BS: what cheers you up?

Subject: what cheers you up?
From: Dorrie
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 05:53 PM

what cheers you up? i'm really sad at the moment for loads of silly reasons i went to a session on sunday and it didnt even make me smile! just wondering about all you guys out there in cyber space. i usually find singing really loud in the bath is good. U?

d xx

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: RichM
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 05:59 PM

Depends on why I'm sad. Anticipating the arrival of spring helps.
Getting outside, going downtown, visiting my favorite music stores(--where I have friends I can talk to).
Going to a concert helps.
Playing a gig always helps my mood, my energy level.

Having a partner to share my sadness with, is a big one.

Ultimately, the most effective one is looking at why I'm sad, and making a start to do something to resolve the cause.

Rich McCarthy

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:00 PM

At the moment, not a lot.... a good sing helps though.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:02 PM

Then, in the words of Queen 'a nice long ride on my motorbike', or better still, my friend's motorbike (she's got a really big one.....)to the beach to walk in the wind.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:03 PM

Singing at the top of my lungs on the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere.

When singing doesn't cheer me up or I have no inclination towards music, it is usually a sign that I might be getting depressed and I take plenty of preventative measures.

Hope you find something to bring you cheer. I would tell you a joke to help things along, but I'm afraid all the jokes I know are so bad that they would have the opposite effect!

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: InOBU
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:03 PM

AH LIZ! Ya beat me to it! I was going to simply say... "nothin" ... that would have cheered me up immeasurably! Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Menita
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:15 PM

Oh Dorrie, I'm sorry you feel so low. I find looking thru' old photo albums cheers me up. Giving my mind time off helps to get things into perspective. Being a woman has a lot to answer for-can't expect those poor chaps out there to even try to understand! If you need someone to talk to-I'll listen. LA

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:17 PM

Playing with my goofy cat!

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Amergin
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:27 PM

my partner....

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Desdemona
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 06:46 PM

When in doubt, immerse yourself in hot water: I always head straight for the bathtub (a whisky on the side doesn't hurt, either).

Getting out & seeing people whose company I enjoy & having a good, hard laugh.

A hot cup of tea, a good book, and the leisure to enjoy them.

A nice long walk, long enough to really feel the blood pumping through your veins & to put some colour in your cheeks.

A long drive at top speed, singing at the top of my lungs.

Hope you feel better soon!

D.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: gnu
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 07:22 PM

Number one is cheering someone else up. Number two is just talking to someone. Number three is the Cafe where I can usually find something to occupy my mind. So, I can combine 1 & 3 and tell you that you are in good company. If all else fails, put on some Rickie Lee Jones and settle in.... might I suggest "Company". It might be a bit down, but it's the blues, man, and it helps to know it's not just us... after all, like Red says, we're all in this together.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: dagenham doc
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 07:50 PM

Good point 'gnu'.. cheering someone else up always works for me, and performing is the way I cheer up others.If it has lifted them, it's sure lifted me . You know that feeling??

Doc.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: gnu
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 08:42 PM

Oh yeah.... it's the best... that's why we do it. That's what folk, trad, rock, blues, rap (yes, even crap) ....... is. It's being human.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 09:32 PM

Playing and singing - by myself is good; with others with compatible musical tastes is better; for an audience that actually listens is best.

Any kind of aerobic activity - x-c skiing, jogging, just brisk walking.

A client paying a bill.

A little good ale or good bourbon - provided that I remember that more will not necessarily make me feel even better.

One other answer is too obvious to need mentioning.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: The Pooka
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 09:36 PM

Well *listening* to good performers, like youse guys, *does* lift the spirits of us civilian audience-types; so if that's a mutually-reinforcing thing, all the better! Gnu, yeah even "crap" could do it sometimes; but that's a moot point, we talkin Mudcatters here...)

For me, humor often works too --- especially if it's totally ridiculous and and directed at me by my compassionate wife. It is so aggravating :) to be lifted out of the black gloom and set to giggling, by having yer significant-other poke fun at you with unerring aim & exquisitely anarchic skill.

But lucy ann -- Yes us "poor chaps" out here can "try to understand" -- & succeed, even! We get sad. Depressed, even. We do. And Yes we can even admit it. (Well. Sort of.) /I read (today!) how our *symptoms* are somewhat different from yours; but -- so wot? The cause is the same. / Sometimes maybe we need another man to talk to. / More often, maybe a woman. :) / Woops Sorry. I think I'm cheering up, here.

Dorrie, I sincerely hope you feel better very soon. / I wish you could hear ME sing really loud. You'd roar with laughter I can assure you, and lose dem blues. / But I won't suggest this therapy take place in the bath; that would wreck the effeck. (The horror! The horror!)

