*flails*

Grace going “oh!! But!” and teaching them about starfish, to their absolute delight

wait until it gets dark and make tea or coffee or hot chocolate, or if it’s too hot outside make yourself a healthy smoothie with your favorite things in it at any point during the day

put on your favorite underwear, it helps, trust me, it’s an old family secret (i’m not kidding)

if you have a pet, play the “how many things can i stick on you until you move or get mad” game (bonus points if they fall asleep, extra bonus points if a family member sees you and tells you to quit it, extra double ultra points if they join in)

rip a peice of paper into as many little pieces as you can

go to animeseason.com and click “random anime” until you see one that looks completely ridiculous (or actually good) and watch the first episode. repeat if it sucked or if you get bored halfway through

spend at least an hour making a music playlist for how you feel right now and save it for now or when you feel a bad mood rise again

curl up in bed and cover yourself with blankets and pillows and put in music and just lay there for a while (sleeping is also good)

eat everything

drink lots of water

it’s okay bad moods don’t last forever!!!!!! i promise!!! you will be yourself soon and there are people who love you very much, don’t be afraid to reach out to them

you are lovely

i bet there is still a box of crayons in your house somewhere (if not you can get them cheap during back-to-school sales); find them and use them (maybe while watching ridiculous anime)

sunshine if you can manage it or just a sun lamp trust me it matters more than you think especially in winter

hugs even if they are stuffed animals or your pet or your pillow whatever is on hand

if you’ve got a favorite lotion/soap/thing that is scented use it liberally

cry if you need, if it doesn’t start by itself or if you don’t want to attract attention put on a sad movie so you have an excuse

write this down to pull out on future bad days:

it is okay to have a day where you don’t get things done

it is okay not to have a reason for feeling bad

taking care of yourself is a worthwhile use of time

brush teeth (see above)

go outside without a screen and sit, lay down, stand, or walk and just look at the space around you/the sky for a few minutes. Take your break at work someplace you can see outside if you can.

Close your eyes and happy-paws knead a pillow for a couple minutes.

call or message someone you like and ask them about something they like. listening to someone I like talk to me about something they like tends to cheer me up and remind me there are good things, and gets me out of my own head. plus I get to talk to someone I like, and make their day better, too.

I’ve decided on Dairy, Gluten, then Eggs.

But I was curious how many people would go right for bread so here’s a poll:

other favorites from the notes I didn’t get screenshots of at the time:

learn the names/species of local plants, bugs, and birds where you live (iNaturalist or Merlin the bird app help with this)

learn the rules to 10 new card games

steal the colored paint cards from hardware store paint aisles and use them to make art

try out every different apple variety you can find and rank them

similarly LOTS of people in the notes doing soup quests, and a few cheese quests also

similarly lots of people reading/watching certain amounts of media over the year, and tracking/rating it

track the number of cats/dogs/etc you see over the year

biigmiikey: coulle years ago my roommate besties new years res was to be cozier, she got a new bed and rearranged her room and i was like damn that is a great resolution

emmagoldmanfanclub: last year i did sneeze count., i sneezed 1072 times in 2022

digitalcockroach: fr mine for next year is gonna be to read the wikipedia for every currently existing country in alphabetical order

cephalopodink: i do eat more pickles every single year. never regretted it. love eating pickled things., rabble babble, queuettlefish

abysswarlock: only time I did something like this was a resolution to look at clouds and try to see pictures in them at least once a day

prosocialbehavior: last year mine was to unsubscribe from all marketing emails, maybe this year ill do a fun one

t4ttragedy: one year mine was just that every time i felt the impulse to compliment someone i would actually do it, and that was like 3 years ago and i just kind of kept doing that

eevee-williams: my 2018 one was so fun, i learned to make all the classic cocktails, i don’t do it a lot any more but i still do it sometimes, today i got home from work like ‘you know what would fix me? tequila sunrise’, and brother i was so right about that. it’s fixing me

beatnikfreakiswriting: yeah! the year i turned 21 i made my new year’s resolution ‘wear more red’. It was fun, i wore way more red. i like red., year after i did ‘wear more green’ and you know what? I did that!, i now wear both red and green frequently.

