Can You Make Yourself Feel Two Percent Better?
The best self-help advice aims hopelessly low
A couple of weeks ago I woke up in a rotten mood. Like, really rotten.
I absolutely did not want to get up and deal with any of the things I was supposed to. I felt pessimistic, depressed, and laden with all the world’s woes. I had felt like that all week, and there was not a self help guru in the world who could have convinced me I had any hope of feeling otherwise.
But then my partner, who is somewhat of an expert at getting through bad days, delicately suggested a walk. Not a big one — just to the end of our road where we can see the ocean. We’ll take a couple of deep breaths of sea air once there, he offered. And then after that, we’ll turn around and walk to the bakery at the top of the road to get a treat. And then home. That’s it. Fifteen minutes, tops.
I begrudgingly agreed, expecting I’d climb back into bed as soon as we got back. But when we arrived fifteen minutes later, sugary treat in hand, I felt 2% better. Still bad, but now lingering just above outright despair. I then found the energy to make an iced coffee and drink it with said treat on the patio. I then washed my face, scraped my hair back — both things that would’ve been comically unattainable 30 minutes before—and by the time the caffeine…
