I Study The Scene In Front Of The Bus The Way I Studied My Letters In School. Gradually I Begin To Make

small stress relievers for when life feels messy

swiffer your bedroom floor or vacuum your bedroom rug

wipe down your desk with a cloth or clorox wipe

clean off your computer screen

clear out your emails

do a load of your laundry

wash your bedding

maybe delete photos or apps on your phone that you don’t need

go through a drawer and get rid of things you don’t need

fold some clothes

organize your stationery or desk

When everyone in the room is fighting for you

how to live life like a ghibli film

1. go out in nature more. every studio ghibli film has some aspect of nature intertwined with the storyline. sometimes its hard to get the energy to go outside, but just going out on your deck or opening the window in your room or taking a walk around the block is enough. if you feel like it, go for a hike! go into the woods and look at every flower, and every tree. look at the mushrooms and streams and notice the beauty of them. look at nature like you’ve never seen it before. wake up at 4 and watch the sunset. put plants around your room. realize how beautiful the world is around you. appreciate it. 

2. get a hobby! this step is certainly easier said than done, but its so worth it. struggling with mental illness makes it especially hard to get a hobby, but its very important that you don’t spend the majority of your time on social media. Start small. If you want to start drawing get a coloring book and fill in a picture with beautiful markers! If you want to write find a random prompt online, give yourself 30 minutes and see what you can come up with. Want to try baking? Start with an easy recipe, like chocolate chip cookies, and share them with your family or friends, or just yourself! Try out a bunch of hobbies, and see what you like best. Maybe you like making jewelry or writing poems or creating digital collages or making video edits or decorating your room or riding a bike or sewing or reading. The possibilities are endless, and getting a hobby you enjoy is very important, and fun.

3. start appreciating small things and noticing details. I don’t know how to explain this step, but in studio Ghibli films, small things always stick out. There are beautiful tiny details that make the story so much more magnificent. small details make the studio Ghibli films what they are. maybe on your way to school/work the sky was a really pretty color. Or the tea you made in the morning was perfectly steeped. appreciate small details of life that you don’t normally notice.

4. appreciate food. Pay attention to your food. If you can, try and make/bake your own food! But if you can’t, just be mindful of your food. Try not to eat while you’re on your phone. Dedicate times to just eating. Appreciating the food in front of you. Make yourself the ponyo drink with milk and honey, or ponyo ramen! Make yourself your own blend of tea like the Baron!

5. be kind and help others. Being kind doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, it can be smiling and waving at a baby in a café, or helping your mom finish the dishes, or paying for a friend’s coffee. Small gestures not only put good out into the world, but they also make you feel better. When you can, help others. Try volunteering at an animal shelter, or babysit for your aunt without charging her, or just listen to your friend when they’re going through something and be there for them. In every Ghibli film, the main character is always helping others, and being kind. Try to be like kiki, when she returned the pacifier to the mother who forgot it, or like chizuru from the cat returns, who risks her life to save a cat. Kindness comes in all shapes and forms, so just try your best to do what you can!

6. be your most authentic self. Stay true to who you are. dress how you’d like. Cut your hair like you’ve always wanted to. Stay confident and true to yourself. We all feel insecure sometimes, but we need to remind ourselves that we are great. Don’t try and force yourself to be someone you aren’t. Kiki felt insecure in her abilities as a witch, but she stayed true to herself, and believed in herself, and it paid off. Love and appreciate yourself, just the way you are.

7. (not really a tip but a fun suggestion) start collecting something! This is just an extra step that I wanted to include because I think its nice. But start a collection of things that interest you. It could be anything! Candles, stamps, teacups, antique figurines, 19th century photos, lip balms, books, key chains, flowers, hats. The choices are endless.

