Brain reset

[mrissa]

Here's what I tried to get my brain out of its previous bad rut:

--writing to Grandpa L. as specified (this is markgritter's maternal grandfather, technically, but there's a point with each in-law where you shift from thinking of them as the other person's to thinking of them as yours -- at least ideally there is -- and with Grandpa Lyzenga and me, that took about 3.2 seconds, and he is just the very most you could ever ask a Grandpa Lyzenga to be)
--cleaning up a bit of my desk mess, which is there because I hate desk mess and will therefore deal with things put on my desk to drive me nuts
--working out
--reading a little of Blood and Iron, then stopping because getting all wrapped up in someone else's book wasn't really the point here
--drinking water
--showering
--drinking more water and taking an Advil
--playing with the dog
--putting on music
--putting on different music, and that finally did it -- thanks, markiv1111 (and thanks dd_b for being my supplier). Don't know why "The First Overnight Guest" did it, but there it was, "There's a chance of rain but no real chance of rest," and my brain went click click whirrrrr...and then it was behaving sensibly again.

And now I'm in late-afternoon crash and have learned not to beat myself up if I'm not useful for an hour or two, because I am definitely a morning person and sometimes an evening person, but what I am not is an afternoon person.

What are your favorite brain-reset tricks?

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

there's a point with each in-law where you shift from thinking of them as the other person's to thinking of them as yours

Funny, though. With my four grandparents-in-law that worked as described, but with my parents-in-law, it's a bit different. It's not because I love them any less, it's just - do you remember the part in A Wrinkle in Time where Aunt Beast settles what Meg should call her, and settles on Aunt Beast specifically because "Aunt" is not a unique title? It's like that. The grandparents can be my grandparents because I grew up with lots of those anyway (7, counting fosters and steps and a grerat-grandmother) and am very happy to have more. That's especially but true because my original quota are all gone now, but not only because of that.

But I have only one mother and one father and don't really feel a need to expand those roles, so the parents-in-law feel like my relatives, but more like *my* MIL and *my* FIL. If that makes sense.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I am pretty clear, even, on the difference between mattgritter feeling like my brother and feeling like my brother-in-law, for example, but both of those are different than him feeling like "markgritter's brother" in my head. I think this is probably due to life as an only child and being extremely wary of anyone who claims to be like a sibling, because they don't generally mean it. Sometimes they mean something better and sometimes something worse, but they don't mean it.