For me, very absorbing hobbies help.

I especially like visual journaling (can involve words, collage, paint, crayons, whatever) because there are no rules, it can be mood-guided, and no one has to see it unless you want them to (just like any other kind of journal). It need not be "good" as an end product, it can just be satisfying as a process to do.

Other crafts can be that distraction for me, too. Also, in my older age, I've taken up trying to learn to play a musical instrument I always wanted to be able to play, but have given myself to s*ck at actually playing it forever, as long as I'm enjoying the effort. (I'm delivering on that s*ck, too. 😆) This one is probably a less good idea for people, unlike me, who have housemates (although there are keyboards these days that are fully headphone-compatible, IMU).

ETA P.S.: If the visual journaling idea appeals to you, the right search term is actually "art journaling" . . . I don't like to put that kind of terminological pressure on myself, so I prefer "visual journaling". 😉 The search-result images will be intimidatingly professional looking 🙄, but the technique instructions still apply to my more kindergartener-esque practices.

I get on the phone and talk. Touching base with family and friends keeps my mental health healthy.

Everyday, I try to get in a Walk and Talk. For some reason talking my way through exercise works for me.

Music also helps, I love to dance. So putting music on while I cook helps so much.

I guess, I do a Dance and Cook at night lol

I actually crave the walk. I feel like if I don't get a walk in, my body does not let me relax.

Heh, I love puzzles too, and my cats (I have two) won't eat the pieces, but will destroy the puzzle if it's not covered up sufficiently. I was doing puzzles early in the lockdown and haven't for a bit, but just got a new one at my office gift exchange.

I'm totally non-artistic and (unlike many people) tend to not enjoy crafty stuff, but I do find writing in a journal (not necessarily super personal stuff, depending) to be helpful, and I have been back on a regular morning meditation with the Calm app (currently have a 30 day streak after no meditation between March and November). Running and to a lesser degree walking (especially walking out in nature, which is challenging at the moment) do absolute wonders for me mentally. Lately I've been walking in a cemetery off and on (near my house), which I like. Reading is absolutely great too, although I've found myself bouncing from book to book a bunch lately rather than being able to lose myself.

Getting outside for a walk or run, or just getting outside, even in the cold. I hear everyone above about getting our minds to stop during yoga or meditation. I started using the Calm app in the pandemic and that helps. It has courses and guided meditations, which help me to focus and stop thinking about to do’s. If I really cannot calm my mind, I use the music part of the app and that is really helpful. A cup of tea is nice too. I like the old standby, Sleepy Time.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I do much to be honest.

Unfortunately I've used food most of my life to mask my feelings only to have self loathing in the end.

I've never enjoyed being crafty. I tried coloring and it didn't bring me joy.
I love reading to take me away but it doesn't address my stress or depression.

I do find that sitting with my face towards the sun will brighten my mood especially when the cold weather comes.

I did enjoy yoga at one time and would love to get back into it.

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

Some great ideas here. Didn’t know about the calm app. And didn’t think of puzzles!!

A teen-age incident swore me off any kind of journaling - my younger brother found it, read it, and when he got angry at me for some stupid reason I can’t even remember started to shout out at dinner time all the things I had written down - “Ma, did you know she... “. 😂😂. Scarring.

I find myself watching marathons of shows on ID (investigation discovery). You can guess the content from the name of the channel - murder mysteries - but true - somehow they’re escapist and appeals to my Type A nature - I try to figure them out but the content is too dark. Sigh!

Once I get my rowing down, I think I’ll look forward to that!

Thanks for the input!

Just as an aside: One of the beauties of mixed-media visual journaling is that you can write out what you're thinking . . . then paint over it. 🤣 (It's actually quite a standard technique!)

And rowing . . . rowing is good. I've been at it for 17+ years now, boats and machine. Hope you come to enjoy it, too!

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@AnnPT77. Hmmm - I could paint over it, couldn’t it?! Oh rowing question to a REAL rower - is it ok for your heels to rise as you row?

