Gloom & Doom

I had COVID last week. Being trapped at home alone with just my dog and the bad news on the internet really got me down. All I could see were politicians failing us, violence and sickness everywhere, economic crisis and oh yeah, the planet? Dying right before our eyes.

I started feeling like everything was futile and that I was forgotten, left to rot on my couch, eating takeout, feeling like utter crap and wallowing, all alone. “All by myself….”, yes I had a Bridget Jones’ moment.

So I took some bold actions.

I stopped watching the news and started watching fun, entertaining films like The Muppets Haunted Mansion (Directed by Kirk R. Thatcher, 2021), which was rather funny in its unique Muppet way; the Ant Man movies (Directed by Peyton Reed, 2015 & 2018), figure skating films made for tweens and teens like Go Figure (Directed by Francine McDougall, 2005), Ice Princess (Directed by Tim Fywell, 2005), and The Cutting Edge (Directed by Paul Michael Glaser, 1992), and silly, fun films like Night at the Museum (Directed by Shawn Levy, 2006) and more. And this made me feel better. Taking a break and watching something fun that kind of has something to say about life and humans, but mostly is just a distraction was a great morale boost. It reminded my subconsciousness that there are still enjoyable things out there and reasons to smile.

I stopped thinking about the negative, useless people in the world and I thought about the kind, helpful humans, whether people I know well or simply that anonymous person who leaves a penny so when you come up short, you can still make your purchase. I remembered the little things people do every day that may not make a global difference but have a local effect that hopefully will ripple out from one person to the next.

I reached out to good friends and was brief, but honest about how I was feeling and I got supportive, loving messages back. Friends started checking up on me daily, sending me short but loving notes. Reminding me, I was not alone. I had faith in people again and all it took was not being afraid to share and be vulnerable.

I read books that made me smile and books that allowed me to laugh at the bad things in the world without taking away the impact those things had in real life. And I read books that just featured good characters.

This inspired me to get back to writing. It inspired me to not wallow but to fight the good fight and do it with a smile on my face.

Finding things that let your mind take a break and let your subconscious heal a bit and surrounding yourself with good inspiration and good people makes all the difference in the world. Then you can get back to it despite all the gloom and doom.