Calming masterpost:

crisis/urgent support lines and sites

relaxation/anxiety relief

the quiet place project

music and sounds

comfort food

advice and tips

videos and movies

distractions etc

extras

Calming songs, playlists and instrumentals:

Calming/distracting Websites

Crafts and activities, easy and fun DYI projects

What to do when:

Meditation and breathing

Simple things

Make Something!

Other Nice Things

Calming/Relaxing Music:

online communities are so strange because people slip away so easily. you can be on here for years, folding people you've never met into the fabric of your daily life, and then they disappear, leaving only ghost posts scattered across tumblr behind. or their blog stays dormant, for weeks, months, years, until you're only still following them because you remember that they love sunflowers or they were kind to you when they didn't have to be or the last thing they posted was sad and raw and you still worry about them sometimes.

and sometimes they come back when you least expect it, years later, even, and there's this sudden rush of relief like there you are, there you are, even though you barely knew each other.

there's a strange kind of love to it. i don't know you and i want to hold your hand across miles and time zones and oceans. i can still see the imprint of you in this community you left. you don't think anyone will notice or care when you're gone, but we notice and we care and we wish you well.

i hope you're all okay out there. i hope the sun is shining on your face and you are breathing deeply. i miss you.

[...]

#made a lotta money so now i'm a big SPENDER#helping out my friend cause she's TRANSGENDER (via @estrogenesis-evangelion)

i have so many hobbies and interests but each day the four horsemen (instant gratification, shortened attention span, procrastination, exhaustion) grab me by the throat and shake me until i collapse in my comfy bed

the intimacy of sharing old memories with someone new. check out the places i visited before i met you. i wish you were with me. maybe we can visit them together and create new memories? look at the pictures of the sky i took before we met. now you share the same view with my past self. look at the photos of my childhood and let me look at yours. have your facial features changed? your smile stayed the same, and i love it. look at my right cheek, i have the same birthmark as my grandmother. this is the child in me that you are healing with your affection. i am glad we met. all these years i was without you but now you know about all those years and even help me to grow. your love took roots in my past pain, and reaches out to my future happiness. please don't stop smiling.

I cried

are u ever sick w longing. and i don't just mean romantic longing. i mean longing for a place you barely get to see, longing for friends you no longer have, longing for feelings you might have left behind in your childhood, longing for creativity, longing for a rich and more expansive life, longing for less inhibition. longing for more passion. longing for ur life to be so incandescent w something it thaws all the frost in ur bones. are u ever so consumed w it it rends ur heart in two. do u understand me

this is not just "look out the window and sigh" longing. i'm talking you're at the grocery store and you're suddenly hit w a wave of grief bc you don't have it. you don't have whatever it is you ache so badly to have. you go about your everyday life and yet it throbs under your skin moment by moment, almost as though it has a life of its own. that's the kind of longing i mean.

I think it’s important to walk w compassion and love . Sometimes it’s easy to internalise that compassion and love is just reserved for other people but it’s not. Sometimes what we need more than ever is our very own love and understanding. To fill our own cup. To be loved by ourself. To be understood by ourself. To be cherished like a gift. To eat good food. To rest. To consciously choose to be surrounded by good people who uplift you. Life can be cruel. People can be cruel (unknowingly and knowingly), it helps to remember you are your longest best friend. Make sure there’s compassion and love for you.

There is so much more life to live when you stop constantly obsessing over who will think you're a bad person or not understand you

I am learning this in the tiniest bites but it pierces me deeply

i just feel strongly that work shouldnt be the Main Activity of five days out of the week

The content you post matters. It makes a difference. Keep talking about Palestine, and never stop until they’re free.

it's kinda comforting to me when my friends are a little annoying or longwinded or abrasive or tired and inarticulate, or they don't do the exact politest thing in every interaction, and stuff, because I know I'm sometimes annoying, or take up a more than my share of conversational space, or forget to ask them questions, etc etc, and... like, I'm always working to be nice to my friends and to get better and better at friend-ing, but it just makes me feel more human about it :}

anyway I love you friends plz know I'm not counting, in fact I feel great affection toward you even (especially) when conversations go less than Perfectly Ideal

I'm not proud to say it but this line from a 60 year old detective novel made me re-think some things about friendship

[ begin id: a screenshot of a paragraph with two words underlined, "at ease". The text reads "You can be at ease only with those people to whom you can say any damn fool thing that comes into your head, knowing they will respond in kind, and knowing that any misunderstandings will be thrashed out right now, rather than buried deep and given a chance to fester." / end id ]

“tumblr mutual” beloved friend I would pick up at the airport if y’all visited my home city

Sony catalog (1988)

i have started asking myself “how can i make this more fun?” in regards to the things i have to do and it is such a small difference but it brings me so much delight

all about love, bell hooks

does anyone else feel like they've hatched into a completely different person over the course of this Endless January. like a full year's worth