Feeling Blah? 70 Things To Bring You Out of a Funk (FREE PRINTABLE LIST)
Feeling Blah? 70 Things To Bring You Out of a Funk (FREE PRINTABLE LIST)
Do you feel as drained and wrung out as I have lately? In a funk? Overwhelmed?
We’re strong women who can pretty much handle anything, right? And we do. Daily. As women and mothers it’s our nature to attend to whoever needs attending, to comfort, to “fix it”. But strong or not, we’re still human, and dealing with constant stress day after day wears us down. Without noticing that it’s happening, we find ourselves waking up to days where we feel totally drained, in a funk, and have nothing left in us to give.
I’ve found myself feeling a bit funky several times lately. Completely and totally spent. Burnt out and exhausted. Have you? How do you handle it? What do you do? I’d love to hear your coping strategies. Is it the season change? The ramp up to the holidays? Lack of sunlight?
When you’re in it, it doesn’t matter what the cause is. What matters is telling ourselves it’s okay, being patient, and taking care of ourselves. To help turn things around, we need to give ourselves the same compassion we give to others.
When I’m feeling overwhelmed, the first thing I do is instinctively go to my list. My list is a collection of feel good things I’ve complied that help me snap out of a potential funk, and help me restore some of that “me time” I’ve been lacking.
Let me share my list with you…I’ve highlighted some products or ideas in red. Clicking on them will take you to things I use, love and recommend. Use mine, or find some of your own!
70 Things To Do When You’re In a Funk
2. Doodle. Learn Zentangle. Color in an adult coloring book with colored pencils.
3. Re-watch a comedy movie that you remember made you laugh hard.
4. Search for and join Facebook groups on topics you’re interested in.
5. Do a crossword puzzle, or word search.
6. Paint your tonenails a riduclous color.
7. Light a candle and take a hot bath with eucalyptus and mint salts.
8. Take yourself shopping for some pretty (not cotton) panties and bras.
9. Clean something that you can finish in one day. (The completed visual is a feel-good).
10. Chill at a local coffee shop with a good book for a couple hours, or just people watch.
11. Pick a room in your house and pretend redesign it – go online and find furniture, paint colors, etc.
12. Play some of your favorite old songs, sing LOUD and crazy dance. – Nobody’s watching.
13. Browse cookie recipes, pick one, go get the ingredients and bake them. Then face pack!
14. Call a friend to meet somewhere for lunch. Or arrange a lunch at your house or theirs.
15. Make separate playlists of your favorite songs in separate genres.
16. Play with new makeup ideas (look for ideas on Pinterest). Then take selfies after each one.
17. Bake something to take to an elderly relative. Spend some time. Give them hugs.
18. Rearrange the furniture in one of the rooms of your house.
19. Go buy an interesting jigsaw puzzle and put it together while you listen to an audiobook.
20. Find free language lessons online and learn enough to be able to converse if you were to travel there.
21. Call a group of friends to come over and play Catch Phrase.
22. Choose a theme or a color, and throw an impromptu potluck. Have guests dress and bring food to match the theme or color. (I did green deviled eggs for a St. Paddy’s Day party).
23. Write your bucket list. Research places or activities that are on your list.
24. Visit a local museum or historical house or building.
25. Take yourself out to a restaurant you’ve never been. Or eat a food you’ve never eaten.
26. Buy bright cheery flowers to put in the rooms of your house you spend the most time in.
27. Go to a yard sale or thrift store and search for treasures.
28. Write a long letter to a friend you’ve lost touch with. Mail it.
29. Buy a year’s worth of birthday cards you’ll send to family and friends.
30. Sand an old piece of furniture and paint it a color you love, not one that matches anything.
31. Pack yourself a picnic, grab a good book, and take yourself to a park for the afternoon.
32. Invite a neighbor who you’ve been meaning to get to know better over for coffee.
33. Teach yourself to crochet – watch a YouTube video for beginners.
34. Write a list of things you’re thankful for.
35. Go to a movie you’ve been wanting to see. Eat popcorn slathered in butter. Buy candy.
36. Spend a few hours wandering through books at the library.
37. Look for an online course on something you’re interested in learning.
38. Organize your pictures or recipes. Use colorful binders, dividers and tabs.
39. Go out in the sunshine and dig in the dirt. If the weather’s crappy, plant some seeds in a pot inside.
40. Plan the details, including mileage and places you’ll visit, of a real or pretend trip.
41. Buy a bunch of scratch tickets, stop for your favorite take out, and binge watch a sitcom.
42. Treat yourself to a massage or a facial.
43. Pick a totally different hairstyle and go get your hair cut & colored.
44. Pretend you’re back in school and write a report. Pick a topic and research everything you can find out about it.
45. Start a blog.
46. Search YouTube or get a beginner’s book on how to draw. Practice drawing eyes and mouths.
47. Pick up a catalog of classes for over 50’s at your library. Sign up for one (or ten) of them.
48. Visit your local Senior Center to see what activities/classes they offer (it’s not just for old people).
49. Shave your legs and pits. Pluck your nose hairs and eyebrows. Or get some wax and go wild.
50. Go to an antique store or a Farmer’s Market. Buy lunch from a food truck.
51. Attend a palette painting, pottery or ceramics class.
52. Play solitaire. Learn a new version.
53. Apply for a part time job, or look for volunteer opportunities.
54. Offer to babysit for someone. Or house sit. Or dog sit.
55. Creat an exercise routine to a playlist of your favorite kick-ass motivating tunes.
56. When was the last time you wandered around downtown? Go rediscover shops, restaurants and buildings.
57. Go spend an hour at the nearest casino and play slots. Take the shuttle and make a new friend.
58. Spend the day wandering an arboretum, park, zoo or sanctuary and take pictures.
59. Go on a ghost tour, or visit your local haunted places.
60. Clean out your junk drawer.
61. Lay in your yard and do nothing but watch the clouds move like you did as a child.
62. Jump on Amazon and create a wish list. Don’t worry about prices. It’s your list.
63. Order something random online that you can’t wait to have delivered.
64. Drive to your nearest town and act like a tourist. Stop at the Visitor’s Center to see what attractions they recommend.
65. Make a list of things that you love. Make another list of things that you love about yourself.
66. Turn off your phone. Kill social media. Hide the newspaper. Read a book or journal write.
67. Get a tattoo of something that’s close to your heart.
68. Practice your handwriting.
69. Clean out your email inbox. Create folders and organize the emails you’ve saved.
70. Pretend you’re a squirrel and spend all day cooking make-ahead freezer meals to stock-pile for the coming months.
Funk-proof yourself. Print out this list for easy access!
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When your phone’s battery is in the red zone, you plug it in to recharge it, don’t you?
Well, pretend you’re a phone with a depleted battery. You need to plug in!
You need some quick go-to resources.
YOU NEED MY LIST!
Okay, Look At The List. Now Add Your Own Feel-Good Options.
Pick one thing on it, block a day off your calendar, and spend that day doing exactly what you want to do. (Today I’m feeling like #42 sounds perfect!) You deserve it. Hell, you REQUIRE it. If your battery has hit the dangerously low level and you don’t do this for yourself, you’ll shut down – just like your phone does when its battery is spent.
And remember that even if things are really shitty today, by tomorrow or next week things will have resolved themselves, your funk will have lifted, and your world will be back to being a better place again. Right?
Get to it! Pick one thing. Start with a 15 minute thing, then move on to scheduling “your day” into your calendar. You are just as deserving to occupy one of those boxes on your calendar as your other important events are. I wish you happy days ahead!
So until next time, you beautiful badass woman…peace out!
