What things do you do to pull yourself out of a negative spiral?

A bunch of those things seem outside your control, so I would suggest on focusing on things you can change. If there’s a task you’ve been putting off and would make a difference to your quality of life (clean cupboards, organise life admin) then setting small goals that make that task a bit smaller will make you feel better.

If you can exercise, do that. If you can be outside in nature and daydream, do that. The state of the world’s source is your phone and is not real. Eliminating the input of that will improve the output too (:

You’ve got this

I've learned to think of three things for which I'm grateful every day. Big or small. I don't close the reminder until I complete the task. Today, if I can remember all three:

1. Our kitty who was timid about my partner since living together is now comfortable being pet by her.
2. I can walk to work (and do). Super short commute.
3. Can't remember the third, so this is off the dome: whatever maintenance stuff that the building was doing didn't need to happen when they looked at our filter and they only stayed for five seconds.

I take a tram to the park and read books. Depending on whats getting me down its either theory or fantasy. I also curl up with kitty sometimes

Avoid all news in Amerikkkan, it's all negative all just horrible. Do what your capable of doing to help fight but news is all about forcing your engagement constantly and negativity is hyper engaging for them.

I preemptedly avoid anything to do with the news on Lemmy by blocking certain communities and key words. I have zero way to do anything to help, so having constantly negative shit from the news just will make my life worse.

This is probably a "me" thing, but it works so I'll post. I go out for ice cream.

Yeah, I know that sounds incredibly simple, because, well, it is. The eat/sleep/work cycle just to survive America really wears on me. This breaks me out of that mental rut, even if my reality is still the same. And "fat & happy" is a cliche for a reason, there's something about putting sugar in our bodies that helps lift my mood.

But of course, this isn't a "fix". This is more like hitting the pause button. What you do in that hour is up to you. For me, giving myself that time out to reflect can be enough to salvage the day, if not the week.

I should add, I had two Italian grandmothers who absolutely stuffed us with treats. So there's almost certainly a mental connection for me that "sweet food" = "good memories". Not everyone is going to have that connection. You may have to dig a bit more to find what gives you that happy trigger.