand something complex.
-Quiet: The music, the videos, the TV shows: none of them are very loud or intense. They're not eerily silent, or practically lullabies/boring, but they've got a nice sense of quiet about them.
-Familiarity: Things that I've loved for a long time, things that feel like home to me.
-Friendliness and optimism: I feel less anxiety when people are very clear that they are friendly and happy. Even when I'm not interacting with them, and I'm just consuming their work, I like to feel that they'd be friendly to me.

So, to be honest, I think some of these are specific to my personal anxieties (regarding the need to prove myself or the fear of people hating me) but I think they can also apply to many people. Try and figure out your own set of calming/cheering characteristics and maybe that will help not only at the end of bad days, but as small boosts in the middle of tough situations.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it,
(remember- don't expect a post on Saturday from now on),
Ariel