How To: 100 Things To Do To Cure Melancholy

Like everyone, I have days where I wake up and don't want to face the world. I let melancholy consume me and become me, leaving me no good for anything but moping for the whole day. 

This little list has been sitting in my journal for a long time now so I thought it was about time to share it, particularly as we are heading into the colder winter months! I contemplated adding photographs to this post but then I thought, lists are much better without them. I apologise profusely if you need some visual stimulation alongside this post. Here is a list of 100 things to do when you're upset. Use wisely! 

♥ Make a playlist of your favourite songs and play it loud, on repeat
♥ Create a duvet fort
♥ Have a big cry, whinge and/or breakdown and then stop thinking about it altogether
♥ Find a little nook and settle down in it with a well thumbed book
♥ Write a letter to someone you've been meaning to re-connect with
♥ Be selfless - think of someone else's feelings and distance yourself from your own
♥ Get dressed up for no reason in particular
♥ Sleep it off 
♥ Make a mixed tape for a friend complete with cover artwork and track list
♥ Wear your favourite jumper because jumpers make everything better
♥ Let your hair down with your friends and stop burrowing away
♥ Get creative and do a DIY. A Beautiful Mess have tons of inspiration. 
♥ Dust off your vinyls and play them incessantly
♥ Attempt to plan the organisation of one part of your life and feel productive
♥ Go through my list of the things that make me happy
♥ Write your own H is for Happy list - it's easy, free and fun!
♥ Go to a car boot sale/charity shop with a tenner in your pocket and see how much you can buy
♥ Watch a string of your favourite movies back to back. I recommend Disney. 
♥ Act like a tourist in your own town/local area. Discover!
♥ Set yourself some goals - some serious, some immensely fun
♥ Tick one thing off your To Do list - you'll be surprised how good you feel
♥ Spend an evening indulging in all your guilty pleasures: Hello 'Angus, Thongs....'
♥ Create a wishlist full to the brim of everything you covet and then purchase an item (sans guilt)
♥ Be indulgent and eat some comfort food
♥ Stop dwelling on things you can't change and focus on things that you can
♥ Host an old school sleepover/slumber party with good company, snacks and films
♥ Abuse catch up TV/watch a whole box set from start to finish
♥ Try your hand at writing. Don't think too much...just get started. Here's how to get started with Creative Writing.
♥ Watch that episode of that programme...you know, the one you know word for word but still laugh at
♥ Bake and then share with loved ones....yes, I said share
♥ Spend an hour doing DHWP to keep your mind busy
♥ Take a trip to the seaside and indulge your senses
♥ Send off postcards to penpals. Don't have a penpal? Go and find one, now
♥ Bookmark some awesome art to buy for your walls
♥ Have a long soak in the bath complete with bath bomb
♥ Throw yourself into clearing your wardrobe
♥ Plan a break away
♥ Watch an afternoon's worth of murder mysteries and punch the air when you guess the murderer (HELL YES!)
♥ Meet a friend for a long lunch
♥ Learn a new skill - a language, illustration, HTML, nail art etc
♥ Compile a photograph album/flip through old ones
♥ Go to the movies and order the largest box of popcorn
♥ Go outside and explore - visit old haunts and create new ones
♥ Have a pamper session complete with a face mask
♥ Eat fish and chips from the paper (preferably from a harbourside)
♥ Test yourself and say 'Yes' - do something out of the ordinary/your comfort zone
♥ Order takeaway food and order too much - ready for breakfast the next morning!
♥ Let off some steam with a walk (and don't give too much thought to the destination)
♥ Buy enough pick 'n' mix to last you a week 
♥ Play a board game. I recommend Boggle and Scrabble.

♥ Cloud watch
♥ Check out a cool local event/attraction, from museums to craft fairs
♥ Note down 10 things you're grateful for that particular day
♥ Sing! Dance! Run around in your pants! Just do...and do it without shame
♥ Recommend something (a book, film, tv show) to someone you love and watch them fall in love with it too
♥ Take a photograph of every hour of your day and make it awesome!
♥ Call a best friend and speak for too long
♥ Load up Pinterest and wave goodbye to a few hours of your day
♥ Create your own listography e.g 'jobs I would like to have', 'the contents of my dream house' and 'my last meal'
♥ Do something fun with your room e.g create a collage or a photo wall
♥ Create your own cocktails or mocktails and trial them on friends 
♥ Drag your bike out the garage and go for a bike ride
♥ Write a Wanderlist - where do you want to travel to?
♥ Channel your inner Alan Titchmarsh and tackle your garden (or buy a shit load of flowers!)
♥ Surprise someone with a gift
♥ Exercise...if you're that way inclined
♥ Rifle through your cookery books and pick a meal to cook from scratch
♥ Wear your favourite outfit
♥ Go on a drive with the windows down and the music up
♥ Lie down and stargaze!
♥ RANT - loudly, eloquently and for at least half an hour
♥ Swim for as long as your legs will let you
♥ Delete those people on your timeline who bring you down. You'll feel less wound up.
♥ Give a piece of your clothing a new lease of life: embellish, sew and cut away to your hearts content!
♥ Share some blog love on Twitter. It'll make someone's day.
♥ Eat brinner (breakfast for dinner!)
♥ Scour Goodreads for new books
♥ Change your hair - cut it, colour it, shave it etc
♥ Grab a drink and go people watching
♥ Donate your unloved items to a local charity shop. They'll appreciate it.
♥ Resort to bowls of chicken soup/brothy noodles
♥ Share terrible jokes
♥ Begin a journal complete with photographs, doodles and prettiness
♥ Channel your inner 4 year old and do some colouring in. Very therapeutic!
♥ Dust off your Sims disc/PS2...shit is about to go down
♥ Watch Scrubs, Friends or Gavin and Stacey (or Dexter because it's my favourite)
♥ Go to your nearest theme park for the day and don't say 'NO WAY!' to any of the rides
♥ Spend an afternoon being bloggy e.g create a schedule, write posts and snap away!
♥ Wander around in your PJs or Kigu for the day and don't apologise for it
♥ Love yourself (heh!): write down your accomplishments, your good points and your dreams
♥ Compile your favourite quotes and stick them around your room
♥ Write down your anxieties or share them with someone else 
♥ Drink some water (or 2 litres of fizzy pop to get off your rocker on sugar and E #s)
♥ Get some friends together and begin your very own take on 'Come Dine With Me'
♥ Suffocate (not literally!) your pet/that cat from next door with cuddles
♥ Watch a Christmas movie/TV special regardless of the season
♥ Illustrate/doodle in your favourite notebook. It doesn't matter if it isn't particularly good!
♥ Start the Journal Challenge
♥ If your 'melancholy' is something that sticks around for a long time: talk to your GP. Trust me, it's the best idea.
♥ Remind yourself that I'm always here                 (& vom at how sickly sweet I am!)

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I really hope this post helps to reach out to people and makes them feel a teeny bit better, at least. Feel free to bookmark this post for future reference and wave goodbye to those dreaded sad days. Do you like lists like this? Would you like to see more? Leave me your own list of things that you do to cheer yourself up when you're upset in the comments below. Life is relatively good at the moment, the return of my indepence is proving to be really healthy for me. I'm off to run a few more errands. Speak soon!  ♥ 

P.S You can read my favourite things to do on a rainy day right here. 

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