I’ve been grumpy and moody and grimacy for three days.

Morning meditation doesn’t seem to help. Sunshine doesn’t seem to help. I’ve been sleeping enough, so that’s not it. Talking with friends doesn’t seem to help. Work doesn’t seem to offer respite. I don’t want to do anything, be around anyone—I’m messing everything up, being simultaneously awkward, clumsy and bumming everyone out. It’s not good for business, or personal relationships.

So I’ve checked in with myself, and friends, and gathered some basic, stupid, pointless advice.

Most fall into the category of Just-Because-They’re-Obvious-and-Don’t-Seem-to-Help doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying.

1. Meditation (I’ve been doing it. It hasn’t felt like it’s been enough. Sometimes, group meditation is the thing—so we can’t sit informally on our own, and so we sit for longer periods of time).
2. Eating good, simple, real food: not too much, not too little
3. Exercise (nothing forces us to join our mind and body together in the present moment like reality, rushing at us—bicycling, climbing, yoga…breathe deep).
4. Friends: their advice and their shared experiences help us wrap our dark, solid minds around our mood, instead of merely drowning in our mood.
5. Sunshine—get out, stay out
6. Dharma (read, learn, go in). Read some wisdom. Time to learn.
7. Flirt (this one comes via Dharma Brat buddy Richard, who’s had some experience with feeling down. I personally wouldn’t know how to flirt in this mood, and don’t think I’d be any good at it)
8. Dress well (our tendence when things are hard is to get sloppy. Go the opposite direction, and uplift yourself. Posture is key, here, too).
9. Get away from everything. Go on a hike. Nothing will save you…but Nature will save you:

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is society, where none intrudes
By the deep sea and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”
~ Lord Byron.

10. Take a break. Take a too-hot bath. Read the New Yorker, or watch a silly movie. Go in. Close down proper-like.

11. Relax. Give in. We won’t feel better until we feel better. So don’t worry—there’s no point.