Anyone fancy a Do something new every day thread?

[woodcutbirds]

Been discussing how much it helped kick me out of depression to do something - anything - every day that I'd not done before or not since childhood, or something I was scared to do. It made more difference than anything else.
Does anyone fancy having a go at doing something new every day for a week?

Ruffle I've thought a lot about that. About why our lives narrow. One thing I've wondered is: does what starts off as a good thing becomes a prison? As we get older, we know ourselves better. We learn what our favourite coffee/cafe/music/clothes shop is and we develop the confidence to say so and not go along with approximations. It feels at the time like a strength. But over the years it is reductive. You head straight for what you know you like and stop exploring, deviating, changing. Then you add to that all the things that fall by the wayside because we get too tired, or it's not compatible with raising DC etc and suddenly, life has really shrunk.

This is supposed to be an antidote to it.

I've not posted for a while so I've got a small collection of new and dare I say it fun things.

In no particular order:

Cooking sirloin steak with anchovy butter (just anchovies and butter in a blender, roll in cling film and pop if freezer to slice off when needed)

Starting a new cook book The Doctors Kitchen - I love cooking, it is one of the simplest pleasures! I've found a new breakfast hit with chia seeds, which makes a change to porridge.

I also tried out the local running club. This was a pretty big deal for me. They had a beginners night and I plucked up the courage. I couldn't find it initially but just made it. There were loads of people there. I did (jogged/walked) one lap and was going to go home but there were stewards standing at the corner so I said I'd do one more for them! Everyone was really friendly and encouraging.

I also went to a Laughter Yoga class. Best fiver I have spent in ages! They run a free Telephone Laughter Club is anyone wants to try it every Monday to Friday 8am - 8.10am! It's The Rise and Shine Laughter Line:

www.unitedmind.co.uk/laughterclubs/telephonelaughterclub/

If anyone is wondering what is involved, it is fake laughing until it catches on and you find yourself chuckling/in hysterics - it's very contagious laughing! In the classes we did different (silly) games. I am seriously thinking this could be my tonic going forward!

ADHD all of those sound fantastic. You've been so busy and proactive. Glad the running club went well.
I am so glad you posted. Laughter yoga was on my list some time ago and I'd completely forgotten about it! I'm going to find a class and go to it asap. Thank you so much for reminding me! I met a laughter yoga teacher at a market research thing once and she was such fun.

ADHD - I just found a laughter yoga session locally. It appears to be happening tonight, so I'm going to go along!

Morning all and thank you for the welcome :)
I have read the whole thread, I found my people!!!

I came out of a 20 odd years marriage quite messed up, I have battled with anxiety and depression and I’m at the point where I am slowly rebuilding myself.

But the OP is right, what kept me going is the new things I could try, the enthusiasm for novelty :)

So, to list the things I do:

I joined a book club, to help me read books I wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. From meet up. I met lots of interesting people and I’m always looking forward to the once a month meeting :)

I got a swim membership. I know it’s boring going up and down, but I do 30 minutes 2-3 times a week. And when I get in the water I think of one or two ‘problems’ I have and just plough through them. I do freestyle, I breathe every 3 strokes, and that helps focus on the breathing, estabished a pattern, a rythm and calms me right down, although the heart rate goes up 😂.

I practice mindfulness.
I do pilates once or twice a week.

But new things? I don’t do enough.
So I must think of a new thing I can do today :)

Hi Fencing - all those are brilliant. The slightly different thing about this thread is that it's a new thing every day - so not so much a new habit (though they can happen as a result of trying something new that you want to stick with) but to every day gently nudge yourself away from a rut or scared or rigid thinking.
So it doesn't matter how small it is. You could stick a flower behind your ear when you go for a walk. Or you could paint your toenails blue or listen to a political podcast from a party you know nothing about. Or turn down an alleyway or footpath you've always walked past (I love doing this one.)

