What makes you calm, relaxed, or happy?

[Cocodrillo 1,565]

>Closing eyes before turning off the light

>Stroking a cat before I leave

>Listening to the song I´m currently obsessed with

>DON´T fucking do mathematics. Then I see the problems in front of my eyes and I keep thinking about them...

>Drawing

>Checking the forums&fb before I go to sleep (especially the RP topic..)

>Stalking the lost love

>Closing all the doors and keeping the light in the corridor turned on.

>Having my feet covered in blanked & having my ear under the blanket (talking about sleeping)

>ALWAYS wearing a scarf

 

And other.. My paranoia gives me a lot of stuff to do.

[YesIAmTori 285]

>Closing eyes before turning off the light

>Stroking a cat before I leave

>Listening to the song I´m currently obsessed with

>DON´T fucking do mathematics. Then I see the problems in front of my eyes and I keep thinking about them...

>Drawing

>Checking the forums&fb before I go to sleep (especially the RP topic..)

>Stalking the lost love

>Closing all the doors and keeping the light in the corridor turned on.

>Having my feet covered in blanked & having my ear under the blanket (talking about sleeping)

>ALWAYS wearing a scarf

 

And other.. My paranoia gives me a lot of stuff to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdg05rhfmWE

[Kamarat 103]

Maybe it is weird but, I have some anger issues and sometimes I even get angry over things that just happened inside of my mind but not in the real life. It is usually because of that something made me aggressive for some reason. And I used to be anxious about exams and stuff like that and then I learned that to be worried over it makes everything worse. When you are calm and confident, you eventually do it. 

[Cupcake Ice Cream 436]

I study Zen Buddhism...my meditative practice is my peace of mind. Simplicity and living in the moment is how I survive each day. It has done much for my anxiety

[SagasaPony 122]

I try to focus on simple things I can accomplish before I leave the house. I check my pockets, make sure my wallet has enough cash to get me through the day, make sure my shoelaces are tied, and lock the door on my way out.This way, whatever happens, I'll always know that my pockets are filled, my wallet has cash, my shoelaces are tied, and that I locked the door.

 

This is either incredibly deep or incredibly inane.

 

[Croaks 251]

Every time I'm about to say a word, or even think it, but then I change my mind and say another word, I have to say the original word after just to feel satisfied. Otherwise it just... makes me feel weird. I don't know.

Or when something isn't straight and I have to straighten it. Then, it turns out it was already straight.

Now that I think of it I am really weird.

[NavelColt 22,876]

Look inside the shower curtains when going to the bathroom for any reason :3 I know I'm not the only one.

 

I used to chew on my hair as a nervous habit but I haven't done that in months, despite my hair being plenty long enough to do it. Dunno if that even counts, so whateves.

[Starshine 16,330]

Driving alone in the middle of nowhere with no traffic jam as far as eyes could see. I like the sense of freedom my motorcycle offers. Sometimes if my mind is particularly cloudy, I will take the old bastard and goes off for a round or two in my city.

[Envy 6,000]

Oh boy, here we go... Lets see if anybody actually gets through my post... Lol. Actually, nobody probably should because the latter half of this post really belongs in the "Life Advice" section, but I'll keep it relevant because I suppose I just won't make a topic over this there.

 

I've learned on numerous occasions that we can't assume that everything and everybody we have right now, we will have tomorrow, or even a minute from now.

 

I always try to say goodnight to my dogs and say bye to them before I leave. This is because I really love them, and because of what happened with our last family dog. She was ill, and we knew she would pass away sometime soon. However, we had watched her go through several phases of where she'd be down a few days, and then she'd be feeling better again. Well, one night I had a splitting migraine and I went into the kitchen to get something, she was staring at me wanting me to pay attention to her, but I just didn't feel good at all, and I didn't pay much attention telling myself "She's just in a slump, she'll be better". The next morning I awoke to the news that she had passed away. I never got to say goodbye to her. All because of that ridiculous mindset which, in fact, does not always reflect itself in reality no matter what we tell ourselves. It was a very painful experience for me. All I got to see were my parents take her out to the truck and take her to get cremated. I lost it and was in uncontrollable tears all day, and I still cry thinking about it... like right now.

I can easily say I have grown more attached to the dogs we have today, probably mostly because I am more of a dog person. So I never want to miss the opportunity to say goodnight or bye, and let them know that I love them.

 

Back around that time I also had a much broader notion of assuming that my life could not really get worse than it was. When she had passed away, that bubble had already been popped a month or two before. However, back when I could afford to think like that, I wallowed in it. I assumed there would always a tomorrow, and that everyday in the future could always be a day where it would be possible to achieve my goals. Thus, I was pretty lazy and procrastinated way too much. Sadly, things that have happened have effectively swung me into another horrible (but...true...) mindset of "It doesn't matter, there is no future for me anyway"... So I literally swung straight from that mindset to this one... *sighs*

 

Oh my, I'm going off-topic... Sorry, it's a sensitive topic for me.