akinari-kashihara: Mine was to enter every free giveaway I could nothing btw, I’ve won nothing btw

attractivegkry: I’m going to spend more time in my hammock, once I’m done with school I’m going to visit people and LOOK AT BIRDS when I’m there

blueberrytruth: saw someone on tt whose resolution was to see every artwork from acnh in person, which is a very cool resolution if you have the means to travel

anawkwardblue: I think I’m gonna try weaving!, and making fairy houses for the woods

heylabodega: One year mine was to cook with more butter and the next it was to wink more.

moonspren: one year i asked for book recommendations on Facebook and read every single one, it was interesting but i recommend only doing this with people you trust, i read some shit books that year

hrududil: this year my goal was: 30 cat selfies (with different cats), and also: every time i get boba i get a diff flavour :)

kavat: this year my resolution was to wear more silly little outfits and i think im doing well

khezhatkhaleesi: a couple years ago my reso was to be slightly less of a lil bitch about eating chilli and i did it!!!, got a chilli in my dinner the other week that would have ruined my night in the past but i just barely even blinked

cikero: my most successful one was be nice to bugs, and I still do it :)

bastardclownbaby: yes!!, i am doing Wear All Of My Clothes which is not only fun but useful in helping me figure out what to actually get rid of

yu3s: txt, my new years resolution this year (last year?) was cat journal where i wrote a journal as a cat going on an adventure and saved cat photos, and every cat my friends sent to me or tagged me in i put in the adventure also! like as an apothecary owner cat or a baker cat etc!, got busy and stopped doing it but cat journal will be my resolution next year >:3c protagonist is wizard cat and it will explore the world!

nopeferatu: my new years resolution is to suck and fuck, just kidding i dont really want that, my new years resolution is to make myself like avocados :)

Floral flavors are not much used in my country (USA) so the past two year‘s quest was to taste every flower flavored food I ran across. Probably will be an ongoing challenge for me. Lavender earl grey tea is delicious and not scary for most people. Rose Boba tea is delicious. Fireweed jellybeans that I picked up on a trip to Alaska were insanely good! Elderflower/lemon soda (socata) is a new favorite. Violet candy, OMG so good that I’ve started special ordering it to have on hand all the time (and it makes my mailbox smell delicious). The cost of peony syrup on that same Alaska trip was prohibitive, and I’ve regretted it ever since.

My boy Boromir? Spent FOUR MONTHS in the wilderness! Alone! No roads! High floods! His horse died! I’m amazed he showed up to Imladris wearing clothes, let alone with a decent haircut. I’m fully convinced that he left Gondor looking like Richard Sharpe being presented to the Prince Regent in 1813

*electric guitar riff*

And then rocked up to Imladris a hundred ten days later like

A few months later

All hail the High Warden of Gondor.

I had dropped out of college for the second time, was profoundly depressed, and not sure what I was going to do with my life. My mom took me to an exhibition of the Denver Botanical Gardens' Botanical Illustration program.

It was a color-pencil-on-acrylic drawing of a Witches Broom plant, and I remember suddenly realizing that wait. I know how to do that. I know how to make those marks, how to layer those colors. I could do this.

I could make something good enough to hang in a gallery.

-And that changed things for me. Yeah, actually, I wasn't a total failure, I COULD do that and in fact I think I will. I signed up for the program, got my accreditation as a scientific illustrator, and my fucking dignity back. I even got to take classes from the woman who drew that Witches Broom.

All this is to say: Actually, go in to galleries and see if there is something you think you could do.

Then go do it.

You might find out that the threshold to getting your work shown/published is entirely within your skill level, or (like me) it's something you will get to learn so much more about, or you will wander into a completely different art form but literally whatever happens your life will be richer for it.

Imagine how kickass if the lady in the original post decided to do what Klein actually said did, and we all got a brand new pigment and painting technique out of it. You think you can do that? Good! Go do it! It'll kick ass!!