Alternatives to doomscrolling: #slowdwelling
1. Make a stack of cookbooks next to your bed. Read each recipe in a different voice (in your head or aloud). Describe the images in as much detail as you can.
2. Sharpen your knives. Sharpen your scissors. Refresh your rotary cutter.
1. Make a stack of cookbooks next to your bed. Read each recipe in a different voice (in your head or aloud). Describe the images in as much detail as you can.
2. Sharpen your knives. Sharpen your scissors. Refresh your rotary cutter.
3. Eat plain lettuce (red leaf is my favorite) without any dressing. Feel it, taste it, smell it, sense its texture changing in your mouth. Also try this with plain oatmeal.
4. Water your plants. As you do, report to them on the weather outside and about any birds you heard/saw
4. Water your plants. As you do, report to them on the weather outside and about any birds you heard/saw
5. Find a friend who wants to make a zine with you. Determine your greatest shared pleasure. Send each other excited notes and images for at least six weeks.
6. Learn astrology. There's enough there to fill up your head so that you will not have energy for doomscrolling.
6. Learn astrology. There's enough there to fill up your head so that you will not have energy for doomscrolling.
7. Grow a garden, obviously. But plant the weird seeds you find here and there. Ask them what they want to become.
8. Get a worm bin for your kitchen. Feed the worms, talk to them. Late at night, when it is very quiet, hear them squirming. (Not for the queasy)
8. Get a worm bin for your kitchen. Feed the worms, talk to them. Late at night, when it is very quiet, hear them squirming. (Not for the queasy)
9. Free-write with your eyes closed until your mind feels empty. On a typewriter if you have one. If you do it with voice-to-text software, maybe do it in a way that makes your voice sound like it is not yours.
10. Share a recipe with some friends for something best made in big batches by collectives (dolmas, tamales, hand-rolled pasta). If you have abundance, distribute it for the recipe. Make it together over Zoom. Gossip. Eat while you go. Imagine your grandmother there, too.
11. Let your phone battery die and just don't charge it. Get a landline. Only answer emails once a week.
12. Make yourself log in and out of social media each time you want to look at it. Make your passwords long and hard to remember.
12. Make yourself log in and out of social media each time you want to look at it. Make your passwords long and hard to remember.
13. Turn off your wifi except for when you need to send something or feel very ready to receive something while maintaining good boundaries with the internet.
14. Watch running water. If you don't have a body of water nearby, get one of those cat fountains or solar-powered water pumps. Watch/listen/feel the water.
15. Take a nap. Seriously, just go to sleep.
15. Take a nap. Seriously, just go to sleep.
