Don't Stay in Bed with the Blahs

If you have the blahs or the blues or the vague icky not good feelings that have sapped your energy and your zest for life, don't stay in bed. Get up and make your bed and get dressed. Do some exercise--even a walk around the block. Or with your arms straight down at your sides, wiggle your hands from side to side and shake your arms good and hard to the count of 100. Keep some nonsense rhyme kind of going on whenever you can remember to do it. Or sing some dumb little song in your mind because this will keep the gray clouds from completely engulfing you. If you're alone, you can sing the song right out loud. Go ahead. Do it.

If you're alone, you can laugh out loud. Oh, you won't want to do it. Your brain will absolutely balk but you can do it anyway. Laugh at least ten times out loud. Not because anything is funny but just because this is the thing that depression hates you to do the most. Don't do what your downer thoughts want you to do. Do something that will shake you up and get you going toward something productive.

Do one small chore. Like the dishes, or put away some clothes. Look around and put something back in its place. Then put something else away. Move ahead into your day.  If you don't have anything planned, now is the time to plan something. Go to your public library and check out a biography of some great man or woman. Take it to some small cafe and treat yourself to some breakfast. The world is all around you. You are a part of all you see. You are not alone.  A. B. Curtiss