Ooh, you're so right about inhuman!IV being a pacer & nail-biter. I can see him pacing about the manor late at night sometimes, when he's super nervous & has been holding in his worry all day & just needs to let it out peacefully. Always calms him down if you wake up & find him, wrapping your arms around his waist from behind & giving him a reassuring squeeze that melts his nervousness immediately.
I can definitely see inhuman!III being more subdued & quiet when he's alone. Once he's around others, though, especially those he loves, he's practically bouncing off the walls with excitement & joy. If you accidentally interrupt him during his brief moments of solitude, he always greets you with the biggest grin, a silly joke (or goofy flirt), & a big hug (the one where he picks you up & swings you around a bit) because he missed you, no matter how short of a times pan he was away for.
Inhuman!Vess for sure is prone to going overboard, when it comes to well-being, but he's quick to tone it down a notch when you tell him you're fine. Will absolutely not stop carrying you, though (& you won't really fight him on that one because it is rather nice, the way he cradles you to his chest so softly yet protectively, even on a simple walk to the kitchen). LOVED that headcanon from another anon about how the inhuman!vessels would announce their presence when near you! And he'd definitely tease you that it's easier to just be near you & carry you always because he doesn't have to announce his presence with the clinking of his jewelry.
Yes, I agree that Vess & II are the closest! I like that they know each other so well, they don't even have to exchange words (verbally or telepathically). I think inhuman!II is super perceptive to the littlest things because he notices them, & takes the time to ascertain what they mean. He knows the meaning to the smallest of Vessel's ticks, maybe even better than Vessel himself. He's definitely Vess's biggest comforter, & he always grateful for that (& him).
I love that you add humor to sleep, as well! It's kind of refreshing to see a deity so silly, as I'm used to such hostile & violent interpretations of deities (Sleep Token lore included). Life is too short & miserable not to have at least one deity full of whimsy! Lol
~Text color anon
Yes, this is such a soft IV thought and I'm here for it! Bonus points if Sleep gently nudges you awake with some vines, just long enough for you to get the feeling that IV is restless somewhere in the manor. Having you come up from behind him and giving him some physical reassurance that you're still there and alright will do wonders for his anxiety.
III can definitely get into his own head if left alone for too long. Typically he's on the heels of you or one of the others, simply because he likes being around you all, so to be alone for extended periods can find him digging a bit more into his own thoughts than he'd like. But when you find him again, he's naturally all smiles and light.
The walking/moving silently headcanon is a great one! Being inhuman and essentially otherworldly, it makes sense that they wouldn't make much (or any) noise while moving about the manor. So yes, Ves will absolutely use this to tease you about carrying you everywhere. Just so he doesn't accidentally startle you, after all.
II is very perceptive to the little things, especially body language. He's still somewhat learning III and IV's (and yours), but he knows Vessel's like the back of his own hand. Every little twitch or nervous movement, he spots like its a beacon. I like to think that, in times of great distress, the two of them usually go to each other first for comfort purely out of habit. The rest of you also get included shortly after of course, but for those first few moments, it's Vessel and II.
We do love our whimsy around here. Another reason as to why I will usually interject at least a little Silly into nearly everything I write unless it's explicitly stated to be serious lol
DNF: Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider (episode 13)
Tanzaburo Tojima was inspired as a child by Kamen Rider to become a Kamen Rider, but Shocker, the evil organization from the show, does not exist in the real world. Even with training from hell that puts you into peak fighting condition, there's not much use for it in the real world beyond being a great construction worker. So on the day he turns 40, Tojima sells his Kamen Rider merch and vows to become an actual adult, yet still unable to give up on his dreams even as he knows they cannot be fulfilled. Until, that is, some common thugs wearing Shocker masks show up at a local festival, and he finally has a chance to live out his fantasy, to his utter joy. But he's not the only one who wants to be a Kamen Rider, and (spoilers for episode 2) it turns out Shocker is actually real, after all!
There was a lot going for this show from the first episode, and that episode might actually be the best standalone watching experience for this show. It's the purest form of love of a thing pushing you to act in ways you wouldn't normally, in Tojima's case to act as a hero, and his counterpart Nakao to act as a monster of Shocker. After watching that episode, I was filled with a great, childlike whimsy and desire to go out and do something similar myself; there's no Green Lantern corps, but if I were to do this, would I wear a tool belt in green and help those who need it? I could almost imagine writing a story based on just that alone, and I was primed to continue watching the show with that theme in mind.
Episode 2 was where I started to see the cracks, though. We get introduced to our second Kamen Rider wannabe, Yuriko Okada, who was inspired by Tackle in Kamen Rider Stronger to become Tackle II, named to honor the ill-fated female fighter. Ostensibly, her arc is about being so traumatized by Tackle's death that she trained to be the strongest and make sure Tackle would never die again. But she's also the show's revelation that it cannot take female characters seriously. (not to mention everything with Masao Asano, who is this show's Mineta and who I will loath to my grave).