Thanks for the welcome.
I am planning to use this thread in a slightly different way (Hope that’s ok).
I have ME and I am struggling to come to terms with the fact I can’t do the things I enjoyed anymore. So I want to create a ‘new me’, one that will still be able to enjoy life, just with different things to do. That’s also why I like the little things. I can do those!!

I’m going to start today with a cup of tea in the garden this am.

wood with the herbs, I would put them together in a pot. We have those dotted around in the garden and they seem happy with the same (crappy) soil!,
Be aware some do grow quite big!

That's great woodcutbirds! It has so many benefits - endorphins, oxygen.

I'm off work with stress so it's good to get round to trying things, and I know it's helping recovery.

The challenge will be keeping up a new thing when I start back, or varying things, but as you say it could be anything!

I've done a small amount of laughter yoga through doing Yoga with Adriene on Youtube - who is full of these quirky yoga methods and naturally witty anyway so quite often I end up giggling anyway as she starts 'holding Simba over the cliff' or singing inappropriate R n B songs! However it's not the same as being in a rl class. Good for when you can't get out for any reason though.

That sounds like a great way to start egg - those little changes can go a long way.

Egg You have my massive sympathy and support. I had what I thought was Chronic Fatigue for three years. It was terrifying. I think in retrospect it was just a build up of a side effect of taking anti-depressants that massively slowed me down. I slept 18 hours a day and yawned for the few hours I was awake. I started doing a new thing every day to try and find some energy and I think the very first thing I did was drink tea in the garden!

Really hope it works for you. Do you want me to hunt down the list of the first things I tried? At the time I had zero physical energy so they might be a good resource for you.
and

Thanks wood
What I am finding very hard is to see my H and the dcs go away to do all those activities I’d love to do and being unable to participate. Like I’m not part of their life anymore :( and that, whatever Im doing isn’t good enough??

So I really need to find new things I enjoy. Have my own life back if that makes sense.And maybe I’ll be able to entice my two teens to join in some time to time too.

Oh and I’d love the list of things you did when you first tried that!
I seem to have no idea of what I could do/enjoy doing that isn’t outdoorsy activities

From this thread though, the next thing on my list is that telephone laughter! (If I can manage to get up for 7.00am) sounds ace.

Here's a wee five minute video about Laughter Yoga from Ted Talks, with a couple of exercises about half way through.

Hello to all the new folks on the thread!

That laughter yoga looks pretty fun. I wonder if there are any classes near me.

Watching other people go out and do stuff you can't do is really tough egg. Realising that I just can't manage to do many of the things I would love to be doing has been one of the hardest things to come to terms with since my MH diagnosis last year. I think you are right and we need to find our own joys and successes in the things we can do.

Thanks for you kind word woodcut. I stayed up for a while reading last night and joy of joys even dd slept well so I feeling bit more rested today. I'm on aripiprizole as well as the anti-depressants which is the one that is really knocking me out i think. It is slowly improving thankfully.

Today I decided to try something new for lunch as it's easy to get stuck eating the same things everyday when I'm at home on my own. Unfortunatly it was a bit disapointing this time but I have consoled myself with a slice of orange cake and will try something else tomorrow. :)

My list from when I had CF.

Drink morning tea in the garden
Try new tonics such as Floradix; L-Tyrosine, Vit D spray (they all helped)
Have muesli with frozen berries for breakfast
Try geranium tea
Sign up for a poem-a-day (sent to your email address)
Complete a Sudoku
Try facial yoga
Try a new fruit
And a new veg
Tune to a new radio station
Listen to a Ted talk
Listen to a podcast
Download an App
Download an audio book
Start a private blog (or journal)
Write a poem
Sing in the shower
Have a home facial (cleanse, steam, facemask, moisturiser)
Bake a giant choc chip cookie
Buy a different scent of bubble bath
Meditate
Eat dinner outside
Eat dinner by candlelight
Design you own mocktails (alcohol free cocktails)
Play Call of Duty with DS (or any other video game you’d usually not get into. The delight on his face when I volunteered a joint game was priceless.)
Feed the birds (and foxes and badgers) and then watch them come to eat with binoculars and a bird book in hand. I can now identify loads of birds I didn’t know before.