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: pattyClink
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 10:05 PM

Committing some small mischief. Who needs a chuckle or a peg-down, what can you do to shake things up? Can be elaborate setups or just zoom a harmless missile over the cubicle wall,

Calling an old friend or sibling and telling them about something idiotic you've been going through, and finding things to laugh about.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: hesperis
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 10:32 PM

Depends on what kind of sad it is... some sadnesses are worth a good descent into the dark...

My friends cheer me up when I need them too, and don't cheer me up when I want to enjoy the beautiful melancholy mood.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:01 PM

beer.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: michaelr
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:14 PM

A big fat hooter of NorCal's best.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: dagenham doc
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:16 PM

hesperis... Oh how right you are! Midchuck.. I find it hard to get up when I'm down...or is it down when I'm up?

Doc.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: kendall
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:30 PM

A stiff shot of 16 year old Scotch! Seamus. I wish you were here to share it. I might even let you play my Apollo 12 string! Thanks again my friend, that was one hell of a gift.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: kendall
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:38 PM

What cheers me up? thinking of all the beautiful friends who have sent me e mails and PM's from all over the world.I dont know what I did to deserve it, but, I sure do appreciate it.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: CarolC
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:51 PM

Frank Capra films frequently cheer me up. Playing my accordion usually cheers me up. Writing often cheers me up.

Laughing almost always cheers me up. And of course, enjoying friends cheers me up.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: CarolC
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 11:55 PM

If I reach my goal of getting healthy enough to go rollerblading, I think that will cheer me up, too.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 12:31 AM

"some sadnesses are worth a good descent into the dark..." yeah, but sometimes the dark just swallows you up, and that's when things need help like right NOW!

My own little dark pit of despair has been looming larger and larger for a while now..... not exactly helped by some stuff on here recently either. It's got to the point where I don't know if I'm taking my home problems out at work or my work problems out at home..... Ian Dury may have come up with lots of reasons to be cheerful, but sometimes you can be hard pressed to even find one.

Personally I find looking through old photo albums terrible, they bring back memories of happier times, yes, but then you remember the people you were with, and what has happened to them, and sometimes the remembering is too hard to bear..... all those happy faces, all those might have beens...... that smiling cheerful face in my last school photo, glad to be leaving school, but then I remember what happened later that year...... the girl on the boat having the time of her life with a man she loved more than anything... where is he now? Married to someone else and out of reach.... the boat long gone to another shore.

When you're down in the dark, sometimes thing just get darker.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Mudlark
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:08 AM

I think the very act of trying to "cheer oneself up" is depressing, and often bound for failure. Happiness is a byproduct, not a goal in itelf (I know this is true, but I have a hard time living it myself). The two things that usually get me out of a downward spiral are: interaction with somebody else, preferably someone who wont point out to me how lucky I am (I know that already...and for some reason sometimes it doesn't help), and tackling a difficult job and getting it done...somehow in the act ov focusing on the job at hand, and the satisfaction of completing it, my mood often turns around. For shallow depths, a rousing romp with my dogs outside usually works, as do lots of things, like actually achieving an unblurry Bminor, singing loud (especially whle driving with the windows open, singing along with something that rocks and I really like, like Bonnie Raitt). And sometimes I can even write myself out of the blues, by getting all the circular thots in my head down on paper in a linear way that helps--sometimes--to lead me to the source of the problem.

And sometimes, the only thing to do is let the blues have their way with you, and hope you wake to sunshine the next day. Hope things are looking considerably brighter by the end of this thread!

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: C-flat
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 03:26 AM

In a bid to improve my fitness, I recently bought a bicycle. As I knew that my 5 year-old daughter wouldn't let me go without her I added a second saddle to the crossbar and some foot-rests. Although pushing a combined weight of 18 stone and being 20 years out of practice, I've found this activity to be a most uplifting experience. If I ever feel down, and there's been plenty to be down about lately, I get the bike out and spend an hour with my daughter seeing the world through her eyes!

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 07:14 AM

Reading the "Campsite at Drumcree" thread(s) on Mudcat helped a bit when I was in my recent pit of despair. And the "Humor Us" threads have enough daft jokes to curl up the corners of your mouth. (The joke perma-thread is here.)

Listening to Tom Lehrer's "Vatican Rag" makes me laugh out loud every time.

Rock climbing at the local climbing wall. I've found that climbing and climbing til I fall off (safely) works wonders to get adrenalin flowing and tires me out. Sense of achievement plus sense of exhaustion - mental and physical focus so you can't think of anything else, even if you want to.

Are you near the sea? That's usually a good spirit-lifter. The smell and the wind and the water and the sound.

Buy some nice food, spend time cooking a good meal, enjoy it with a great wine.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: CarolC
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 07:59 AM

These guys almost always cheer me up...

Click for some laughs.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 11:14 AM

My partner giving me a boot in the butt. Reminds me of how much I have to be grateful for.

