Art: Citlalicue by Exellero

via Reddit

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An unorthodox tip for mental/emotional health: create a MultiReddit

My life feels existentially crushing lately. Between my waking nightmare of a country and personal struggles I won’t get into for now, I am wildly varying levels of stressed, (socially) anxious, probably malnourished, sleep deprived, and exhausted both physically and mentally.

Some mental health tactics help. I have meds, I exercise more regularly, and I can deep breathe and meditate. Something else I have found to help lately is Reddit. No, seriously, hear me out.

For all its (gradually improving) faults, I think Reddit has some redeeming qualities, one being a hyper focus on topical subreddits. I can go to r/AnimalsBeingBros or r/ImaginaryLandscapes and know that I will see nothing but cute animals being awesome and gorgeous fictional art—I know that I can get a respite from near-daily mass shootings and Trump’s barrage of hate and racism.

I subscribe to quite a few subreddits, but I recently decided to look into MultiReddits, a way to group multiple subreddits together. Then I experimented with creating a MultiReddit of nothing but happy things—stuff like cute animals, beautiful art, and whatever r/BeAmazed is. I use Apollo on iOS, but I think you can make these on the official site too. See the gallery below if you could use help with getting started.

  • In Apollo, click the (+) button, then Create MultiReddit
  • Give it a WikiWord name (no spaces)
  • Click Edit in the upper right, then the (+) button to add subreddits

Sure, it isn’t a therapist-approved emotionally centering 20 minute walk or relaxed breathing exercise, but I’ve found my little MultiReddit to be… helpful? Relaxing, in its own right. Now, when life annihilates my calm, it’s nice to have a ‘happy place button’ as an option.

My HappyPlace subreddits
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Thank you Oscar

Jessi and I got you before we got married. You came into our lives at eight weeks old and graced us with over 14 years of companionship, caring, and love. You were loyal, friendly, and brilliant, sometimes too smart for your own good.

In fact, you were so friendly and delighted to meet people that you even turned your fair share of “I’m not a dog person” folks into fans. And yet, you could be so gentle and patient that you passed the emotional therapy dog test with flying colors.

Thank you for the tail wags, playing catch, kisses, walks, and naps. You were our first dog and the best dog ever.

Love you buddy. Rest in peace.

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If you have trouble breathing through your nose, go see an ENT as soon as you can

Back when I was finishing college part time in Denver, I gradually lost the ability to breathe through my nose. My left nostril was almost always closed, and my right was mostly closed most of the time. I also was stuffed up fairly often without other symptoms of sickness. It was one of those body things that just happened over time and I never gave it much thought; it just gradually became my reality.

One day, I mentioned it to my older brother. Turns out he had the same problem most of his life, but he eventually went to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) who diagnosed him with a deviated septum. In short, this is when the inside of your nose didn’t quite form right, and apparently a lot of people have it to varying degrees.

If your septum is deviated enough, like my brother’s and mine was, you might have a septoplasty in your future. It’s basically a corrective surgery to realign the septum in your nose to open the passageway and allow you to breathe through it.

Now, physically, I’m a relatively healthy person. I’m overweight, but I don’t have any serious physical problems. I got diagnosed and had the surgery in 2017 and it is probably the single best thing I’ve ever done for my body. It had been so long since I could breathe through my nose, I forgot how wonderful it is.

If you have trouble breathing through your nose, or you think you might have a similar problem, I highly recommend getting it checked with an ENT. Because of our insurance, I needed a referral from my general doctor first. But I’m fortunate enough that it wasn’t a difficult process, and it truly was a life changer for me. I hope you can treated too.

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I’m going to start sharing art I like

A painting or drawing of a tree and a figure on a floating cliff

In my efforts to get back to blogging, one thing I want to do here is share more art that I like or find inspiring. I’m scratching some creative itches again, and one of them includes getting back into art with my iPad and Apple Pencil.

I really like this piece. It’s from Bashabez on Mastodon, and it’s called At the Brink.

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My New Year’s 2019 Resolutions

  • Make my bed in the morning. Once a month. Sometimes
  • Put pants on at least twice a week
  • Look out a window once a day
  • Build a shrine to pizza
  • Read an entire book every single hour I’m not working or sleeping
  • Try to get over my hatred of having to cook food and sharpen weapons in the middle of fights in Monster Hunter World so maybe I can try finishing it
  • Get enraged about something and actually remember what it was three days later
  • Maybe start streaming games because my 11-year-old Ninja-loving nephew told me I could be a good streamer
  • Once or twice a week, go to a gym website’s About page
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An essentials playlist for Mike Doughty and Soul Coughing

My friend Jamie Phelps asked me how to get started with Mike Doughty. I grew up on his Soul Coughing band and solo work, so I said challenge accepted.

I created a playlist of studio songs I felt were emblematic of Doughty’s style, quirkiness, and amazingness. It starts with Soul Coughing greats, then launches into his wonderful solo stuff. I’m no music aficionado, so I’m happy to take recommendations for additions and changes.

You can check out my playlist on Apple Music and Spotify.

Sidenote: I don’t use Spotify, but I used SongShift to sync my Apple Music playlist there.

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This Chicago lounge has trophies for Most Resourceful Sport, Sumoball, Animal Revenge, more

I hang out and work quite a bit at The Drawing Room, a lounge/hotel lobby of the Chicago Athletic Association (now, a hotel). As I’ve heard it, the person who bought and renovated the building wanted to do something… unique with the trophy cases in the room.

That means there are trophies for Most Resourceful Sport – Skateboarding, and One-on-One Sumoball, and Animal Revenge: 1st Place – Bear, 2nd Place: Man, and more.

The room is so large and has so much character, it was easy to gloss over these for the first couple months I started coming here, since I usually sit down and get right to work.

If you get the chance, definitely check this place out. It’s amazing.


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