At the end of con season, it’s easy to feel down during those gaps in between each big event. We know the feeling. Eirtakon has just ended and you’ve experienced that rush of emotion with your friends by creating fresh memories that will last a lifetime. Now you’re sitting at home sinking into normality once again – waiting for work or perhaps school the next morning.
It can be a time to reflect on the better moments, but it can also lead to a sensation of woe known as post-con blues. Whilst it can be hard to shake, it is not impossible! The Arcade has you covered in this regard. While there are no guarantees to happiness, there are different routes to getting there.
Here are a few tips from a veteran con-goer that can help relieve those waves of sadness that can often come and go.
PROJECT PLANNING/FRIEND BOOKING
The mind wanders when it has downtime. Coming off an event that you have saved up for and having a big blowout weekend is a special kind of satisfaction. The periods between this are notes of comparison to that weekend. A surefire way to stem those ideas of feeling dissatisfied is to set goals.
Whether it be a creative outlet that you enjoy, or a particular person that you are fond of; pick one and make it a plan before the con ends.
Grab that con friend who you have a connection with and immediately set a day afterwards that you can meet up with. It gives you a date to look forward to. Additionally, a project that you endeavour to complete before the next con can resonate a sense of accomplishment within you. If you are a writer, Think up a piece you’d love to create.
If you are an artist, map out a work of art that you’ve been meaning to get to for a while. An active mind is a happy mind.
SUPPLEMENT THOSE STIMULANTS
Tea and Coffee are the primary choices of relaxing beverages for the Irish. Depending on who you are, it’s more than likely you will have a preference for either one during your day-to-day routine. Unfortunately, while you get a boost from both, they also can bring about undesirable effects as they are stimulants. There is an inevitable crash when you intake a certain amount in a day.
Tea has a less prevalent effect, but the alternative of green tea is a more desirable choice in terms of its benefits for your body.
Supplementing regular tea and coffee with green tea or a vitamin drink, is a recipe for a healthier immune system, which will reflect a better mood for you. Vitamin drinks in particular are filled with protein among other ingredients that your body doesn’t get as much of as you would expect. You’d be surprised at how much of a difference these substitutes can bring in terms of feelings of sadness.
Post-convention blues are drastically reduced when you are in tip-top health.
SWIM OR GYM
The dreaded thoughts of activities can burden us traditionally computer bound nerds. It’s all in the mindset.
If you get it into your head that a particular activity will be hard; you psych yourself out!
Attending the gym or going for a swim for an hour is a chore before you actually start to do it. When your body adjusts to doing one or the other, it becomes second nature. Completion of either of these after just one hour leads to lovely endorphins filling up your system with positive vibes. It’s possible you’ll be tired, but you’ll be glad you did it afterwards.
That is a guarantee!
HAPPIFY/SPOTIFY/CMV-IFY?
Sources of cheeriness can be bookmarked and utilized for future moments of blue. Happify is a website that serves as a beacon of happy energy. It lets you write your thoughts.
It lets you paint whatever you like and it lets you earn happify points by playing interactive puzzles. Happify takes a direct approach to your happiness.
Alternatively, you may want a less direct approach. Spotify allows you to create playlists of music to listen to at your own leisure. Many folk find their ear buds an instrument of therapy to forget their worries through song. Spotify is the tool should you feel that you are of this variety. Lastly, I must add a con related one to the mix.
CMV-ify is not a real word, nor a real website. CMV stands for Cosplay Music Video. When the madness is gone take a tiny sample to bring a measure of the cosplay craziness back into your life. Being surrounded by cosplayers during a weekend can become something that you get used to. CMVs on YouTube enable those cosplay urges to be kept at bay.
Plus, you never know, you might come up with a new idea for your next cosplay.
GAME THERAPY/RETAIL THERAPY
Fairly self-explanatory, game til your heart is content.
Board Games, video games or even jigsaw puzzles. Escaping for an amount of time can help put all of your thoughts into perspective. It ties back into the project planning to a degree. A set goal in your head that goes hand in hand with accomplishment. Play for fun or competitively; whatever strikes your fancy, it’s all about the enjoyment you get out of it.
One such therapeutic method along the same lines is Retail Therapy.
Skeptical readers may believe that buying frivolous items does not amount too much, but the smallest change in lifestyle can make a difference. It doesn’t matter the amount of cash that you have. Buy something for you. A treat once a week can have a significant impact on the attitude you bring to each day. In the back of your head, there is that glimmer knowing that you will be eating a donut on Thursday or buying that Trudi Canavan novel that you’ve had in mind.
Results may vary for each person! At least one of these guidelines will resonate with you in a particular way. If they don’t, there are other avenues to explore. Remember that there are always outlets on the internet and in real life that you can use to enhance your mood.
An important note regarding all of this is that if you have feelings of sadness that are a constant in your life then you could potentially be suffering from depression. The best course in this case is to confide to a professional or a trustworthy member of your family and take each day as it comes.
This guide may not be comprehensive, but I do hope it helped expand options to those who have major cases of the con blues.
And don’t forget — There is always another con just around the corner!
