The upward trajectory

The bottom of the emotional barrel is not somewhere to stay for long. Tempting though it may be to mope and cower in self-pity most people bounce back to normality or otherwise take the dark path of seeking solace in dangerous addictions and harmful behaviours. Several times in the past I've been at the bottom of the barrel, one barrel being far deeper than the others, and it felt on every occasion as if the world would never take that turn to feeling good again. But, of course, it eventually does.

As mentioned elsewhere, the key to escaping the doldrums is simply to get going and do something. Overly simplistic? Yes, but it works. The doldrums is a state that can only survive in a vacuum, and is vanquished in many simple ways. Why not go the public library and start to get to grips with Swahili or plant morphology? Or learn about Taoism or Jung?

For me, the main obstacle to escaping the doldrums at the moment is of course joblessness. For weeks it seemed hopeless but this week applications have gone out and things don't feel so bad. Of course they're somewhat forced applications but they still exist and count toward the mental well being tally. Another thing counting towards that vague feeling of happiness is Coursera, where I'm currently chugging through three different Stats courses in a bid to recover all my lost and long forgotten Statistical knowledge. It's hard to fit it all in, but time is so far yielding to the task. On top of that there's the Quirky Muffin, keeping me sane despite all the odds, freelance research (aka doing mathematics for myself), and swimming and cycling in the great outside.

We're into October now, and the days are pretty short already. It's really important to compensate for those shortening days by spending time outside and doing a little bit of what people call 'exercise'. Bleuch, exercise for the sake of it is anathema, but it is necessary and I do fortunately like going for random walks and cycles down a path or two. An hour of being outside at midday in the depths of winter is probably the most important thing for mood control that you can possibly do. Those mid-winter barrels can be pretty deep.

So, the weeks wind on, and progress is being made. A paper is being written and arguments are raging about boundary conditions and quality in my mind, but at least things are happening. It's far worse if they're not. And if they weren't then at least I have a book by Jung, shelves full of novels, and Stats courses to keep me going.

Life's quite good, really.

O.