Facing the Day

Facing the Day
Basic:
Get out of the bed. Do your morning routine. Rinse your mouth with some water.
It’s another day. Put on some clothes. Eat breakfast. Look outside. It’s another day.
Don’t try to force yourself to “think positive”. If you actually are feeling positive, great, it’s another day.
Don’t start painting devils on the walls about how awful the day is going to be. If you’re feeling crappy anyway though, it’s fine. It’s another day.
Your body is awake, and you can now make some choices. Those choices will influence how your day is going to be. Consider what are the things you need to do. Is there some chore you need to do, or a responsibility you need to fulfill?
Do at least one thing today that you are supposed to do. Do the most important thing. If there isn’t anything particularly important, do the easiest thing.
You may feel irritated or bored or sad. That’s fine, but understand that your life isn’t going to magically get better. You won’t suddenly inherit a million dollars, you won’t suddenly have the person of your dreams fall in your lap, you won’t suddenly be transported to a fantasy world with cute twin servants and pretty elf royalties. You need to take action. The magnitude of the action isn’t important. What is important is that you made a choice and acted upon it.
If you did this once, you can do it again. You can always do as much as you need to do, you just might not want to.
Don’t rush. If you rush, what’s going to happen is that you’ll get overwhelmed. Or maybe you’ll fuck up and you’ll lose all hope again and you’re back in square one. Take your time to build your foundation.
If you can’t resist the urge to do more, then do another thing today that you’re supposed to do. Don’t take on some new project or regime. Look honestly around and see what you can immediately do now. Take out the trash? Do the dishes? Call your relative or a friend?
When you settle down to occupy yourself with whatever you like to do, try to do it in front of a window with outside light coming in ( even if it’s dark outside ).

Have your dinner. Take note of when you had it and make a point of having it again at the same time tomorrow.
If you didn’t prepare some paper or a notebook at the beginning of this guide, do so now. Look out of a open window, or maybe even go outside for a walk if you can. Notice one thing. Smell, object, sound. Observe it properly. Take your notebook and describe it in as neutral manner as you can. “Ball. Red. Round. Smudge.” If words like “ugly” “trash” or “pretty” “fun” come up, it’s okay but don’t write them down. Start to learn non-judgmentality.
You might wonder why I’m not telling you to stop playing games, fapping or things like that. Because it’s not relevant at the moment. Do whatever, so long as you do the few things I recommend you do.

Get ready to go to bed. Do your evening routine. Rinse out your mouth with water. Do a Basic Breathing exercise for 1 minute.

Congratulations, you made it through another day. If you can keep this up for a week, you should consider adjusting your sleeping rhythm to be a bit more average ( see Intermediate advice on Sleep ) and/or adding something from the Basic Physical Health section. Whatever it is, make it into a Goal. Write it in your notes. “For a week, I will do X every day”. Feel free to elaborate on why you want it but you don’t have to.
Keep adding Basic things up to Appearance section at least, making sure that you keep improving your general condition. Again, don’t rush and try to do everything at once. Also, don’t try to jump into a much later section until you have a good daily routine going that you can confidently say you can maintain, even if it for some reason gets interrupted. It’s easy to keep the ball rolling if nothing disturbs you but in life, something always tends to come up. If an illness or a trip interrupts your routine and you end up back in square one, you just have to start again.

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Intermediate:
Get up, do your morning routine. Drink a glass of water. Make your bed.
Cultivate your Self-awareness: Take a moment to reflect on how you’re feeling ( both physically and mentally ) and write it down in your notebook. You can also draw it. You don’t have to be elaborate if you don’t want to, a scribble or a few adjectives are fine. Contrary to what it may feel like to you, you aren’t feeling horrible all the time; it’s just that without an ability for passive Self-awareness, you only become Self-aware when you are feeling horrible. It just might take some digging to come to this realization. There are times when you are just fine but you might be too busy to notice it.

