How To Feel Good Again

Lately lots of people have approached me for counselling/listening and as a result, I have invented some whacko answers. It's sad though to realize that there are just way too many sad people in this world. =P But I guess sadness is just one of the colors of Life's rainbow, and the presence of both the good stuff and the bad stuff makes life meaningful and realistic and most of all, COOL!

What you do, is first, you try to express your problems in your own "artistic" way, such as writing up a paragraph (or a 500 word formal essay if you wish =) or a poem or a play (if drama is necessary to dissolve the gloom =), or drawing (anything from a random line that is not even straight to caricatures of ANYone) or painting (whether landscape or portrait), or sing or play an instrument with the ultimate goal of emersing yourself deep in music.

However, if you happen to be the type of person that believe or agree somewhat with the doctrine that proposes "people have better things to do with their time than spending so much of a proportion of it on arts," then you might want to give reading a try. Find yourself tragedies with which you can point at the tragic hero and exclaim solemnly and with all your heart "Ha, at least my situation is less tragic and dramatic than yours!"

I WOULD suggest Shakespearean tragedies where everyone dies off appocalyptically in the end for one reason or another as an elective; however, it is a bit hard to get into his stuff IMMEDIATELY after you lay your hands on it because back then, society didn't operate on the modern principle of commercialism that states "if you want to capture your customers' interest immediately so they'd buy your stuff, you must set your bait (or "hook," as used by former teachers of mine =) in a location where your customers can reach easily AND within 5 seconds of consumation." But HEY, if you've actually set your heart on reading Shakespeare's works, you will probably be able to compare your misery with the necessity of an eventual "genocide" and then shrug off your problem as a mere trifle. Or maybe you can at least point and grin and exclaim how ridiculous a mass die-off ending is realistically.

If that will not do, try rambling (an alternative to self-talking that is not deemed as weirdness =). Just sit in front of a computer (writing manually is too slow for this one) and type out EXACTLY your train of thoughts (i.e. what you are thinking or what your mental voice is telling you) without reserve. Repeat ANY point/word/phrase as often as you wish, and remember, this is ONE of the few occasions in which you don't have to surrender your obliging self to harsh grammar rules or weird and hard-to-remember punctuation rules, nor any OTHER uncomfortable literary limitations set down in print verbatim SO pointedly and dreadfully and neatly and categorically in booklets of the MLA, nor are you subjected under ANY forms of pressure professionally and for-your-own-good-ly exerted by your English teachers.

Well, if rambling is not the thing for you either, then 9 outta 10 you are very atheletically inclined. So go play your favourite sport; play it with more passion, more vigour, and more violence (though indeed not encouraged for your kind neighbours' sake =) that you've ever done.

CONGRATULATIONS! Now you've successfully expressed your vexing self and vented at least the majority of your gloom/anger, all you need now is some deliciously yummy, sugar-replenishing ice-cream (my favourite is Strawberry) to smooth out the rest of the bumps and glitches. And meanwhile, do me a favour, turn to your favourite radio station or push in your favourite cassette or CD and listen to either something soothing (suggestion: some sedate classical music played on a piano or a harp) or something completely bubbly and happy (i.e. anything along the line of simple-minded optimism is more than fine =), for example, like the well-loved "Tomorrow" from Annie, or that song "Blue Sky" that starts with "I can see clearly now the rain is gone. . .," or that other very very VERY famous song best identified by its chorus "I'm soooo excited, and I just can't hide it!" Oh ya, talking about that song, I had NO clue as to what the real subject was until a friend of mine was so good as to correct my formerly non-existent interpretation of the song (danke Heather! =).

By now you MUST be feeling MUCH better, or if you must suffice to deny it profusely for reasons I am quite at a loss to provide, then declare out loud (the louder the better) "I feel MUch BUtter!" with that EXACT, easy-to-mimick accent featured in the funky commercial.

Now you are ALL set for a trip to a mirror, any mirror that reflects properly in the household. Look at yourself in the mirror, attempt the bestest and the brightest smile you can ever smile, and proceed to enter into a state of self-admiration, for a maximum of 1 minute. By a certain amount self-admiration, one can achieve positive self-worth recognition, but don't do it for vanity's sake. Please do not over do this step, no matter how pleasant it is! However, if you DO feel the urge to keep on self-admiring, CONGRATULATIONS! You are already completely cured! *Croolie issues an invisible Certificate of the Completion of Happilization!! Hooray! =)*

If not, well keep going, you are very close to success anyways.

Now the last step requires minimal skills to produce logic and form philosophies. All you need to do is to begin to think about your actual MISERY positively. Thoughts such as "there is happiness only if there is misery, since the two coexist relatively and superbly well," or "life is about learning, and making mistakes makes me understand what I couldn't grasp before and appreciate what I have taken for granted before." If you feel brain-dead today, here is something a fellow poet (a realistic someone living and breathing like we do and logding among us under the roof of this same world) has said that would help you start pondering--"Destruction can be beautiful, if you do it right" (David E.J. Perez).

We learn and mature fastest when facing and dealing with either extreme happiness or extreme misery. Pain and tears help to improve our ability to accept (you know, the ability to say to yourself "C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?" and smile when crap happens =), increase our tolerance level, supply our well of patience, and perfect our self-control while surrendering all our personal pride, vanity, and ego. (Uh-Oh, I think I have just slipped into a preaching mode. . .SORRY! =) In short, they make us tougher and become better acquainted with crisis management not by means of boring classes, but memorable real-life experiences.

There's my two cents. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect ending up saying so much, thought it'd only be a paragraph's worth.

If you have successfully read every single word of this page and have not stopped for one moment in the middle to try anything out, then shoo, this is obviously not for you!! =P You don't HAVE that much of a traumatic problem!

Or if everything is still looking gloomy and hazy and confusing, now proceed to try the traditional way and give your best friend/confidante a buzz. Good luck, happy life, and prepare to spend the next 5-10 hours on the phone. =)

So, as a friend has written on my yearbook. . .Love, luck, and lollipops!

Cheers, and have a really nice day!

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