and so I will eat this small block of fancy cheese, for morale. I will take a break and drink some tea, for morale. I will pick up that weird bug, for morale.

this morning, my great-aunt was shot by the soldiers fighting for power, and God forbid, i lose more of my family members before eid this friday.

please read below to understand what is happening and how you can help my country. i hope the tumblr community can show more kindness than the lack of support and advocacy i’ve seen elsewhere.

Excited for this outcome. Especially because Tumblr is so English-centric, even though a lot of people are not native speakers.

As always, reblog for a bigger sample size.

Step one gathering supplies. The supplies you need will be based on your needs and the text you are annotating so feel free to fit this to your need or habits.

For physical books: highlighters, pens, sticky notes, page flags, index cards, the book/document

For digital books: your device or choice (might do an in depth post of digital texts later)

step two- creating your key

For small documents, I tend to stick to one color (each of my classes are assigned a single color).

For Longer documents, with lots of information, I will create a key for example:

keys should be based on what information is most important. In my history classes dates and names are more important whereas in a science class terms and chemical formulas may be most important.

You should also keep in mind why you are reading the book/document. For example: Are you reading to write a book report? Then it would be best to highlight the thesis and any points you wish to bring up in your review.

some parts of your key will most likely not need writing down after they become habit, for example after highlighting an important term, I will underline the definition of the term. (I personally tend to under highlight)

very important highlighted text will also get a page flag so that it is easier to find when reviewing, write a review, etc.

step three- your first read through

break the reading into smaller segments, for example. if you are reading a textbook or information-dense book you may wish to use headings or subheadings as your guide for this. if your text is not already broken into smaller section resign yourself to summarizing after every few paragraphs

You can write your summaries in whatever way suits you, your habits, or the book you are working with.

For this book I am writing my summaries in index cards, but I could have written them in sticky notes, or in a notebook (physical or digital.) I have tried all of these techniques and I like them all and tend to switch between them.

On the back of my summary cards, I write the page numbers the information was pulled from so that I can more quickly find the information if I need to quote it.

The world is less scary and chaotic if you lie down on the floor

Noticing different kinds of light (stars, candles, sunshine or city lights) can bring back the feeling of wonder and hope

If you can’t shower, washing your hands and face will help you feel better and cleaner

If you can’t clean anything else, changing and/or washing your bedsheets can do wonders

Fresh air and being outside in general can help with depersonalisation

Spending time around animals can help you recognise what’s important and calm anxious thought cycles

Techniques for emotional regulation in children can really help adults too

Putting random asortment of food on a plate without creating an actual dish still counts as a meal

Drink something warm

Delete that app

Treat yourself as if you were a kid. Buy yourself a toy, play around, learn about cool new things

Fast paced life isn’t morally better and it’s not good for everyone

There is no good reason to keep yourself hungry

Singing to your full lung capacity can be a great way to let out built up emotion

Tension in the face can cause headaches. Try to massage your face regularly

Nothing is as important as your health

You are a whole person on your own, you don’t need someone else to be there to deserve love and attention. Your life can be full as long as you are present

You should cry things out whenever you feel like it

Slow walks are still movement and they do count

It’s never as bad as you imagine it

Try changing your toothpaste flavor if you hate brushing your teeth

Anything can be a stim toy - one of my favourites is a heavy dragon necklace that has a complicated surfice. It’s fun to touch and hold and it’s not even “actual” stim toy

Procrastinating and feeling bad about it is true waste of time. Learn to truly rest. It takes the same amount of time but it is useful

Sometimes you have to force yourself to do the things that make you feel better

Don’t trust the thoughts you have after not sleeping for a while