Walking, talking, laughing

What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

Everyone has these moments or even long periods of time when they feel derailed, set adrift from where they want to be.

Lost.

But there’s ways to lift yourself out of that.  

Walking: as a resistance to traveling fast, a remedy and rebellion from moving at the speed of modern society at the speed of computers. Walking without headphones and listening to rustling leaves, ineffable hushes of wind and planes cruising far away. Walking to feel the bones of your feet kissing the earth, all of the muscle fibres snagging and stretching out like the rays of a sunrise. Walking to feel your breath coursing through your body in a new way, all mauve and soft blue as a linen sheet flapping in the wind at dusk. Walking in humbleness and recognition of how small, vulnerable and fragile you are. Walking just how our ancestors did.

Talking: Holding yourself up to a mirror of someone else you love who knows you in all of your exquisite complexity, who shares a tiny part of the mystery and history of you is a real delight. Talking with an old friend or a new one is like having a conversation with the deepest parts of yourself. You know those weird things you think and do are not so weird and different after all.

Laughing: There’s immense joy in seeing how ridiculous life is, how ridiculous people are and how silly and insane the whole world has become. With AI, the wars going on all over the place, the destruction of nature, it might on first glance not seem like the time to laugh but it is. Find things to laugh about despite it all, laugh as a big fuck you to sorrow and sadness, as a way to say no to the passage of time and all that entails. Laugh at silly things, at totally inappropriate things…at whatever the hell you want.