And I wouldn't do alcohol to alleviate sadness on a bet. It's a depressant -

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: greg stephens
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 11:25 AM

Well, on my birthday recently I got sent a card which was a picture of Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin in bed together with no clothes on. And I cant explain why, but on a bad day looking at that picture helps make me feel that the universe is basically a Good Place.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 12:43 PM

Prozac and Xanax-25.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Dorrie
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:01 PM

i found a new way of cheering up being reallllllllllllllllllllly bad at accents but still singing everything in them. hahaha

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: CapriUni
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 02:27 PM

Laughing hard -- even fake laughing (just chanting "Ha, ho, he, heh, ha, ha, ha"); keep fake laughing up long enough, and it will turn into real laughter -- especially if you try not to laugh, for some odd reason. Maybe singing in a fake accent is akin to that.

Creating something -- drawing a picture, writing a poem or song and then giving it away as a present; inventing a cat toy and then watching my two kittle cats leap after it. Anything that provides tangible evidence of my value in the world.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 05:51 PM

As someone here has already said, it largely depends on what exactly is making me glum.

1.) PMS: Extract of Chastetree berry. 2.) Grey day: Think about next sunny day (when it's not *too* cold) when I can take a drive in my convertible. 3.) Bad day at work: "Red Dwarf" in large quantities with my sweety. 4.) Interpersonal political BS/flames/injustices/double standards/"holier than thou" crap: Get the hell away from it, and spend some time amongst the sane. 5.) Death of loved one/acquaintance: Time with other someones to reconnect, and share the mourning.

If all else fails, the turning of the earth always helps.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 06:11 PM

Ah Celtic Soul - what sage advice - I liked it -

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: SharonA
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 06:24 PM

"Laughter, the Best Medicine", as Reader's Digest says. When I'm down, I'll gravitate to TV shows that consistently give me a good belly-laugh or six (for example, the "Sound Effects" game on "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" seldom fails me!).

I also get a kick out of listening to unintentionally funny songs; this morning on the way to work, I heard Frank Sinatra's jazzed-up version of "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" and that was good for a broad smile! Then there's Bobby Darin's rendition of "Artificial Flowers" – I never fail to grimace gleefully at the improvised ending:

Throw away those artificial flowers,
Those dumb-dumb flowers,
Fashioned from Annie's,
Fashioned from A-a-a-annie's
Des-pa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-air.
(Give her the real thing!)"

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 06:48 PM

A good pint or three, Good company and a song. Preferably with a good win against England at the Arms Park/Millenium Stadium.

My God them pirates new how to enjoy life !

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 07:40 PM

Then there's good friends who send you virtual Sean Connerys (I'll never ride side saddle again) and chocolate..... better already!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Amos
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 07:56 PM

Wal, in the final analysis the only things that cheer me up are (a)communicating with friends (b) producing valuable results and (c) the truth. This last is a special joy when available. Sadly rare, tho'! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Big John
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 08:32 PM

Listening to radio reports of proceedings at Dail Eirann. (The Irish Parliament). Todays discussion centred on the awarding of a Government contract of 50 million euros to an English company who had a bank balance of 5 euros. It sounds like an Irish joke but its true.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: GUEST,John Gray ( at work )
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 09:39 PM

Sex.

JG/FME

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: YOR
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 11:02 PM

I'll second that vote! SEX

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Diva
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 03:36 AM

Well..chocolate..... and hugs both real and virtual...and what worked this week was reading Night owls thread. Made me realise that the people who matter most to me are still here and all in fairly good nick.

Diva

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: hesperis
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 01:41 PM

LTS - sorry, didn't mean to belittle the OTHER dark. I've been in both places. One is rather enjoyable, the other DEFINITELY isn't!!!!!!!!

*Hugs in apology*

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:18 PM

Watching my half grown cat (whom I helped deliver) run, tumble, slide and fall up and down stairs. He never learns. Then watching 12 year old Homey chase the kitten up and down, in and out until both need a rest. He has never learned either.

I sing when I am happy. Can't do it when I am sad.

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: Dorrie
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:25 PM

guys please bear in mind i'm only 17!!!!!!! i'm far too young for sex!!!! hahaha no its true.

chocolates, singing and laughing are ace

d xx

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: JudeL
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:27 PM

LtS ... Chocolate & Virtual Sean Connerys ..... sounds good to me .....it must be a really good friend who knows you well ... the only thing is what's this about never riding side-saddle again?

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: SharonA
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:31 PM

Diva: I dunno, I found Night Owl's thread depressing. Not because of the stories of tragedy in her life, but because of the stories of all the things she has done with her life. Makes me think, "Geez, I'm 45 and I haven't done sh** with mine!!!!" (I'm not sure how true that really is, but one tends to think in absolute negatives when one is in a funk!)

Subject: RE: BS: what cheers you up?
From: bflat
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:43 PM

Positive thinking; music; friendships; serving an ace; my grandson's voice; humor(I have some funny friends, natural comics); doing things for others and lots of happy memories works for me.

Ellen