battling negativity -- 6 strategies

My art, my blog, it's all about joy. Obviously life is not all beauty and joy, but it is our choice on what to focus. My choice is joy.

And yet, sometimes I don't feel it.

Lately I haven't been feeling it. I've been moody. Negative. There's nothing wrong. No good reason for it. Everything is fine. Matthias is doing well. And yet...

I know our weather isn't helping. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. The end of summer always makes me a bit sad, too. I've had a few artistic disappointments lately, but I've also had artistic excitements (I'm still dancing about this).

Life is ups and downs. Sometimes the downs win.

It helps if we have strategies for battling the negativity.

Here are a few of mine:

• Write a Joy List (the more I do it, the better I feel).
• Get lost in a project -- embracing something you don't normally tackle is especially helpful. Try a new recipe, take a class, re-paint a room in your home, refinish furniture (I recently painted my desk chair with one of my favorite colors and reupholstered it with a patchwork of fun fabrics... the project focused my attention and now that I'm finished the chair brings me joy each day).

• Take time for play. Letting go of more serious tasks and trying something just for the fun of it can help me shake off a funk. My sketchbook is the perfect place for this. Playing with my dogs, singing along to music or dancing in the kitchen while making dinner always bring me a lift, too.

• Organize, clean and purge. Cleaning is definitely not my favorite task, but there's something so satisfying about taking the time to clean and organize. If there's a space that you regularly ignore (for me was my desk) put that in order first. You might be surprised how much of a difference it makes to how you feel.
• Spend time in nature.

• Get off the internet, take a break from social media and generally unplug.

What about you? What are your favorite strategies for battling negativity?