What follows is a list of 50 jump starts to your mood. For a total tune up—to wrench the spinning-in-the-dark-mud mind completely out and back onto the sunny expressway—the Mood Mender recommends a plan of (5) (26) and (45) over a period of two days with no deviation. This will guarantee success. However, we realize that this two-day comprehensive cure is not always available, in which case one or a combination of these techniques and cures will at least get the motor running.
Walking Cure
1. As soon as possible, strap on some appropriate footwear and hit the pavement, sidewalk, sand, dirt road, or ideally, the hills.
2. If it's feasible, grab some walking sticks, those will make you feel even better.
3. Take a different path than usual, that will get your neural pathways hopping
4. A 15 minute walk will distract you from your mood; a three hour one will have you mentally skipping
Workout Cure
5. Move until you're drenched in sweat.
6. Sweat for at least an hour.
7. Keep sweating in the steam room.
8. While sweating do not wear hideous workout clothes, that means, paradoxically, no sweat pants or long-sleeve college t-shirts.
9. Gym machines are good; weights are better.
10. Doing shoulder presses and squats while listening to rock and roll is the best.
Talking Cure
11. Call your mom.
12. Talk with your mom about philosophy, art, movies, gossip, brain science, or astrology.
13. Call your friends. Texts don't count.
Writing Cure
14. Open your laptop wherever you are and start typing
15. Find a good pen—thin sharpies are especially satisfying—and start writing.
16. Fill up lots of white space. Your psychic self is calling you back.
17. Write about your dreams.
18. Write about your frustration.
19. Write about something completely foreign to you.
Cooking Cure
20. Open a cookbook and plan a meal.
21. Buy the food to make that meal.
22. Ideally, the meal should be light. Homemade soup is tonic.
23. Clean as you cook.
24. Try something new.
25. Eat your creation.
Diet Cure
26. The diet cure is akin to the cooking cure, but works best over time, two days minimum; eat fresh, whole, raw foods.
27. Make a salad that rivals expressionist paintings in its color palette.
28. Eat huge trees of broccoli.
Grooming Cure
29. Take a bath.
30. Get a massage.
31. Get a facial.
32. Get your nails done.
33. Take a steam bath.
34. Do any of the above with a candle lit.
35. Smell and wear perfume.
36. Groom your space too. Throw out broken, unusable things. Make a place for usable things and put them there.
Reading Cure
37. Go to the bookstore and let your mental divining rod bring you to an author with a powerful voice.
38. Revisit the authors you love.
39. Read books with nice, tactile pages.
Meditation Cure
40. Wherever you are, breathe.
41. Make the breath meaningful.
42. Dreaming counts as meditation.
43. So does daydreaming.
44. But, above all, the most powerful meditation is sleep.
45. Sleep for at least 8 hours, two nights in a row.
46. Sleep on freshly-washed sheets; if they are just popped out of the dryer, then bliss will come.
47. Sleep in a familiar bed in a silent room.
List Cure
48. Make a list.
49. Do something on that list.
50. Cross it off.
Walking Cure
1. As soon as possible, strap on some appropriate footwear and hit the pavement, sidewalk, sand, dirt road, or ideally, the hills.
2. If it's feasible, grab some walking sticks, those will make you feel even better.
3. Take a different path than usual, that will get your neural pathways hopping
4. A 15 minute walk will distract you from your mood; a three hour one will have you mentally skipping
Workout Cure
5. Move until you're drenched in sweat.
6. Sweat for at least an hour.
7. Keep sweating in the steam room.
8. While sweating do not wear hideous workout clothes, that means, paradoxically, no sweat pants or long-sleeve college t-shirts.
9. Gym machines are good; weights are better.
10. Doing shoulder presses and squats while listening to rock and roll is the best.
Talking Cure
11. Call your mom.
12. Talk with your mom about philosophy, art, movies, gossip, brain science, or astrology.
13. Call your friends. Texts don't count.
Writing Cure
14. Open your laptop wherever you are and start typing
15. Find a good pen—thin sharpies are especially satisfying—and start writing.
16. Fill up lots of white space. Your psychic self is calling you back.
17. Write about your dreams.
18. Write about your frustration.
19. Write about something completely foreign to you.
Cooking Cure
20. Open a cookbook and plan a meal.
21. Buy the food to make that meal.
22. Ideally, the meal should be light. Homemade soup is tonic.
23. Clean as you cook.
24. Try something new.
25. Eat your creation.
Diet Cure
26. The diet cure is akin to the cooking cure, but works best over time, two days minimum; eat fresh, whole, raw foods.
27. Make a salad that rivals expressionist paintings in its color palette.
28. Eat huge trees of broccoli.
Grooming Cure
29. Take a bath.
30. Get a massage.
31. Get a facial.
32. Get your nails done.
33. Take a steam bath.
34. Do any of the above with a candle lit.
35. Smell and wear perfume.
36. Groom your space too. Throw out broken, unusable things. Make a place for usable things and put them there.
Reading Cure
37. Go to the bookstore and let your mental divining rod bring you to an author with a powerful voice.
38. Revisit the authors you love.
39. Read books with nice, tactile pages.
Meditation Cure
40. Wherever you are, breathe.
41. Make the breath meaningful.
42. Dreaming counts as meditation.
43. So does daydreaming.
44. But, above all, the most powerful meditation is sleep.
45. Sleep for at least 8 hours, two nights in a row.
46. Sleep on freshly-washed sheets; if they are just popped out of the dryer, then bliss will come.
47. Sleep in a familiar bed in a silent room.
List Cure
48. Make a list.
49. Do something on that list.
50. Cross it off.
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