Like so many comics people, I’ve had to deal with some level of challenging, sometimes overwhelming depression since around the age of 15. I have theories as to what draws depressed people into a life of drawing but anyway that’s not what I’m trying to get at here. Lately I’ve been trying to actively tackle some of this stuff again, and since I don’t have a job to go to, all I have is opportunity to work on myself. <\/p>\n
I definitely default to seeking out revelation as a means of elevating my thought patterns, and this has happened to me in key periods of my life. One that really stands out was my discovery of Sun Ra and his art\/lifestyle philosophy. Reading his biography was a huge revelation, and helped me understand that I could control my reality; that the rules weren’t fixed, and my idea of the world assaulting me was a dynamic I was causing. Unfortunately revelations come very infrequently. The rest of the time we’re just grinding away and making small steps toward self improvement (if we’re doing the work). <\/p>\n
This year I actually started meditating for the first time, daily. I hated meditating my whole life. My brain is so daydreamy and brooding, it absolutely resists the idea of sustained meditation. So I started real slow with a phone app of all things called Headspace. The first time I did a 15 minute meditation I started uncontrollably crying after, so I knew this was filling some gap my organism was starved for. I’ve been meditating for about 25 minutes a day now including a kundalini mantra\/breathing exercise that really wipes my slate clean (15 minutes of Headspace and 10 minutes of kundalini mantra breathing). The benefits are extremely tangible.<\/p>\n
I started taking Jiu Jitsu at a place down the street from me. Right now it’s just me and this dude Arun who is cool as hell and an excellent teacher. I can go in there feeling totally emotionally messed up and by the end of class I feel focused and awesome. I used to wrestle and do Judo when I was in middle school and a little bit into high school, but dropped that stuff when I started getting deeper into my introverted mode; wanting nothing to do with being a jock or assimilating into that teenage sports meathead weirdness. What’s unfortunate about that is I do believe the act of positive grappling\/fighting is extremely beneficial to mental health, and it’s too bad I spent so much time away from it. I think being fluent in physical combat, especially the act of grappling can help you relate to other people, and gives you a visceral understanding of clear, yet fluid problem solving. I dunno. I just find fighting therapeutic. Unlike running or biking, when you fight someone, you can’t think of anything else. You can’t start going into a mental black hole about weird shit when you have to choke a dude or get choked. In a way it’s also like meditation, in that you’re most effective when your mind is blank. <\/p>\n
The other day I also started up therapy again. I’ve had great therapists (one) and mediocre therapists (three). So I’m trying this new therapist out who specializes in artists. We’ll see how it goes. Regardless it seems to be good to have a place where I can let all my shit out without worrying about being judged. <\/p>\n
I’m also practicing some forms of magick therapy. Applying ointments and making prayers to my guides. I try to do this every morning along with my meditation and push-ups. <\/p>\n
All this stuff seems to help in their own way. It’s been my main focus for the past several weeks so I thought I’d write a blurb about it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like so many comics people, I’ve had to deal with some level of challenging, sometimes overwhelming depression since around the age of 15. I have theories as to what draws depressed people into a life of drawing but anyway that’s not what I’m trying to get at here. Lately I’ve been trying to actively tackle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2756,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions\/2756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}