I Have Spent The Last Two Days Rotting Away In My Room, Just Watching Youtube And I Need To Force Myself

no wings, no claws, no feathers, legs the wrong shape, too big, too small, no fins, can’t hold my breath, no whiskers, body too stiff, no tail, no fangs, no cat ears, no fur, can’t even sleep on my stomach cause my ribs fucking hurt

Orca hunting herring. Filmed in Norway. From The Norwegian Fjords: Life in the Twilights (2018).

Activities for nonhumans. Tested by me.

In the morning, stretch. Take time stretching every muscle and joint to the best of your ability, even if its only for 5 minutes. Take up a yoga routine if you wish. This has helped immensely with my chronic joint and muscle pain.

Sit in the sun for a few minutes. Soak it in, enjoy the slowness of the world for a second.

Meditate. Learn to be in your own mind. Learn to be bored. Sit in the woods and listen to whats around you. See and feel from a standstill. Learning boredom has helped me curb some of my ADHD symptoms

Journal. Decorate jt with stickers. Make lists and notes and write blurbs about your day or your species. Practice introspection, gratitude, positive affirmations. Look at things objectively, but also analyze your emotions. Chronicle our history as a community, write everything that you can find about nonhumans down. History will thank you. Log your shifts, your days, the weather.

Take up a workout routine. Calisthenics is the poison I picked; it focuses on moving your body instead of moving a separate weight. It builds muscle you can use for a range of activities rather than a few set scenarios.

Quadrobics leaves too much room for injury if you go any farther than bear crawls. Most people parroting tips for quadrobics are children with no background in exercise. My alternative is going for a run; it gets out energy and achieves everything quadrobics would.

Go into the woods. Use the 5-4-3-2-1 technique to test your senses in an environment you've never been in. Get curious, take pictures and note the species of flora and fauna in your area. Scout the area for unique formations and spots. Doing this has increased my confidence as a visually impaired man tenfold; I've learned how to use hearing to my advantage in most aspects of my life.

Go swimming in a creek. Even if your species doesn't swim, it can be euphoric. Dry yourself out on a rock in the sun afterwards.

Hell, just look towards going camping or backpacking for more than a few hours. Save for it, plan for it, prepare for it. Camping alone builds independence, camping with friends builds community.

Check out INaturalist. Its a website where others post pictures of flora/fauna, including the general location of where they found it. You don't need to post anything, just being on there and seeing the kinds of organisms in your area is enough.

Start a recipe book of things your species could and would eat. Even if they're just ingredients, its still a good activity.

Connect to your community. Join clubs and groups in your area. Volunteer at places that need volunteers. If you work, unionize. A real life community is essential for your mind. Lacking community is probably why you feel like shit.

Don't just stockpile gear, make your own. Don't resrict yourself to masks; ears, tails, collars, hand paws, feet paws, claws, wings, beaks, scales, fins, all things you could make with materials that lie around your house unused.

Apply makeup and body paint to mimic your species' markings. Enjoy the process as much as you enjoy the outcome. Look towards getting tattoos if wanted.

Sea salt spray can give your hair a wild look, if thats something you want. It can also cause it to change color slightly.

And, if possible, look to take supplements that cause hair and nail growth, if youre a hair/nail having being.

Drop your shaving routine if you wish. Shaving isn't really hygeine. Or implement one if your species is smooth. I like to shave in similar patterns that cats would be shaved in.

Take the time to clean yourself beyond a simple body and hair wash. Deep clean everything and emerge a new being.

Fuck it. Use horse shampoo.

Let yourself Feel. Suppressing emotions is a human construct made to weaken you, made to make you subservient. If you're angry, be angry. If you're sad, be sad. If something makes you happy, never stop doing it.

Let shifts come and go. Acknowledge them. Log them. Never supress them. They'll only emerge later.

Accept yourself as you are. Affirm yourself. You are enough as you are and you dont need to do anything to prove yourself.

Redecorate your spaces. Revamp your nest, light some candles or put on a humidifier. Introduce plants, crystals, and generally outdoor things into your indoor living space.

Clothing is everything. I find that clothing I can't freely move in makes me dysphoric, so I stick to tank tops and light sweatpants. I dress light and I show skin. Similarly, find the styles of dress you find comforting and euphoric.

Scent your area. Spray something around your house, wear a perfume you like. The stronger the smell, the better.

(Edited 20th Jan 2025 @ 9:14 PM - Fixed Grammar + Readability)

Orca hunting herring. Filmed in Norway. From The Norwegian Fjords: Life in the Twilights (2018).

Southern resident orcas, also known as the southern resident killer whales (SRKW), are an exclusively fish-eating ecotype of orcas that live in and around the Salish Sea. They differ genetically from transient orcas as well as having different dialects and diets. © Rachel Haight - Orca Network

Black fins, blue mountains, pink skies (Orcas in Norway) by Koen Hoekemeijer

squid octopus or orca pixels?

!!!!!

It isn't fair that the human body cannot perform this

"The best part of being fat is being soft and comfy to cuddle with" "The best part of being fat is knowing people like you for your personality and not your looks" Wrong. The best part of being fat is getting to swim in ice-cold water for FAR longer than my peers. My skinny friends can barely last 10 minutes in the pacific ocean without losing feeling in their fingers meanwhile i can be in there for HOURS. I was born to swim in glacial lakes and icemelt streams. Also I float.

Wing tutorial~

Since it has been asked, I made a little breakdown on how to draw wings.

So, first thing to understand is wing anatomy. I used a swan wing as reference for my artwork. Divide the wing into blocks of feathers. There's sort of three layers to the feathers outlined in the second picture, and these divided along the top joint of the wing where it folds. See the second image. Make sure you bring in these nice, flowy shapes here!

Now that you have these big shapes, you can cut into them and make the individual shapes of the primary and secondary feathers (layer 3.) also make sure they overlap correctly depending on if you are drawing the wing from the front or the back. make sure you stick with a nice rythm and have the feathers get gradually bigger as you get closer to the tip. Like this:

when you go ahead and draw that layer 2 of coverts, make sure that every feather you drew for the bottom layer has (approximately) a feather overlapping it (so you have pretty much the same number of feathers in each layer) and that they line up nicely. But you can also make them a bit more ruffled. Like this:

Other than the flight feathers, the very top part of the wing is very smooth, with shorter, more rounded feathers (almost half-circles!). They can lie very flat or also look a lot more fluffy. think of them almost like overlapping scales. There is also the Alula at the top of the wing, a sort of extra feathery bit that sticks out over the primaries. also don't forget the scapulars which cover over the shoulder blade and are on top when the wing is folded. The Scapulars also have two layers of feathers. (see first graphic).

From there, it's only a matter of lineart and shading or however you want to finish your artwork. Hope this helps with the structure! Drawing wings folded together is a whole other story that I'm not going to get into here... lol.

TL:DR: understand the structure of wings and use references to get it right, work from big shapes to small shapes.

Edit: I demand to be tagged in the results, I desperately need to see more wing art. ÒwÓ