Daily writing prompt

What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

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When I experience negative feelings the first thing I do is acknowledge them – pretending everything’s fine isn’t going to help! From there, I usually go down two very separate paths but each one begins from the same starting point:

1. FIRST: GET A HUG…then I will try to figure out what’s causing it, e.g. is it hormonal, is it that big bill that just came through or is it just a bad day? From here I have a few strategies that I use (in no particular order as it depends on the day what will work for me); writing – either poetry or some sort of essay for the blog, listening to music, cleaning helps a lot!, going for a walk or doing some sort of physical exercise, doing something with plants whether its potting up seedlings or taking photographs, but one of the biggest things that helps is…watching the garden birds (usually from the kitchen window). I can watch them for ages which helps me get perspective as I can see the struggles they have to get through each day, how they fight for their space, how they communicate with each other and sometimes I can get really close to one bird in particular and he sings…just for me! Nothing will raise my spirits quicker than my garden friend’s music.
2. FIRST: GET A HUG…..I need to point out at this point that number 1 is my ‘go-to’ but I do have another strategy which I employ from time to time, and that is, I give in entirely to the feelings! I will occasionally have what I call ‘a wallow day’. That’s when I realise everything is crap and I go with it – extra, comforting food; more coffee than I should; forget the housework; curl up with a book or watch a movie – basically anything that feels good and helps me to look after me. If things get seriously bad, I sleep. That often works better than all the others!