7 Ways to Kick the BLUES
Right in the Face

Day 308

March 9th, 2014

Team Zybko

I have never write here claiming to be something I am not. My kids however occasionally accuse me of exaggerating. Psshhh, what do they know? They are no longer welcome here, go away, it's my blog, it's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Today is no different, although my drivers license weight remains off by 23 and a half pounds and surely I'll never admit to picking my nose, otherwise I remain consistent, typing from a truthful heart. Navigating, laughing and stumbling through my less than perfect life as I post regularly on the Wide World Web. Perhaps my experiences and lessons learned will fall upon the right laptop, opening the ears of people who may possibly be bumping up against similar walls of a similar season. 

It's been a different sorta year, trudging slowly through mud with a big fat harry monkey on my back. Change is hard. I somehow failed to see the gigantic waves coming my way, totally blind sided by the trials of transitions caused from the move. Changing gears, moving to a new city, leaving behind the familiar city our entire family called home wasn't as easy as I had anticipated. Pulling up huge roots a little at a time, dragging them in dirty clumps behind the prison van all the way down the interstate. Trying my darndest everyday, morning, noon and night, desperate to get my grove back. I. Can Do.This. 

 I burned smelly rubber attempting to kick the funk and suck it up. Sorry to the nice people of Charlotte as I walked around for months with an atomic wedgie while taking my own advice to simply pull up my big girl panties. Despite my efforts and well earned rashes, the blues stuck around, refusing to leave. Some things did help. I can see the light once again.

 My helpful suggestions about how to kick the blues come from a regular soccer mom, not a well schooled Psychiatrist or any title of the sort. I am certainly not authorized to write prescriptions or properly pronounce fancy medical terms. But if it makes you feel better I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. 

1) Clean up and Get Dressed

No excuses. Regardless of your circumstances. 

Maybe you spend back to back hours in a cute little home school classroom, conference call from a home office, use your day searching for a job or perhaps you are retired. Doesn't matter. Get up, take a shower, allow the warm to wash over you, clean behind the ears and freshen up. 

Extra credit; pull out the blow dryer out from the bottom bathroom drawer, wear pants with buttons, apply some mascara and/or shave your legs. 

You look good you feel good. 

2) Think Outside Your Bun

Do something for someone, anything for someone else. Send a nice FB message, a handwritten card or inspiring text to a friend. Volunteer at church, nursing home, elementary school, your kids sports team or babysit for a busy mom who could use a helping hand. Taking the focus and thinking off your world and lonely thoughts is a beautiful thing. Too much time to think about yourself is just that. Too much time dwelling on the less than positive just won't help.  

3) Do NOT Run Over Annoying Happy People 

Try hard not to misunderstand others in your daily path that aren't in the same season as you. While most of us have been on both sides of the blues fence it's much like childbirth memory. We tend to forget responses that help or that we may or may not want to hear. I cringe to think about the actual number of down people who have mentally punched me in the face. Happy people are annoying when you are down in the dumps. Period. Sometimes smiling sympathetically while spewing forth ding ding cookie cutter responses pours salt into the wound. 

I mean well, they mean well, we all mean well. Dig deep sister, into the depths of your gut, count to ten in Spanish, buy yourselves a few seconds to find your best thank you for listening face, strap it on til the parking lot but DO NOT run them over with your SUV. I know you want to. Just remember the po po will find you and I'm pretty certain jail is worse than the blues. Although, I've heard some cushy institutions have cable, cool hot pink jumpsuits and specialty coffee. 

Side note; you will never pull off the whole...but it was an accident Oss-ahh-fer. Instead, B-dazzle an old T.J Maxx shirt and cruise through the Starbucks drive-thru to order yourself a legal latte.

4) Get Off Your Butt and Exercise

Hang with me as I use the term exercise loosely. I'm not suggesting you rush out to buy coupons for local Cross Fit classes or train to earn yourself an oval 13.1 sticker to slap on the back window of the family mini-van.

No overachieving, no medals won here. No gym membership required, really. Simply walk around your neighborhood, do push-ups, crunches, jumping jacks as the kids watch a fun show, obstacle courses at the park instead of parking your big ole sad butt on a bench or a hearty game of backyard dodge ball. Get the blood moving and grooving. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

Disclaimer: this type of easier work out will not in any way combat the comfort eating you have come to know as a close friend. Yes, I realize the sweet ladies at Krispy Kreme know your order by heart but they are not your friends. The healthy sized bin of clothes you stuffed out of sight toward the back of your closet is.  

5) Do NOT Put Your Hope in People

As a textbook extrovert and self nominated people pleaser this number hurts my own feeling. Over the past few days I have mentally backspaced several times before actually typing on my laptop. Look here, the truth is people disappoint.

God however does not. HE never leaves you or forsakes you. HE always hears us. HE is always ready and willing to meet us for long talk and hot cup of coffee. God has never forgotten my birthday, sent me a nasty email, given me an ugly attitude, mis-understood me or thought I wasn't worth his time, love and energy. Spend quiet time with the Lord, DAILY. 

Find some scripture, write it down, put it where you can see it and feel it, multiple places in your everyday life. All over your house, your car, tuck an index card in your sports bra, in your pocket and tape it to the back of your Otter Box phone case. Above everything else written here this is the best advice from my heart I can pass on to you. 

6) Crank the Tunes

Old school country songs and ballads won't do. Lyrics and slower rhythms that promote big ugly cries isn't where it's at. Don't stay on that screen. This is the audio version of gorging your way through a dozen cupcakes in an unlit kitchen after the family has gone to sleep. One song, one cupcake. Yes, that is OK but most of us won't stop there. Instead, keep play lists upbeat and lively. Pick songs you can't help but shimmy shimmy co co puff your hips while folding laundry, sing loudly along to during 5 o'clock traffic jams or your favorites that evoke the need to air drum away the mundane task of dirty dishes.     

7) Enjoy the Beauty All Around You

This is an easy one. Take pictures of the all the pretty around you. A budding flower, colorful soccer field sunsets, wispy white clouds, a newly planted tree or an abandoned birds nest. Keep them on your iPhone camera roll or make it your screen saver for easy reference. Use them to remind you, days come and go, the sun will rise and set daily, storms will pass and sunny days will fill our hours and weeks. No season last forever. The storm will pass. Hang in there. I guarantee you, a rainbow is coming.