Everyone is on edge right now, I know. I’m right there with you, holding on by one ragged fingernail. For that reason, I wouldn’t consider the following advice from an expert on emotional regulation, but something more like A Possible List of Alternatives to Losing Your Mind from A Woman Who Often Loses Hers (rolls off the tongue nicely).
This is a menu of options, a buffet from which you can choose your own adventure. Take what you might like and leave the rest (and if you take it and don’t like it, throw it away! I’m not enforcing the Clean Plate Club!)
🚨🚨IN CASE OF EMERGENCY🚨🚨
📞 Talk on the phone like its 1997 📞
If you give me your phone number, you run the risk of an unscheduled, impromptu phone call. I won’t even text you first to ask if it’s a good time, I’ll just dial that number and let it rip. Do people answer? Sometimes! Even if it’s just ten minutes of chatting with my mom, my niece, my daughter, my friends, a person I’ve only met online…there’s something about a phone call that makes me feel more connected and grounded and less like I want to scream myself to death.
😴 Go to sleep 😴
The first thing to go when I’m on the edge is my sleep, and I need sleep. One of these gummies (or this with warm milk if I don’t want THC), and this on my headphones and I am sailing away on a snooze cruise.
🕵️♀️ Solve A Mystery 🕵️♀️
My kids got very into whodunnits after seeing Knives Out, which triggered a vague memory of my father watching Hercule Poirot on Masterpiece Theatre and I found it on BritBox. No matter the mystery, it will be wrapped up by a dapper detective who notices everything, dresses to the nines, and is – importantly – not French. It’s cozy family entertainment (unlike half of the movies I’ve ever picked for movie night).
Brick Your Phone
For over a year, this little thing has been a much-needed obstacle between me and the endless scroll. There’s something in the friction of getting up, finding the Brick and tapping your phone to it that makes you think how badly do I really need to get on Instagram? And there’s something to seeing a number like this that reminds you that you have a whole life and a world outside of your phone.
🛟 Help In Real Life 🛟
Even in the reddest of states there are opportunities to serve and restore a sense of shared humanity through small and meaningful actions. You can’t do everything, but you can do something.
📖 Read 5 Elin Hilderbrand Books In a Month 📖
I don’t know how healthy this is, but spending time in the drama of fictional characters on an island you’ve never been to is one of my favorite things!
💌 Send Some Snail Mail 💌
Now more than ever, it’s important to back the blue (the USPS). Do you know how wonderful it feels to get something in the mail that isn’t a bill or a credit card offer? You know you can give that feeling to someone else, simply by sending them a card, a letter or a little surprise package? It’s true (and so fun). This is why I do a monthly book giveaway here!
📝 Do Morning Pages 📝
This is a practice I’ve kept (inconsistently) from The Artist’s Way: a brain-dump free-write on paper that clears the junk from your mind. I did The Artist’s Way on my own but friend and creative guide Elizabeth Kott just opened Club Artist’s Way if you’re curious and want a community to do this alongside you!
🆗 Find The Okay 🆗
You can just call this a gratitude list, but I resent the way gratitude has been used to bludgeon people into toxic positivity and “okay” lowers the bar and gives me the chance to tell you that It’s Going To Be OK is back on Apple, Spotify and ad-free here. Hate to say that noticing the okay in life really does help you feel better, though it’s not as fun as just freaking out!
Yours in earnestness and imperfection,
Nora
❤️ Ruggable gave me a code (NORA15) and their new collection is so cool.
❤️ Caroline Moss and I are using our CurrentBody red light masks every day this year because the world is ugly but we are vain. Code NORAM = 10% off!
❤️ AYR makes elegant, quality basics (like my favorite button-up which Matty got me in white for Christmas and this long-sleeve tee that’s in heavy rotation year round) raaaarely does sales, but it’s 20% off sitewide through February 8 (which is today if you’re reading this on February 8)
❤️ If you like THC but not too much THC, code NORA20 works sitewide for Cann, including the Dry January bundles and the roadies!
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Nora! This list is very inspiring - thank you!
Also wanted to let you know that you were mentioned on Debbie Millman's podcast, Design Matters. Her guest was comedian Chris Duffy and he apparently quoted you in his new book Humor Me. "Grief is so uncomfortable, especially it it's someone else's grief"
p.s. very happy to renew my sub with you - put your money where your heart is!