There are (off the top of my head) eight or so female characters introduced at the spot I stopped, the end of episode 13. Six of them have big boobs and are used for fanservice, Yuriko and Yukarisu (the other main female character) most of all. Of the remaining two, one of them is Futaba, the sister of two of the other main characters (both men) and Futaba's grandmother. Futaba has a fairly normal body type as these things go, but Granny Shimamura was a giant of a woman whose footsteps caused the earth to tremble, as broad as a house and taller than doors. For all that I was amused and delighted by this character design, it still annoyed my greatly that all the others were thin and busty. There is a later character I didn't get to who eschews this body type, and these characters tend to have diverse personalities, but they tend to bounce and were distracting. In almost every instance, while they tried to take themselves seriously, the show does not.
But I can get used to some anime bullshit, right? I've read all of One Piece, I can get used to some jiggle physics. What's the fightin' like?
For the first half of what I saw, the fightin' is pretty good. The gradual reveal of the enemies our heroes have to face means that stakes escalate quickly into seriousness, but not quite so quickly as to be unbelievable. There's a good on-boarding process to what a real Shocker should be like, including the monsters, and in a world where Kamen Rider is not real but Shocker is, normal humans have to do a lot of work to get on a level with them.
But the second half of what I saw is where it started to go downhill. After a bad fight our heroes set up a mini tournament arc, not something I'm particularly thrilled by under normal circumstances (I'm a shounen heathen, sue me) where the show started to lose me. The first real fight in the tournament arc is between brothers, and while I didn't love the way it was playing out, it ended well. The fight between Yuriko and Tojima is also excellent, and then the final fight between Yuriko and Mitsuba is... there. Anticlimactic. And it knocks Ichiyo out of alignment and gives him a crush on Yuriko I found highly embarrassing and unnecessary. We already had a couple where they were cheesy and in love and that was the gag; I didn't need to see the same thing play out except it was played straight.
And we come back to Futaba. In the show, she's an embarrassed middle child who had to grow up with two brothers who had seen Shocker kill their grandparents and didn't believe them. She's got a lot of depth available as a character; introduced as angry with her brothers, and why wouldn't she be? Her grandparents were murdered and her brothers are talking about Kamen Rider. Of course she'd find them cringe and annoying. But that anger is the only emotion she's shown to feel, and it flattens what would otherwise be an interesting reveal into just... a fight.
I should get into that. There's a lot of fighting in this show; notably, Nakao, a Yakuza member and a fan of villains in tokusatsu shows, shows up a few times to fight our heroes, and in some of his own fights. In a better show, it would be interesting to watch the bad guys have their own arcs and adventures, like the Phantom Troupe in Hunter x Hunter. But because the cast is so tightly focused he doesn't really get to do much, and the sprawling story feels cramped and small. 13 episodes in, we've met two monsters in Shocker and two named Combatants (their lowliest soldiers). Expand this to the rest of the show, and the same people fight multiple times. The emotional stakes which were there at first fade away into meaningless punches and bruises. Things just don't happen.
And I almost didn't write this review because something did start happening! Spider Man (not that guy) is coming around to kill Futaba's martial arts master, the Tiger Master. I almost watched the next episode just to see what happens, but I checked the Wikipedia page to find out the fight ends inconclusively again. Just when we're about to get somewhere, we get another fight that doesn't mean anything.
And when I say it doesn't mean anything: a fight in fiction is meant to do one of three things: imperil (when a character needs something and this is endangered by an enemy), promote character development (show us, through the fight, what's going on with them internally) or demonstrate prowess, or the Cool Factor. Having recently watched Ballerina I am spoiled for all three, but with even one I could be persuaded to tag along. But the prowess isn't here, I'm not afraid for the characters' lives or goals, and the character development just isn't there. You can look up people punching each other in YouTube videos, and that's even excluding fiction!
And now we get into the portion where I'm just going to complain. I'm not a fan of Kamen Rider, which is to say, I haven't watched any. I don't hate it, but it's unimportant in the face of the show, because I can see Tojima likes it and that pushes him to act. I think it's a little self-indulgent to have this be an official Kamen Rider project, but I can stand with it if something interesting is done.
At first, having Shocker be real was a turn for this more interesting angle. The power difference between four normal-ish humans and Shocker, organization of monsters and combatants, seems like a frightening thing to introduce. But as the episodes go on, we only get brief glimpses into the organization, and while some of it is interesting (Thunder Raiko is an enforcer who kills Combatants who snap out of the brainwashing) it's not shown. Shocker is, on the whole, an unknown entity, even as we get to see the POV of monsters and Combatants alike. How big are they? How much of a threat? We know one of their members was killing folks decades ago to hide the conspiracy, but that guy is someone our heroes fight in the present, as well. It's something like twenty or thirty people we see in total, and that's including members added over the course of the show. Why is Shocker real? If Shocker is real, why is Kamen Rider a show? You would think this is the obvious question to answer but no! we must have a shot of the character breasting boobily as she kicks someone in the face! Vital to the story, you see!