 

Another thing I always do is have my cell phone with me (as in, always: Walking through the house, taking a shower - I put it outside the shower, not with me lol -, etc.). And not for socializing or even internet (although I do plenty of those), I have it for emergencies... For a just-in case scenario where for some reason an emergency occurred and having my phone could help me. I suppose most emergencies of the type I'm fearing would not allow my phone to be useful, but you never know. The second I'd stop worrying about it would probably be when it would happen. I know that all too well with patterns in my life. lol

 

Many of my other obsessions of this type are related to safety. I always recheck to make sure that my door has been locked on my way out, for example. There are many other little things like that.

 

I'm going to put what I post below in a spoiler, because I feel like it is a bit too serious and nobody should be subjected to have to read through it. I have never actually written this far into detail about what I've written below. I suppose I'm just typing it out to make me feel a little better...

 

 

Keeping my peace of mind isn't always in such rational ways. In some ways I really think I am more hurting myself and others nowadays...

 

For one of these, staying in school is a way of keeping my peace of mind. I don't know if I've ever directly written this before, but going to school is actually pointless for me now. At least going to school to go into a long-term career is. In reality, I should have dropped out of college after my first semester. Instead, I saw staying in college as a way of keeping me stable. I was not ready to accept things that had happened in my life. Staying in college was going on like things were going to be normal, which gave me peace of mind. Since I had already started, I figured I would just go through with it.

 

I came to feel really selfish about this one, as my parents were paying my way through. And then I ended up failing two classes because when I got down to my research papers, I either had that mindset above that I mentioned of "It doesn't matter." - which is ironic considering I was staying in school anyway - or the second time I had a panic attack during the time I had set aside for that paper which turned me suicidal, and even talking to my professor about it (the attack, not it turning me suicidal), I still failed (it was not her fault, please understand). My parents of course don't know any of that. So they think I just failed it due to laziness.

 

Nowadays, I have been able to get a part-time job and I have secured money for tuition. However, due to my inability to drive my parents are driving and paying for the gas. It's costing them too much. And all for keeping my illusion alive.

 

For an extended period of time, this also caused me to become mentally unstable enough to fall into my doubts about my doubting of the existence of God, because I was desperate and could not handle the future. I wanted - no, needed -  there to be a God that could help me. This bubble I have managed to pop, and I have moved more toward being a true Atheist (as in totally lacking a belief in any God) than I ever have, but sadly this has not caused the chain reaction in the rest of my mindset I hoped it would...

 

I said this has effected me negatively, and it very much has. Especially this last year. I took a job that has me working overnight. I'm still working it, while being a full-time student. I'm way too tired. I have way too much work and practicing to do, and I end up uncontrollably drifting off  to sleep periodically in two of my classes... It has even almost happened in the middle of orchestra rehearsal. I'm straining myself, and I know I shouldn't be doing that... because I'm likely furthering my issue that got me here to begin with: Not taking good enough care of myself (to put it very generally).

 

I also became set to a routine for a few years... It's a rather ridiculous one looking back on it, but what can I say? Mental instability and denial... Lol. It was to where I would always play Animal Crossing Wild World through a "cycle" before I went to bed every night. It started as a process to relax me before going to bed, but then it became obsessive and I got superstitious and had to do it exactly right every night. I'd follow that by a prayer to God that was always said in almost exactly the same way.

 

I stopped those two. Somehow. But the prayers lasted for a few months after I became an Atheist. Which is weird, I know. I still can't, being completely honest with myself, consider myself 100% Atheist, but please realize that's me and my mental instability combined with quite a bit of child indoctrination thrown in. I can not speak for other Atheists, as they likely don't have the mental issues I have. My desperate want to believe and childhood indoctrination are coming together to warp my rationality. Even though somewhere I know, it's all irrational.

 

 

Moral of the story: Some of these things you start doing for peace of mind, you need to watch out for them... They aren't always rational. Sadly, seeing they're irrational doesn't always make you stop them. Like in my case. I've known all along... (Except for when I went back to believing in God, I genuinely knocked the idea that it was irrational out of my mind for that time).

Edited November 30, 2012 by Envy

[gypsy_tambourine 18]

I just listen to music and dive into a hobby. I leave that generalized because I have a tendency to shift focuses with my hobbies from time to time. To give an example, if I'm feeling angry/upset/otherwise unsettled, I'll find something soothing to listen to (Ponyphonic's "Lullaby For A Princess" being my current favorite) and sort my comic collection, or read a book, or play a game. Something not too thought intensive that lets me set some sort of mental order.

[Brook 663]

My mind is made out of four parts: mad, reasonable, lazy, and diverse (*not biologically, psychologically) 

 

Mad - I am a random and incredibly creative person, I can think of the most obscure things in the tightest of situations, which is why I never actually lose my mind, I don't have anything to lose.

 

Reasonable - this coincides with the fact I'm mad, because I never jump to conclusions  I try my best to be a nice person, and overall I enjoy others' happiness, all of those give me peace of mind.

 

Lazy - I am lazy, and even though I know I need to get stuff done, I usually put it off until it's either too late or just pointless to do.

 

Diverse - as you could probably tell, I can be (mentally) whatever I want to be, or whatever others want me to be, though I won't be, because I'm not going to lose myself in identities and acting for others/myself.

