One of the best things I ever did was create a folder full of stuff that’s aimed to make me happy on the dark days.
We were just talking about this the other day on the Poly Land Discord, and I know I’ve tweeted about it here and there, but as we were chatting, it occurred to me that I haven’t written about this before on the actual site.
Mine is a literal cloud folder, stored in a place that’s easy for me to reach. And inside there are a bunch of nice things people have written about me (a mix of screenshots and a Word .doc). There are also some seriously cute, uplifting memes and pictures that don’t have anything to do with me per se but make me go “awwww.”
Lots of baby animals to be honest.
Whenever someone says or writes something new that makes me feel good about myself or I happen to stumble across a cute photo, I pop it in there. If it gets too large, I’ll reorganize it. Make subfolders or something. Who knows, who knows. That is a good problem to have in my book.
Anyway, it’s been so helpful on dark days. Or times when I’m seriously doubting myself. When I feel utterly worthless, or like I barely qualify to be a human being (truthfully, I do have days like those), I open up this treasure trove.
The effect is instantaneous. It might not work for everyone — in fact, for some people it might even backfire (we’re all wired differently, after all). But it’s definitely worth a try. Even if you don’t put compliments in yours because they make you feel uncomfortable or worse about yourself. Even if you only put the uplifting third-party content (which could be something other than baby animals for you).
I frankly wish I’d started doing it a long time ago. I’ve only been keeping mine for a couple of years. But it’s made a huge difference.
And I’m not alone. I found myself commiserating with other Polylanders in the Discord who have been doing it and found it wonderfully helpful (if not always a panacea, because hey, kid, that’s how life works).