365 Day Mood Project

Yes, yes, I know. I’ve been gone. But for good reason! We’ve made some real progress in the last 3 days. I’ll tell you what’s been going on.

1. I uninstalled social media.

I am making the CONSCIOUS decision to be slightly less informed. I cannot know exactly what screwed up thing is happening the exact moment it happens. My brain can’t handle it.

So we’re trying a new rule: read the news once a week. I’m treating the news like it’s the Sunday paper so I don’t spiral into nothingness.

2. I’ve been on some dates.

Now I don’t think this is a CURE for anything, and if you think you can cure depression by getting a boyfriend, please go to therapy. BUT. I’ve been letting myself feel excited on purpose.

I’ve been in a place where I’ve been very jaded about romance in general, and will this probably fall apart? Yes.

I’m not IGNORING anything, or falling into fantasy, or creating a false reality, I’m just letting the positive feelings associated with talking with a new person who I get along with exist. That’s a crazy sentence, but YOU GET THE DEAL.

3. I’m making some small improvements to my living space.

I wouldn’t recommend doing anything out of your budget, but I had an extra paycheck this month. After paying down some debt, I got some small things I knew would make my living space cosier and more fun for me to be in.

Command shelves and battery powered tea candles – I put these in my bathroom in my eternal fight against big lights. I love them and showering in the dark has been pretty soothing.

A shower speaker – it’s been nice to put on some happy music while showering. It makes me more motivated to actually do it. Plus, I didn’t have to be wasteful to do it or spend a bunch of money — I got it off of poshmark.

A bidet – if you have an extra $40, I highly recommend. We don’t have to go into specifics but you’ll never feel cleaner.

Pantry storage with labels – My cupboards were overdue for a cleaning, so this was sort of a 2 for 1. It helped me make the most of my itty bitty pantry space while also getting me to go through the cupboards and throw old things out.

This is also a thing you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on if you don’t want to. If you find some mason jars at goodwill (or just old pasta sauce jars you’ve saved if you’re like me) and have some masking tape and a sharpie, you can pretty much do what I did.

Tulip shade – “Now what is this?”, you may be asking yourself. GREAT QUESTION. I found this while trying to figure out what to do in my eternal battle against the big light. Basically, it’s a renter friendly lampshade that slips right over your ugly renter’s special boob light (you know the one). Now this one is a splurge, but ONE BIG LIGHT DOWN SUCKERSSSS.

No nail required guitar hanger – I’ve been thinking for a while that I need more wall art to fill up my empty wall space. My thought here was “well what if I used a thing I already owned for this?” and thus the idea was born. For $4, I’m filling up some wall space with my beautiful Yamaha baby.

Shoe organizer – Frankly, I have shoes all over the floor. Hence, the shoe organizer.

4. I bought ONE fun thing with absolutely no utilitarian purpose.

Now I don’t recommend shopping for dealing with your depression. BUT every once in a while, it’s good to give yourself a reward. I’ve briefly mentioned this before with how I view vacations, but you need something to look forward to in order to keep going.

I knew this month was going to be extremely hard for me. I had some plans to go to the opera with my friends in the first week of May, so I made my reward a new outfit for the opera.

Again, you don’t have to make it expensive. I found a pair of Jimmy Choos on poshmark for $60 (I can’t believe it either) and a new, bright orange House of CB dress for $40. I’ll use those in the future, they were much less expensive and wasteful than if I’d bought them new, and most of all? I tried everything on and was giddy as hell.

5. I started to work out again.

I’m easing back into this, because it’s been a few months for me. I’m trying to at least do yoga 3 times a week.

Today, I managed to do some strength training at home.

So I guess all of this is to say, you can break your own rules. Yes, it was my goal to write here every day, but would I have accomplished as much as I did if I were trying to force myself to do something I didn’t want to do? Some rules are meant to be broken, even if you’re the one who made them.

Keep it pushing. Love you, mean it.