The Side Effects of Endorphins

What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?

Throw it in The Puget Sound

Lament of a Young Man

I never really thought this was a thing until I had this encounter the other day,

Four year old Arthur was frustrated with a poor decision he made.

He picked up his sister and accidentally dropped her. (No harm was done, he was merely hugging her.)

He fixated on his decision and he was sad about this.

His Mom has been coaching him on how to deal with this and this was her technique. I am I am impressed she talked about this with him.

Me – “Arthur you didn’t do anything wrong. “

Arthur = “I know”

A small tear welled up in his eye.

Arthur “Opa I am going to take my frustration and throw it in the Puget Sound. “

The Orange Psychopath and Climate Change

He lives in our heads rent free and never pays his subcontractors. As we move into July summers get hotter and hotter and the regime is accelerating this progression. The negative thoughts linger all the time. I am not sure how I deal with it.

Because we can’t put our heads in the sand but we can’t let it envelop us. because it can.

Doom Scrolling

Managing political anxiety requires a balanced approach of establishing strict media boundaries, focusing on your immediate locus of control, and engaging in constructive, community-based action. Limiting your news intake to a few dedicated minutes per day while actively nurturing your mental health prevents you from becoming overwhelmed by events outside your control.

Nurturing our Mental Health

I think the bottom line is what we can actually control. A wise person once said if one negative thought disappears another one bubbles to the top. I had a friend who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and another who’s burnt to the ground. I imagine they think very little of global warming.

“With especially sticky negative thoughts, I also try to remember that whatever I’m worrying about, if it were resolved–POOF! Just like that!–some other thing I’m not even considering as that important right now, would immediately move to take its place.”

A singing Gekko

McKenzie River 50k

This was of my favorite ultra runs. Generally after 25 miles of running something is going to hurt and sometimes a distraction comes out of nowhere. At this point in the course you are running through lava fields and late summer bees. A bee sting at this point in the race hurts. But it does distract us from tired legs and fatigue.

But I wish I had the wisdom of a four-year-old at that time. I could just throw my frustration into the Puget Sound. Sometimes we have to embrace that four year-old mentality.