Toward the end of the recovery, yes.

You are aiming to have shins perpendicular to the floor at the catch - upright. If, in order to do that, your heels come up off the footplate, that's OK. However, you will want to consciously bring the heels down first at the very start of the drive (firmly and immediately but no slamming - not impact). You want the main leg power to be delivered with the full foot against the footplate, not pushing from just the toes or balls of feet, for best (and safest) power.

Are you rowing on a Concept 2? If so, look at the power display (the one that has kg along the vertical y axis, time on the horizontal x axis - shows you a sort of bell curve of power across a single stroke). For me, if I get my heels down first, firmly and smoothly, I get a slight leftward shift of the curve's peak - more power earlier into the stroke - as compared with pushing from the toes/ball. Another way of saying it is that the uphill slope of the curve is a little steeper.

Over time, if your flexibility increases (as it may, just from repetitive rowing; or through other means), you may find you need less of the heels coming up, in order to reach that shins-vertical catch position. (There's no point in going past vertical shins: Not any great power available there.)

So, until then, on the recovery you do arms-away, swing forward from the hips, relax/release knees, and your heels may naturally come up as the slide delivers you to the catch position. Heels down first, push with leg power on full foot, swing open at hip joint as knees near full extension, pull through with arms: It's like a coiling/uncoiling thing, or like a spring, compressing the relaxed body shape to create potential energy on the recovery, releasing the stored energy with added muscle power (plus suspended bodyweight) on the drive.

Imagine how long an answer I'd give if you asked a complicated question. 🤣

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Wow! I could not have asked for a more helpful response! What a lesson. I’m going to read this again - slowly - once I’m on the rower. Yes, it’s a concept 2 but I think an older model I got for a steal so it doesn’t say the model letter.

It’s clear you love it! Hope I get to as well! Thanks again!

Aww, thanks for tolerating my babbling. I could talk about rowing all day, but I try hard to control myself in daily life. 😆 Ask a question, though, and the danged floodgate opens! 🤣

This should help you figure out which model you have, if you're interested:

https://www.concept2.com/service/indoor-rowers

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

Looking for tips! It’s hard for me to do yoga or any meditative type activity - I find the stillness just makes my brain a bulletin board of post-it notes of “to-do’s”. I have about an hour in the morning where I have my coffee alone (before my eldercare duties begin) and about 90 min in the afternoon where i squeeze in a workout. The other hours I’m a mixture of stress, fear, ptsd, excessive monitoring - nothing to be emergently anxious about just generally worried I will miss something. And nowadays, one cough or sneeze makes me think the worst. Im trying to be less anxious and more grateful. Just go with the flow. I thought by age 56 I’d have this down! 😜

Normally exercise of one form or the other.

Yoga was supposedly designed to calm the mind in preparation for meditation...but I need to already be calm enough for yoga. Sometimes cleaning my yoga room helps with that. (And while I'm sweeping in there, I do the hall and the bathroom as well.) I listen to my yoga playlist, which is mostly not in English, while I clean, and that also helps get me in the right headspace.

Between yoga warmups and physical therapy for my elbow, knee, and hip, I have about 75 minutes of exercises. Sometimes I do just part of this while watching TV. If the TV is on, I don't consider it yoga. Then I might switch to Moon and Sun Salutations and the rest of my yoga flow, or I might keep going with more TV and the PT.

I do enter a much different headspace if the TV is off and Krishna Das is on, but it can be difficult to start, as opposed to exercising to a binge-worthy series, which is much easier for me to start.

For outdoor stuff, lately we've been walking the cat. He's too slow for a proper cardiovascular walk, so I bring the clippers and work on the trail as well. Pulling bittersweet gets my heart rate up

I spent more time hiking (alone) in the nearby state park before the cat walking, but this is something nice we do together, so I'm giving it priority.

Late March - Late October I garden.

When the pond at Mom's is warm enough, I swim.

But with COVID I've needed more mental health help so am currently getting therapy remotely.