Go do your thing, your occupation of the day. Fulfill your duties if any. Even if it’s just sitting in front of the computer. Try to let some daylight hit you by being by a window when possible. Being exposed to light can help with depression… and c’mon, you’re literally just sitting in front of the window. Even if it’s useless, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Also, it’s good to force yourself to be somewhat Aware that the outside world exists – being a shut-in is easy. If you already know or now figure out that you tend to get depressed when it’s autumn/winter ( less sunlight ), you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Consider a Light Therapy Lamp.

If you have a chance, during lunch or a break, go outside. Go for a walk if you can, if not, just have a whiff of air. Cultivate your ability to observe things non-judgmentally: Notice one thing, an object, smell, sound. Write down what it was and describe it in as neutral terms as possible. “Deflated ball. Reddish. By the lamp post. Is kinda dirty.” This time do use words, not just scribbles. It may seem a trivial practice but gently stopping thinking of things in terms of “good” and “bad” helps combat depression and anxiety.

Do whatever it is you do. Try to occasionally check in yourself. How are you feeling? You don’t have to write it down but again, just cultivate that Self-awareness. It’s fine if you don’t remember to, it’ll come with time.
If you’re about to do something you kinda think you shouldn’t ( you be the judge of that ), definitely check how you’re feeling and write it down. “I wanted to do X. Felt bored and my foot was asleep.” etc. Then do your vice or don’t.

Have your dinner. Drink a glass of water. Try to be at least a little bit Aware of the smell of your food, the taste of it, the texture of it etc.
Then go do what you do.

Get ready for bed. Do your evening routine. Do an Intermediate Breathing exercise for a minute or two, or Meditate.

Congratulations, you are on your way. Honestly gauge how you feel. Think you can keep this up? Add something new in a day or two, something Basic or Intermediate, depending on what you feel you’re lacking. If you’re not sure, add something from Physical Health. Whatever it is, make it into a Goal. Write it in your notes, along with a few words on why you want to succeed in that goal. Or just take your time, if you feel like you got enough new things from just this day. It’s fine, go at your own pace. Keep adjusting your sleeping rhythm if you think you need to.

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Advanced:
Please note that in order to make use of this section, you need to have practiced daily Self-awareness, non-judgmentality and Mindfulness Meditation as directed in the Intermediate section above. For at least a month.

Morning. Write ( or scribble ) into your notes how you’re feeling and what your goals are for today. Mundane things like “do the dishes” are fine. Think a little about your goals and ask yourself, why do you want to do them. Write the reasons down for at least one of the goals – again, mundane is fine, if not better.
“I want to do the dishes.”
-It’s nice to have clean dishes.
Something like that.
Then ask yourself again, why. Access your inner irritatingly inquisitive kid. Why is it nice to have clean dishes? Why is it “nice” in particular and not “good” or “beneficial” or just “hygienic”? You might even want to use two different colored pens to write, where one is “the kid” and the other is you, answering. Pretend dialogue on paper. Yes, its important that you do write it down as it forces you to focus and not just idly think about it. Go on with this inquiry for as long as you can tolerate it. You don’t have to do it in one sitting. Go about your day, mull things over and return to your notes when you have the time.
The point of the practice is to get to know yourself. Do you really know why you do the things you do? Do you do them because you think it’s nice to do them, or because doing them makes you feel nice? Do you do things because someone at some point told you that that’s what’s you’re supposed to do and it just became a habit?
As you go about doing your day, occasionally stop and ask again why you’re doing what ever it is you’re doing. Not as a desperate “what is the point” kind of question, just have an innocent curiosity about yourself. You don’t have to write it every time but maintain that inquisitiveness.

You are the one person you’ll always be with so doesn’t it make sense to know that person?

Eventually, you might find that you don’t always like the answers. This is why you need to be able to be non-judgmental. Without it, it’s very hard for you to be honest with yourself. You’ll be coming face to face with your Ego, and your Ego won’t like to be questioned.

Getting to know yourself will be your challenge for a while. Move on to another section once you feel you’re starting to have a better understanding of who you are.

“If ignorance is unknown, knowing alone remains. If it is known, then because it is a part of our knowing, knowing alone remains.”
-“The Recognition Sutras”, Rājānaka Kṣemarāja