Peek Inside My Cabinet of Comforts for Daily Mental Repair

What gets me through.

Amanda Stern
January 25, 2022

The weekly newsletter "How to Live" highlights a single, sometimes complex, idea, modality, person, or insight from the therapeutic and mental health world and breaks it down into a relatable narrative for the general public.

The goal is to offer information about different ways to help heal to a wide array of people—practices and approaches that they didn't know existed, didn't know enough about, or simply wanted to understand.

But what of the more specific and granular things that help get a person through a day and bring joy from the frivolous to the more profound?

Working on your mental health is a daily practice. And it takes different forms for different people. It has to do with surrounding myself with things that bring me deep pleasure (Marie Kondo would be so proud and, I suspect, horrified because I am a very messy person). Many people get rid of the things they don't need, keeping only the things they do.

I have spent my life collecting curiosities, objects, ideas, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, thoughts, inspirations, articles, books, quotes, concepts, resources, wisdom, learnings, and illuminations that sustain me, add value to my daily life, and create the climate, conditions, ethos, meaning art, and essence of figuring out how to live in a world whose ways are often incompatible with mine.

Some of those things are as simple as the stones I gathered on Brimstone Island in Vinalhaven, Maine.

Today, I am introducing you to six things that are not only meaningful to me, but bring me joy. I hope they bring you something, too.