When people talk about being unhappy, they often talk about feeling overwhelmed or feeling like they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. They are overwhelmed and feel overwhelmed, they need to download some unnecessary extras. Here are seven ideas to download instantly:
It starts with you.
1. Get a haircut
That big haystack in your head annoys you every time you look in the mirror, but it’s been more than three weeks since you managed to get the professional attention you desperately needed. You’ll feel sleek and sharp and maybe a few ounces lighter once you’ve trimmed it down. You will look great, you will feel more confident and more sure of yourself.
2. Floss
Be honest, you don’t do this as often as you should and you’re overwhelmed by all the rotting food between your teeth. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but you’ll feel better doing it and you’ll be more likely to smile and therefore feel happier.
Move into your immediate physical environment.
3. Clutter your cell phone
Start small by deleting all your ‘read’ text messages, including the dirty jokes you save but are too afraid to forward. She’s been meaning to do it for a while, so do it now, it’ll take less than a minute. Put one or two messages you really need in another folder, and then delete the rest en masse. If you’re feeling brave, get rid of all sent messages as well.
You have taken a lot of photos with your phone’s camera. Probably 60% of them are blurry, poorly timed, poorly framed, full of red eyes, too dark, taken by mistake. Get rid of the ones that don’t work, you’ll feel better and you’ll have more storage space for the good photos of your friends stuck in compromising positions.
4. Mess up your purse/wallet/pockets
Remove five items from your purse/wallet/pockets, you don’t need half of what you keep there.
Get rid of old receipts that you keep for no other reason than to fill your wallet to give the illusion of wealth.
Remove credit cards or store cards that are rarely used. You don’t need them all all the time, and if you lose them, it’s a hassle to call so many card companies — be choosy about what you carry.
Get rid of the ton of business cards you’ve collected. Be honest, you have no intention of following them anyway, you just took them to avoid offending.
Move home and deal with one spot or you probably won’t do it at all.
5. Organize your wardrobe
Start by getting rid of just 7 items, one for each day of the week.
Get rid of the shirt with the armpit stains, I don’t care if you wear it every day, it’s stale, throw it away.
Donate the two pairs of Simpsons socks you received for Christmas. Men: Those disgusting novelty ties hanging on your closet door should preferably go to the incinerator. Ladies, get rid of those gray bras that should be white, you’ll feel much more confident in dealing with any emergency where your top falls off. There’s a coat you haven’t worn in three years, I know you paid $300 for it, but if you never wear it, it might as well be worth $5: donate it or throw it away. There’s also a pair of expensive shoes that cut into your feet every time you wear them because they’re too small. When you bought them, you told the assistant that you had a smaller size because you were embarrassed to admit that you had the feet of a Sasquatch. Donate them so someone with normal sized feet can get the benefit.
Get on with your life.
6. Take care of personal things.
They stir you up inside and boarding them can be off-putting, so it’s no wonder we put off handling these loads.
You owe someone an apology. You forgot her birthday. You called her husband a bum. You kicked her dog. You kicked her husband. You borrowed a DVD and never returned it. Whatever it is, he’s been playing on your mind for far too long. Have to. Do it now. Today. Don’t let it run another day.
Go to your mind.
7. Empty your head.
You can’t understand everything that’s going on, it’s too much! Decelerate. Stop. Get a pencil and paper, spend 15 minutes putting the content of your mind on paper. But not everything, some of the dark things are better kept there: you put it on paper and suddenly it becomes evidence!
Take a look at what you came up with and see if there’s anything in there that’s really important. The rest you can forget. Shred the paper and throw it away (or recycle it responsibly because you care passionately about the planet).
Test it!
Doing some or all of these things doesn’t need to take long and when you’re done you will feel less overwhelmed. Your unconscious mind will breathe a sigh of relief and you won’t experience as many annoying thoughts that occur at the most inopportune times, like when you’re spying on your neighbors (I’m kidding!).
I hope I have made you smile with this short list of ideas to let off steam and feel happier.
