Happy Wednesday!
Do you ever feel like you just cannot anymore with the week? That is where I'm at today. I've had so many difficult emotions to process this week and it is truly setting my OCD alight.
When I feel overloaded and like I'm struggling I love to look at cute things to lift my mood and keep me going.
Today, the cuteness is small kitties and this one is so so so cute!
What do you do or look at to lift your mood during difficult times?
Alex
Dogs are what really get my emotions going! And cuddly animals are recognized as therapeutic - it's quite some while since I've had a dog but I'd love to have one again. At the moment I can't afford it (I'm happy to have a rescued mutt rather than a pedigree - in fact prefer a rescued mutt - but food and vets' bills are expensive) but a dog is great company.
I have my favourite books which I go to for a cheer up. Anything by Jane Austen, or Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April, Shakespeare, poetry anthologies (I have a great one of 18th century women's poetry) is good for that.
Flowers also cheer me up. A stroll in public gardens, or down by the river, helps. I have agoraphobia so don't get out nearly as much as I should but really enjoy a stroll when I can manage it. I'm sorry that you're struggling right now - and thanks for the kitten picture!
I love these suggestions! We don't have any proper gardens close by unfortunately, but there are some very pretty trails and I love going for walks.
Reading is such a favorite past time of mine, but I've never read Jane Austen. I might have to give her a shot.
I am in such agreement with your about cuddly animals! I have a rescue pup and he definitely helps me feel better on tough days.
Thank you for thinking of me 
I always try to remind myself that the bad feelings won't last.
Do read Jane Austen! People too often think of her as a romantic novelist, but she isn't. She is such a sane and rational voice, and extremely funny. She has a way of skewering false values in people and in society and standing up for what is sound and rational, without moralizing. And her characterization is brilliant!
It's really good that you have a rescue dog. A dog can put his head in your lap and wag his tail and it just gives your heart a lift.
You have sold me on Jane Austen! I will add her to my list. Do you have any books or anthologies you particularly love?
There are six full length novels - Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. It might help to start on Pride and Prejudice, but they are all brilliant.
She started writing when she was still a child and some of her early stuff, written in her teens, is hilarious. There is really funny story called 'Love and Freindship (spelled like that, though modern editors often correct her spelling) that is a send up of the conventions of romantic novels, and that was written when she was about fourteen or fifteen.
But perhaps best to begin on the novels!
For anthologies of poetry, I often pick up Eighteenth Century Women Poets, published by Oxford and edited by Roger Lonsdale - remarkable that so many 18th century women expressed feminist opinions! I also like the Penguin Book of Love Poetry. It's good to pick up poetry anthologies as you can discover new things and poets you didn't know.
I also suggest The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim which was first published in 1922. It's about four lonely and unhappy women who decide to share the expenses of renting an Italian castle for a month's holiday. As the flowers in the castle garden bloom and open, so do they. It's also really funny. I like to compare it to a lemon mousse - light but not too sugary and made with nourishing ingredients. It's a real sort of pick-me-up. There's also a beautiful film of it made in the 1980s.
I will do my best to report back to you on these! You make them all sound absolutely divine!!!
I enjoy photography so I often like to look at books of photographs or sometimes my own work. It's calming and reminds me that there's a world outside of my own mental spook shows. That pulls me back to reality and motivates me to resist compulsions and get back on track.
Also, whenever I have a "down" day (feeling discouraged, numb, or whatever, not necessarily OCD-related), I notice I really perk up when I start cooking supper. I can feel dejected about the whole world but sometimes just smelling an onion frying in olive oil makes everything right again. It bothers me a little that food is all it takes but I'll take comfort where I find it🙂
Hope you're having a better end-of-the-week.
MothFir,
I love that you're a photographer! My husband takes some really lovely photos too and I don't know how he does it. I'm fairly terrible with a camera, but I love visual arts and truly admire photographers.
Cooking makes me happy too! That smell of an onion in olive oil is one of my favorite smells ever. I love love love cooking a really great meal and having the whole house smell faintly afterward. You're right, it lifts my spirits too!
Thank you I'm feeling much better. Every once in a while the whole week attacks me at once it would seem!
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