Day 2337: Maintaining Positive Mental Health

In yesterday’s mostly positive post, I shared this information about maintaining positive mental health:

Tip 1: Connect with others.

Tip 2: Be physically active.

Tip 3: Get professional help if needed (not pictured, but click on the link if needed).

Tip 4: Celebrate every moment.

Tip 5: Be aware of the time, so you can savor it without rushing.

Tip 6: Try not to get overwhelmed by all the data out there.

Tip 7: Observe, just notice.

Tip 8: Welcome everyone and everything.

Tip 9: Travel thoughtfully.

Tip 10: Spend time with people you love.

Tips 11 and 12: Smile and travel light.

Tip 13: Use any excuse …

… to share music you love (here and here on YouTube):

Tip 14:  Practice the helpful antidote to the cognitive distortion of mind reading by reality testing — asking for reactions from people you respect (that’s you, readers!)

Tip 15: Express gratitude, every day.

Day 582: Cool

“Cool” is a word I use, almost every day.  “Cool” is very high praise, from me.

As I wrote about here, I remember being 7 years old and suddenly  being aware of how cool I was, in my own unique way.  Then, as I dealt with illness, multiple  hospitalizations, and adolescence, I lost  touch with my own coolness.

However, whenever I heard cool music, I would move cool and feel cool, during that time.

Here are some examples of what I would classify as  “cool music.”:

(coolness found here, on YouTube)

(coolness found here, on YouTube)

(coolness found here, on YouTube) (and in a previous post, here)

Listening to cool music helps me feel cooler. Even when I feel awkward, down, out of sorts, out of place, or uncool in any way, cool music is a great cure for all that.  When I’m listening to cool music, no matter what’s going on, I feel cool.  I walk cool. I talk cool. Hey!  I am cool.

Let me check in with you, right now, to see if we have this in common. When you listen to sounds you find cool, don’t you feel cooler? Even just a little bit?

Cool.

And now, my cool compatriots, here are some  cool things I’ve encountered recently, in this cool world of ours.

I know that, for some of you, when I include a lot of images, the page can take a while to load. I hope you were able to stay cool, during that.

And I hope you know it is very cool to ask questions and to ask for other things you need, here and elsewhere.

In conclusion, isn’t it cool that I get to share with you sounds and sights I love?

I’m telling you, writing for you all is the coolest.

 

Thanks to Nelson Riddle, to Hank Mancini, to Leonard Bernstein, to cool cats everywhere, and to you, for how cool you are, naturally.