 

Now, this all comes together with a simple fact: I don't care about peace of mind, I know I can deal with stress, but the most obvious thing I do to keep myself sane is being insane, it works, trust me.

 

I don't get happy from simple things, but sometimes I do. I'm weird by being sane/insane, or maybe not? I really can't get a proper conclusion out of myself that won't counter-act itself and come back to sane/insane, so I hope you understood something out of this... (analyzing yourself isn't simple especially if I'm a mad person that isn't really mad... see? I can keep typing into this post until I run out of fingers, it'll come back to what I already said)

 

TL;DFR keeping others and myself happy, basically.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Brook

[Kalakauer 20]

1. The 3-Pockets-Check: Checking if I got m mobile, Ipod and wallet, if anything's missing I go crazy

2. Listening to some good music every day

[Fridge 382]

I've generally got my leatherman multitool with me. Not for security but more for practicality, the amount of times its been useful is ridiculess.

[Betez 1,734]

I read something. It doesn't matter what. It can be anything from a poem, to a book, to a topic or post here. Reading (along with a few other things) helps me stay sane.

[Blindsight 142]

When I have to calm down, I just start cleaning and organizing my stuff. Sometimes I wish I'd be upset more often, because otherwise I don't really like cleaning up. 

When I'm sad though, I usually draw gloomy pictures of myself. That results in my drawings mostly being of myself. 

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,694]

I talk to myself a lot. Things that I wanted to say to others but couldn't, or things I wanted them to say. I can never tell people how I really feel in person, and if I did they wouldn't understand. It's one of the things I do to ease the pain of knowing I'm going to be silent and mostly ignored that day. And when that's finally over, I can go home and be myself again for a while.

 

I never eat alone without watching something on my TV or computer. It makes me feel like I have company. Except I know exactly what they're going to say and do, and I can tell them anything, so I'm not afraid of them like I am of real people.

 

Another thing I do for peace of mind is to reveal things about myself online that I can't reveal in person. Darn you, CloudFyre.

Edited November 30, 2012 by TailsAlone

[EcstaticWind 572]

For my own peace of mind, I play a few rounds of Call of Duty with bots (Do they have any other use? ), read a book, do a little writing, or chill with some music. Or sometimes I clean my room

[XrosOver 613]

I suck my focus out of reality and delve into reading at a near unhealthy level. I get caught up in boks very easy and I feel at piece watching the characters in the story go about their lives while I forget about mine. This is accompanied by a hot shower and potato soup.

[Moonlight 7,279]

I searched in various key words and found one about stress, but this more along the lines of sickness, and a combination of other things. So..

 

What relaxes you? Whether you're sick, scared, stressed, worried, or nervous...what calms you down?

 

Me, personally can be calmed by some of the following:

• Rainy Weather
• Reading some books or fanfiction
• Listening to classical music
• Writing things down
• Talking to people who actually want to hold conversation
• Playing Video Games
• Watching Ponies

And maybe some other things...so, how about you all?

 

 

[Dzastur 1,719]

Rolling thunder. It sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I find it very calming.

 

I also find that recordings of it do nothing for me; I have to hear it live, right outside my window.

[Shanks 10,811]

Ponies

 

Reading

 

Video Games

 

Listening To Music

 

Meditating

 

Going For a Walk

 

Seeing if there are any interesting topics on here

[FadedSkies 1,874]

- Taking a hot shower with a large shower head. It feels like your showering on a waterfall

- Listening to music

- Watching My Little pony

- Going on the forums

- Listening to a water fountain/water droplets

- Watching TV

 

Really relaxing

[Nerdy Luigi 2,064]

Nature, Music, Ponies, Deep Breathing, Video Games, and occasionally Reading.

Not a whole lot, really. And even then, ponies, music, video games sometimes have the adverse effect. They'll actually make me hyper pending when or what it is.
 

Edited July 20, 2013 by Gamer Twilight

[Fluttershyfan94 5,738]

This may sound weird, but engines.. Engines make me feel relaxed, both diesel and gasoline engines it has something to do with their pace. I used to be around a lot of big diesel engines when I was a kid. So I guess it has something to do with that. 

 

There is nothing more relaxing then waking up early in the morning and starting up either a cold diesel or gasoline engine.. The smell and the cold fresh air mixed with the gasoline/diesel smell, it's just perfect, especially when it's cold. My perfect type of day, is waking up early when it's frost outside.. Start up a car and just feel the fresh air and gasoline/diesel mixture.. Perfect.

 

Also when I'm washing cars.

Watching ponies and playing video games make me feel relaxed.

Just being on the computer makes me feel relaxed, especially during the winter. Hot cocoa, snow and my computer. It's just awesome, especially when you enter a warm car or a truck, warmth just makes me feel relaxed.

 

Listening to music, meditating and just running or walking makes me feel relaxed. Although the place I feel most relaxed at is behind the wheel. Just driving makes me feel relaxed.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Fluttershyfan94

[Scootalove 10,684]

• Music
• Art
• Video Games
• Rain
• Ponies/ Watching My Little Pony
• Reading

Those are basically, the things that relax me just in case I am in a bad mood or at least very angry. Which happens often.