a few things that have saved my life this year

I'll see your gift guide and raise you an uplift guide x

What a difference a year can make huh? You might recall (if you’ve been here for a while) that this time last year I was living in Lisbon, avoiding eye contact with strangers, avoiding anything remotely fun, and avoiding buying a duvet cover. With a push from my friends and a pull from my family I came home, a shell of the Luce we all know and love, and started trying to get better.

I was always of the mindset that no matter how good things got, I was always going to feel a little bit shit (if you feel this way please know, it’s not normal) and I can happily report that after a year of - cringe - healing (and antidepressants) I actually feel do feel so good.

Anyway, in the name of end-of-year listicles and gift guides and capitalist hell, I thought I’d share my own little list of things that have saved my life this year.

• Citalopram!!!!!!!

• Receiving (and giving) validation. I’m sorry but we all need it, and holding in a compliment isn’t good for anyone. Tell someone you love them! Tell them their heart is good! Tell them they’re beautiful! See something, say something. Just make sure you get it back too xx

• Touching grass. Turns out it’s quite important to just like, go outside ˙ᵕ˙

• Low presh journaling. I do this thing where each night at the same time as I take my antidepressants, I write down ONE thing that made me feel good that day. I love this because a) it makes you reflect on something nice before you fall asleep, and b) there’s something so wonderful about looking back to days where the only thing you could think of was that there was a new episode of Love Island out, knowing that now there are almost too many happy things to put in that little space. A nice, chill way to journal and track your happiness.