When people talk about depression other people often start talking about psychology, psychiatry, and medical conditions no one understands the magnitude of who hasn’t experienced them or studied them. Today I’m only going to talk about my experience. If it doesn’t apply to you, I hope you still find something to learn from it. If it does, I’m confident you’ll find something helpful in it. As far as I know,[…] Keep reading →

People are looking to pick up activities to improve their lives all the time. Nearly everyone recognizes they could do something to improve it. Maybe they want to get more fit, make more money, be more creative, have more fun, feel more excitement, or whatever. Some do. I’ve done a bunch and I’m glad I did. The more I do, the easier the next one becomes. But many don’t. I[…] Keep reading →

A longtime reader and friend told me a way he put together to make himself feel better, going back to my 2009 post, “Less, please“. He said “You know how I get to feel better when I’m feeling down? You have your burpees and SIDCHAs. I do my Joshua Spodek Ten. Whenever I feel down, I set a goal of getting rid of ten things.” He described that he had[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on Cold Showers. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] What is creative avoidance? You know the feeling, or rather the mental chatter. The scene: Some time ago you told yourself you would do something challenging. Maybe going to the gym, talking to[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on Cold Showers. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] I’ve been talking to people about SIDCHAs. I’ve found something surprising that I’d consider researching if I were still in school or had students working with me. Nearly everyone who does a SIDCHA[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on Cold Showers. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Years ago I tended to have unintentional habits that I did without thinking about them and they didn’t improve my life much. Now they’re mostly ones I intentionally adopted because I knew they[…] Keep reading →

The United States seems to have two overarching messages on indulging that combine to mess a lot of people up. The puritanical message says indulging is bad or sinful. The advertising message is that sinful or not, you live a tough life and you deserve it. Combining these messages leads people to feel entitled to indulge themselves when they want, but to keep it secret, so others don’t know they’re[…] Keep reading →