Mental Health

I’ve recently been working longer hours than usual away from home. My dog has been much more physically affectionate when I’m around because he misses me (cries). For example, at night he sleeps against my leg so that he’ll know if I get up. Things have been tough recently but knowing that this furry monster that lives in my house loves me has been helping.

This is probably stupid, but I stopped at a local farm/nursery today to pick up strawberries and saw some super cool looking annuals. I should have taken a picture/written down the flower because it would look awesome potted in my little garden.

They were tiny, super tight balls of color.

They are technically triggers but for good things, right?

Walking in an unkempt field with my dog on a late spring evening, no one else around, listening to the crickets.

The blue sky through a gap in the trees

A momentary lapse in background noise so it's unexpectedly quiet

The feeling of wind tugging at your clothes

Rain on the roof

Kids running home from the school bus

Starlings in the tree out my office window singing

The sun on my back, the wind on my front

Sore muscles from hard exercise

The twist in a short story I read, and the wow moment

My room being tidy

i recently discovered i'm better at basketball than i thought i'd be after years of not practicing

Started antidepressants (sertraline) 2 weeks ago, after refusing them all my life, because of the studies that are mixed at best. I am a pessimistic guy, but I can tell they are starting to work way beyond placebo. It gives me hope after feeling hopeless for most of my life.

Watching my 1 year old daughter rock in her little rocking chair and be perfectly content.

Is this related having goosebumps as a physical reaction?

This happened few days back, I was on a bus and the bus conductor had this infectious smile, the way he was happy and talking to people as he was asking for bus tickets felt wholesome. There was also this lady who appeared to not know the local language who was looking cluelessly as he was talking to the others, he then realised she didn't know the language and he switched to the language she was speaking and made up something funny which I didn't understand because I don't know the language. Seeing how he was able to cheer up the travellers felt wholesome, it gave me much needed positivity for the rest of the day even though he didn't talk to me or anything, it had me thinking how better our life would be if more people were like this.

For me it's bees. Honestly any pollinator, even wasps. I call the ones in my yard my ladies or my babies. I love them so much. I have clover instead of grass for them. I like to stand at the window and watch them.

Dappled sunlight does this to me - it’s almost a euphoria and pretty reliably reproducible. Morning light works the best.

And yes, I did get a CAT scan just to check.

I saw a mother fox and her (kits?) playing near a vacant lot recently and it was the happiest I’d felt in ages. They were just so cute.

Saw a person smile, caught a scent of someone else, was able to breath normally, felt my heartbeat soften, noticed on my skin some small scars from my childhood, remembered a joke somebody dear to me used to tell, saw a young pup react to her first ever experiences, found somebody having a hard time transitioning from Windows to Linux... Thankful to be alive at the same points in time and space as some truly wonderful beings.

Oh, so like any time I see a happy dog.

yeah i have exactly zero of those

My cat usually sleeps my by head, but it's randomly gotten chilly and she's been shaved for the summer, so she was under the blankets. We ended up sleeping back to back. That was my old cat's favorite sleeping position. When I woke up, I was 12 again, just for a little bit.

Sitting out back in my chair and watching the clouds, or crocheting/knitting out there. A nice breeze, sunlight through the trees. Sometimes I just go out there to stand a little and come back in.

I started Monster Hunter Wilds recently and it's reminded me of why I love games. I always think of the friend who introduced it to me and how excited we were when I kill my first "big" monster. I killed this fire octopus last night and I raised my hands up in excitement and was, well, excited and happy. I don't feel that way very often.

And just getting to sit in silence. I live alone, and I'm lucky enough to have good neighbors. Just getting to lay in bed and do nothing before getting up is such a gift.

When I'm girlmoding and I see my silhouette from my shadow or a glimpse of my reflection in something, it makes me feel so nice. Then I see my face in the reflection and it ruins it

Literally any animal I see, wild or pet. Even just thinking about my dog.

Really sweet juicy fruit.

An array of rainbow colors, like at an arts and crafts store.

Sorry to be "that guy" but this post really needs a Glimmer Warning...

Joy? Happiness? Peace? Gratitude? What are those?

That's what gender euphoria is like.

Training to notice things does cause those things to occur more often, you're just noticing more of what was there.

Mental health is not improved by magical thinking. It can literally become its own mental disorder.

Traveling on a ferry, I was having dinner. In the eating area, there was a group of friends traveling together and one dude kept laughing. His laugh was so loud and infectious that everyone he laughed, I couldn't help but chuckle. Even after finishing eating and going to another part of the ferry, I could still hear him and it still made me laugh.