The news for the last couple of weeks has been pretty depressing, faith-in-humanity-wise. I’m going to turn off CNN/MSNBC for now and put this video on instead.
Or maybe this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdqjp3yK1Co
Feel free to share your own chillout/de-stressing techniques — videos, music, books, meditation techniques, whatever. Or any other brain bleach you want to pass along.
Consider this another open thread for uplifting stuff. No trolls, MRAs, etc.
The kittie are so lovely! Animals always help me: specifically dogs in costumes(some lovingly home-made):
http://ghk.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/15/12/55094deb36e29-16-seal-dog.jpg
http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal01/2010/6/28/17/enhanced-buzz-27484-1277759304-2.jpg
http://minionhalloweencostume.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hot-dog-halloween-costume.jpg
and my Favorite : Chubbs the Pug 🙂
http://starwarschick.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/banthapug-07-crop.jpg
RELAX.
This water force field
http://i.imgur.com/0XHS6po.gif
This cake
http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/mirror-glazed-marble-cake-olganoskovaa-2.jpg
This corgi
http://themetapicture.com/ding-ding-ding/
Batteries fittng perfectly into a container
http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/batteries.jpg
Loved everyone’s suggestions. For me I guess it’s immersion into animals and music. I basically spent most of the evening on Youtube. I’ve got pretty eclectic (well that’s my word) taste in music. I love Clair de Lune, Birth of the Blues, Dance of the Knights, Boston Pops doing The Entertainer and Maple Leaf Rag.
One of my favorites is Ode to Scratchy Violins from the 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, one of the most awesome films it was ever my pleasure to enjoy. This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbCwLxd-X0s. It has to be one of the most incredible all male dance sequences ever put on film. Sorry I don’t have the actual video. I know my posts probably seem dull without any visuals. Guess I’m a little cyber clueless in that area 🙂
Anyway, I shared a lot of what I found here on Facebook, including Harold’s hilarious sloth and the two great stories from Nikki and Commas. Sharing I can do!
@Clever – Thank God u found Kimchee! What a sweetie! I’m rather partial to cats myself 🙂 In fact there’s a sweet fur baby who wants me to get off this computer and pamper him. So I will.
Sorry everyone, my original link isn’t working anymore. Here’s a screenshot of the Facebook post I linked to in the original comment.
Also, lest anyone think I was being sarcastic (as I sometimes am), the story is genuinely heartwarming. A black woman in a convenience store is approached by a cop who simply asks if she’s okay. She admits that she’s not and so does the cop. Then they share a teary-eyed embrace. It’s a “restored a little bit of faith in humanity” moment.
If you’re looking for calming nature scenes, I like calm.com. They have a bunch of difference scenes to choose from and it’s continuous. You can even do guided meditation sessions (though you do have to pay to access all of them). There’s also an app if you want it on your phone. I use it for background noise a lot, if music is too distracting.
If you don’t have any fuzzies to love on at home and want to snuggle some, call your local animal rescue center. A lot of them are happy for you to just come in and pet the animals for a while. I like a local no kill shelter called Cozy Cat Cottage. As soon as I walk into the room it is a rush to see who can get in my lap first.
I use mynoise.net – lots of lovely relaxing noises there to suit all types.
clever — So sorry about your cousin! The kitten looks adorable.
Another good ambient/nature sound site: Ambient-Mixer.com. You can listen to a variety of atmospheres or make your own.
David, I have to say I admire your mental toughness, exposing yourself to all that MRA++ crap day after day. I always enjoy the comments here, but those OPs — to do what you do, I’d need to buy a new computer and get my window replaced about 9 times per week.
I came here because I’ve spent the last two hours on a political blog trying to counter two right-wingers who believe that whites are the true victims of racism in this country and that Obama has a deliberate policy of trying to cause as much racial division as he can. After saying a lot of nasty things to nasty people, I came here to be in a place where people try to be nice to each other so that I could reassure myself that not everyone in the world revels in bigotry.
When I get frustrated by it all, I try to remind myself that human “civilization” as we know it goes back 10,000 years at most, which is just a tiny sliver of time if you can think in geological terms. Just 200 years ago, most people thought slavery was acceptable, taking the neighbors’ land by force if you had enough of an army was normal, and the total subjection of women was the law of nature. It does seem like social evolution — though at a glacial pace viewed from the perspective of one person’s life — is happening, and if we can somehow bring about advances in social cooperation faster than the advances in military tools of destruction, our species might survive long enough to get to a much better place than where we are now.
Buttercup, that water force field may be the most soothing thing I’ve ever seen.
Lately I’ve been collecting and watching some of the Studio Ghibli movies I previously ignored. Secret life of Arrietty is fairly good for a calming movie, but I especially like the theme song.
I’ve also been memorizing this song, the most interesting I’ve ever seen in Disney movies.
http://www.elcielodecanarias.com/galeria/timelapse-de-airglow-o-luminiscencia-nocturna-en-la-palma/
http://www.elcielodecanarias.com/galeria/timelapse-super-luna-llena/
http://www.elcielodecanarias.com/galeria/el-cielo-de-la-palma/
Whatever goes wrong on this ball of rock, the stars are still out there. And even if Brexit means I have to leave this island, at least I lived here for 25 years.
I don’t really do ‘relaxing’. I prefer to replace angry excited with happy excited
My go to is always Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with the ear blasting cannons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu_xEGTTLRM
I hum along and it makes me smile for 15 minutes
Or I watch 2 guys play Thunderstruck on Cellos
Well, thanks to Paradoxy, I’m wasting a lot of time watching people make tiny models of things. Very soothing, though.
Not super relaxing, but a housekeeping note: there’s a gross ad about “unbelievable Indian rituals!”, shot from a porn between-the-legs perspective, in the Taboola thing at the top. It’s from something called BreakAStory if that helps.
I now have my antidepressant medication.
Going to take it now, see how that works. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to worry about being allergic to Bupriopion or something like that.
@Axecalebur I love that 2cellos thing. 🙂
Today I’ve been doing LOTR quizzes:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/tolkien-vs-jackson-quiz.htm
http://www.absurdtrivia.com/trivia/the-lord-of-the-rings/
@Oogly
G’luck, buddy!
@Fishy
Noice ?
Their whole channel is fulla awesome! “They Don’t Care About Us” and “Vivaldi Allegro” (if you’re in a classical mood) are particularly good
@clever:
OMG, that kitty is so darling! And the story reminds me of how my torbie Sasquatch showed up on my doorstep, too…hungry, scrawny, but clean and healthy, very sweet and loving, and already housetrained. I suspect she was abandoned (I live right on the edge of town), but whoever did it is the loser. I’ve gained a wonderful buddy and magickal familiar. She follows me patiently around the garden, watching me at work. When I took her to be spayed, she came up out of the anesthesia purring, cozily stretched out on her heating pad with all fours happily in the air. The vet-nurse called her “a total love sponge”, quite accurately. She sleeps on my legs in the winter, shows concern whenever someone is upset, and is even good with kids; my two-year-old niece adores her. This August will be the third anniversary of her adopting me.
Favorite Scene from my second favorite Anime
I throw in my go to chill music, Frank Ocean
@Axecalibur I can spell, really! I just can’t type. 😛 Or cut’n’paste, apparently….
Just for you. 🙂