11 Things You Must Do To Take Care Of Yourself In This Crazy, Crazy World

By

1. Take time off to arrange your desk/bag. Stack loose sheets of paper and tab them accordingly with coloured post-its. Colour-code your files on your laptop, arrange them into a square, a rectangle, a cross or a heart for the ambitious. Sit back and admire your work.

2. Do not sit down and rehash memories about the less crazy days in the past. Happy memories only serve to amplify how crazy life is now, and how much you wish to go back to the good ol’ days. Sad memories just make you sad. Instead, create new memories because you have the power to do so. Keep creating memories because they are fresh and refreshing all at the same time. 

3. Think back on all the little things you never expected to happen today, like the lady who came over to share her umbrella with you under the drizzle when you had nothing to shelter yourself with.

4. Sit down and sip tea. Drink tea. Cup after cup of tea. Feel the catechins flow through your throat and rejuvenate your body.

5. Take a shower. Take a hot shower if you are lonely to remind yourself that there is still warmth somewhere, somehow in this world. Take a cold shower if you need a wake up call; there is nothing more jolting than shivers that accompany the torrents of cold droplets racing down your skin. 

6. Move. Put down everything you’re doing and move. Run, fight, swim, try to defy gravity, try and try again. Until your limbs start to stiffen and you feel like there’s not enough oxygen to go around. Gasping for breath makes you realize how precious this thing called ‘air’ that we take for granted is.

7. Eat ice cream, but don’t pick your favourite flavour. Try something new, like durian chocolate chip. Associate this memory of durian chocolate chip ice cream with this moment, where you are in the process of healing. Don’t taint the memory by eating durian chocolate chip ice cream at any other time.

8. Blast your music, through your headphones or speakers. Listen to dubstep because the bass drop and constant rhythm ultimately tunes your mind out. Listen to jazz when you need a potent and abstract distraction. 

9. Be angry. Be sad. Set a timer for 20 minutes. Then huddle under your covers and lick your wounds in the way only you know how. Let your feelings flow, and then get back up again.

10. If you’re angry with someone, write his/her name over and over again on a piece of paper. Because staring at the same word for too long makes it look funny, and weird. And meaningless. 

11. Remember to give yourself a pat on the back at the end of every day, because you’re another battle closer to winning the war.