“i don’t like writing about my day, but i want to keep a journal”:

quotes and copywork. when reading, if you find something you enjoy, just copy it into the notebook. you can copy a whole chapter if you wish, highlighting what caught your attention the most.

definitions. look up on a dictionary and copy it. you could write your own dictionary as well, making up definitions for words.

lists. a classic, write movies to watch, books to read, the playlist of the month or just the groceries you have to buy.

maps. when going somewhere, you could draw the route you took or just a map of the place itself. just look up the place on google maps and copy it. you can draw a little map of all the places you have lived or the schools you have attended as well.

photos

take “notes” as you watch movies / documentaries. write down phrases that caught your attention or doodle.

illustrations and clippings. if you see an image or piece of art that you liked, put it in your journal. if it’s from a book or from a magazine I would recommend scanning it, tho’. it will serve as a record of what kind of art you enjoy through the years.

newspaper clippings from the day.

tickets and pamphlets. from movies, museums, transportation.

postcards

records. you could record for a month what the temperature was when you woke up and when you went to sleep. if you do that for a year, it gives you a better notion of the passing of seasons. you could record rainfall and other seasonal changes as well. you could choose something (an animal, a plant, an item or object) and write down every time you see it.

rubbings of leaves, coins, landmarks.

count. there’s a scene in the movie Caroline (2009) where Caroline’s dad tells her to go count the windows. you could do the same type of counting game if you are bored and write down.

mindmaps/sketchnotes + timelines of books, movies, music albums.

collages

pressed leafs and flowers

your collections. if you collect anything you could write down an inventory or maybe try to draw the items.

recipes. write down recipes and give it a score every time you try it. you could do the same for drinks you try out.

stickers

comic strips. you can find a bunch of it online, glue your favorites in your notebook.

i always forget how addicting it feels to read a book and not want to put it down. it happens every time; i should know it by now, should know that i'm going to spend the rest of forever chasing that high, feeling it every time i read a new page or crack a new paperback spine or read a new dedication, but it’s always a pleasant surprise. i think we all know it, right? one more chapter before bed, one more chapter after that, so on and so forth. we all know that the inevitable will happen and we all know we'll will be sucked into the story for the foreseeable future, but we never plan for it. we never schedule it. it's a spontaneous familiarity, like knowing exactly what the crack of lightning looks like across the night sky but still watching through the window in a midnight storm. it's everything i could ever want and it's all that i have at the same time.

“flowers and mirror” - abbott fuller graves

I miss holding my laugh during class

😎💫

Not a specific time period but I like learning about wars throughout history.

The first person that comes to my mind is the little prince lol. I read its book at least once every year and it feels different each time.

A fresh brew.

Libraries.

The (500) Days of Summer soundtrack, it's lovely.

A cottage on the top of a mountain with an old, huge, and shady tree right beside it OR a mansion that I design myself and it has a huge garden and an art studio in the backyard.

Talking with my friend and sleeping.

Films: About Time, Her, Midnight in Paris. Books: Fesleğen by Hikmet Anıl Öztekin, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

No.

I haven't read much, I will update this later in my life.

Not sure.

I dont like either.

Not sure, all my life I have lived in placed with only 1 or 2 seasons.

I think I should be reading more poetry, I like it but I dont have a strong opinion on it at the moment.

Texting; no, emails; depends on who I am emailing.

I only put 50 songs in each playlist as I discover them, when there is 50 songs in a playlist, I create another one. Sometimes it takes months to reach 50, and sometimes only a couple of weeks. When I listen to my old playlist I can see how ı was back then.

Khaled Hosseini and Dan Brown.

Hot chocolate.

Meadows, I guess.

Mulberry.

Tea and Books Asks

What period of history do you enjoy learning about?

Who is your favourite fictional character and why?

What do you order at a café?

Libraries, botanical gardens, or art galleries?

Do you have a favourite film soundtrack?

What does your dream home look like?

What makes you feel better on gloomy days?

What are your top three films? Books?

Are you an organized person, generally?

Do you have a favourite classic novel?

What character archetype or trope is your favourite?

Do you prefer baking or cooking?

Which season do you feel at home in?

What is your opinion on poetry?

Do you speak formally when texting and emailing?

How do you organize your music playlists?

Who is your favourite author?

Chai or hot chocolate?

Do you prefer forests, sea shores, or meadows?

If you were to cultivate a fruit orchard, what would you grow?

Honestly? Fuck this culture of shaming people for learning about things late and liking them. who gives a shit if you discovered a song from years ago and youre in love with the band? Catch up with series you just discovered and talk about them to your friends, fall in love with movies others have known way before you even heard of them, read books youd heard of long ago but never got interested in until now and become a huge fan!! This idea that people are “fake fans” for not knowing about or being interested in things before and loving them now is garbage and we need to get rid of it. Just let people enjoy things jfc!!