Egg I really feel for you watching them do things that you can't right now. For your own mental health you need to be someone who still contributes to their lives. That's where it's a blessing that they are so screen-orientated. You can play online games with them, watch funny videos or suitable Ted Talks and then discuss them. You can put on new forms of music for them to dance or listen to. You can play board games with them. (Bit tiring, but for an hour maybe)

You can also do easy but welcome things. E.g. If you have a breadmaker, dust it down. All you have to do is tip in a sachet of bread mix and some water but the lovely smell and the hot fresh bread will be something they associate with you. Appears to be more effort than it is. Same applies to brownie-mix. Easy but DC feel treated by you.

You could look for stuff they;d like on e-bay or Freecycle. Listen to their music practise (if they do music) or read to them or help with homework. I do remember that all these are easier said than done. When you are really shattered 24/7 even helping with homework for half an hour can make you want to sleep for a week. But small things add up. Home life is so central to their wellbeing. You can still add exciting and surprising and lovely touches to their lives without charging around all over the place.

When I said 'they are so screen-orientated' I meant their generation, not your DC.

Home life is so central to their wellbeing. You can still add exciting and surprising and lovely touches to their lives without charging around all over the place.

You should write a blog, OP. A blog version of this thread. With an email newsletter giving people 5 new things to try every week. (Local companies might pay to be featured in that! When you get a million subscribers in every part of the UK... ok forget this)

You have such a warm, understanding and lovely way of writing.

That's tomorrow's new thing -- find a name for the blog and buy the domain.

Friday's thing: create a blog site.

Next year's thing: become a milllionaire.

.

Thank you Sodding. That's a lovely thing to say.

And actually - what a brilliant idea. I bet it would be a labour of love though.

Next year's New Thing being: Be A Millionaire. Ha ha. Let's all add that.

Agree fresh pesto is the best. It was the first kind I ever tried - from a proper italian deli and none i've had since have come close!

Great list coffee - your dcs sound adorable.

Two new things today almost by accident: listened to Carole King's album Tapestry all the way through for the first time. Yes the songs are a decade older than me and I know most of them well but i've been meaning to buy it for yonks and finally got round to it.

Also bought and listened to Gillian Welch's album the Harrow and the Harvest which came out a few years back. Basically since January I've been collecting albums by women that released in my lifetime. Starting with The Gogos in 1981 and the most recent one is Billie Eilish from this year, which is ostensibly for dd1! All started when i was listening to Absolute Radio and I realised it had been about two hours and I hadn't heard a single female artist.

Not sure what happened there i think my phone was showing me old posts as recent or something!

wood, I understand :)
Well, I went to a new cafe today and had a lovely coffee in the sun whilst people watching.
I enjoyed that :)

Glad to see more contributions to the thread :)

I've done nothing new today. I fell off my healthy-eating wagon (definitely NOT a new thing!), wasted several hours doing nothing, watched a film I've seen a million times, ate a tried-and-tested dinner, and now feel sick and a bit queasy.

Doing new stuff is definitely better. Tomorrow I'll do something novel.

Tapestry is a beautiful album. Ruffle, I love your idea of buying albums by female artists. Have you heard The Kick Inside by Kate Bush? Or Macy Gray's On How Life Is? And Suzanne Vega's gorgeous Solitude Standing and 99 Degrees Fahrenheit?

Sodding my day went pear-shaped too. Just couldn't motivate myself to work for most of the day which means I'll have to work over the weekend. I get so bored and lonely working alone from home. It's hard to keep the motivation, even though I enjoy the work.
But I did get to the laughing yoga. It was fun. Very silly but very uplifting. Then at the end they made tea and biscuits so we could all chat and because we'd all howled with laughter together we got on so well, sharing songs and stories about travels and fun stuff to do locally. It was a really fun evening. So glad I went to it.