A good mix of social and alone time
8-9 hours of decent sleep per night
Feeling clean, fed and watered
A balanced temperature
A relatively clean and tidy environment with control over what I can hear and smell
Feeling satisfied with work
Exposure to things that make me excited (football, gerbils and rabbits, banging tunes, Jeremy’s Home Store, my friends, a good series of Love Island, Eurovision, Wetherspoons, good gossip, my friends’ gigachad baby, The Sims, Drag Race Thailand season 2) and preferably the opportunity to bombard people with information about said things
My hair looking and feeling decent
Biannual cuddles from someone I am romantically interested in
I think I’m currently experiencing all 9 for the first time in my adult life.
OH there’s a YouTube channel that always makes me happy. It’s called Rate My Takeaway and the guy who presents it is just the sweetest little gem in the whole world. He’s always so complimentary and now he’s got quite a big following in most videos someone will walk or drive past him and recognise him and he’ll always give them the thumbs up and say hello and he’s just so nice and it always makes me feel fuzzy watching him
Until the last few weeks where I’ve been super busy and out late a lot, I’ve been smashing in 8-9 hours on the reg and feel so much more stable and content than I previously was
Usually - sometimes I might wake up in the night if I need a wee or I’ll wake up a bit earlier than my alarm. Will always go back to sleep if I can.
My dad used to say that sleep you get before midnight is better quality than after midnight. I thought he was talking shit but as an adult I’m completely convinced he’s right. I always feel better if I get a few hours before midnight.
Maybe the 10th one is avoiding people, things and communities that stress me out but that feels too obvious. Limiting contact with/involvement in the Countdown community and ending a draining friendship have also contributed to a much higher baseline of wellbeing.
When I am usually asked this question (which admittedly isn’t very often) I generally say ‘Actually very little’ but I think that’s a way of me trying to mask the fact that I actually don’t know.
Thoughtful messages and those times when you wake up in the middle of the night and everything’s quiet, and it’s raining outside, and it’s a bit cold in the room but cosy in bed, and you’ve got no specific obligations tomorrow and right now nobody can bother you.
Calm
Space
Otherwise I’m pretty chilled, the lack of those two things is what normally causes me issues, pretty much happy in total disarray as long as I’m calm and not being pressured!