I hesitate to be so negative about a show that's ultimately just stupid wish fulfillment fun, but it's a show that managed to lose any goodwill I retained from the first episode by the middle of the season. Any faith I had in what this series would be about died away from an examination of heroism based on fiction to a middling battle shounen (technically seinen, but shut up) with no power system. I read a lot of middling comic books, though, and I was emotionally invested in this one enough to keep pushing despite misgivings, but at this point, it's undeniable: I hate this show. It's a show that had such potential and turned into utter mediocrity. I hate it for hooking me and wasting my time. Maybe you'll have fun, but I will not recommend it under any circumstances.
Unstoppable Forces and Immovable Objects- Mingi x Female!Reader
Song Mingi is an incredibly special man & I hope he never forgets it 😤 I love he immensely. Pink Mingi is, frankly, a cornerstone of this year. An icon. A legend. The moment. Also shhhh I took some dorm layout liberties for this 🤫😂
Word Count: 2620 | Idiots to Lovers, Humor | Warnings: only if you're bothered by smooch talk hehe, but one note: 노래방 = noraebang aka what most of us English speakers think of as karaoke 😄
"(y/n)! (y/n)! Watch this!"
"What now?"
Completely ignoring Yeosang's interjection, Mingi continued to call for you, grin of whimsy widening when you made your way over as if he wasn't sure he'd actually see you.
Which he totally would, always, because you had the biggest, fattest crush on him, heart leaping up and hitting a big carnival bell every time Mingi sought your attention. He was the biggest ray of sunshine smiling through just about any cloud in your life.
Shuffling past Hongjoong and Seonghwa's conversation at the sidelines, you made your way back to the bouncy center of the trampoline park you'd gone with the boys to. There stood Mingi with a hand raised, waving as he bounced ever-so-slightly on his heels, the dark netting rippling beneath him.
"Let's see," you tell him with a smile, heart fluttering at his waves and jumps.
"Ok! Get ready!" Steadying himself, Mingi hunkered a bit from his upright stance, run-jumping across three squares of trampoline, hurtling himself up into the air on the fourth toward the giant obstacle pad set a little bit left of center. He did not clear it, sailing right into the side of the firm structure with a small oof.
Smacking his forehead, Yeosang took a few steps away. Yunho joined you in running toward the tall man and his unfortunate collision, asking his friend if he was ok. It looked like he almost nodded, but you met his eyes as he ended up shaking it no instead. Your eyes widened. Had it started hurting?
"Where does it hurt? Do you think you bruised something?"
"Just his ego," Yeosang muttered.
You, of course, did not want to make Mingi feel any worse, choosing not to respond to that. "Do you need help up?"
Mingi nodded, eyes still looking into yours as he held out his hand to you. Face warming, you grabbed it, unable to suppress a smile even as you pulled the big man to his feet again.
"That was really cool, though," you told him, just to see the smile return to his face, "you went really far. I bet the others couldn't get that far."
"No, they couldn't, could they?" Contagious joy indeed came back to Mingi's face. "I'm going to jump so high I finally hit the punching bag they hung! Watch me, (y/n)!"
"I will," you giggle, stepping back and bouncing in place as he goes long for a running start.
~
(POV: Mingi)
"This has to stop before you break anything. Don't you think there's any other way?" Yeosang cajoled, sitting down next to Mingi and handing him a freshly chilled water bottle.
Mingi, for his part, took some of the cool condensation on his hand, running it through his short pink hair to combat the sweat of exertion before frowning in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"These insane attempts to get (y/n)'s attention!"
"Insane attempts?"
"Last week, Mingi, you borrowed my skateboard and proceeded to skin your arm when you fell off the grind rail. You have never skateboarded in your life."
"I wanted her to think I'm cool," the pink-haired man responded with a pout, "she's so beautiful and awesome."
"And notice," Yeosang commented, shaking his head as black hair fell all over, "she has never fallen off a skateboard."
"Well, what do you think I should do?"
"Um, maybe consider confessing to her? Seeing if she likes you too?"
"No way! What if she doesn't even want to be friends anymore?"
"Well, I suppose that's a risk we all take," Yeosang responded, tone softening, "but if you're respectful about it, I'm sure you won't lose her completely."
"That's the last thing I want," Mingi said intensely.
"Yes, of course not, so why don't you just-"
Right then, you happened to saunter by, crossing the sidelines near the center to head to the foam pit, glancing over at the two of them with a faint smile. A gorgeous one. Mingi smiled back, tossing the water bottle his hyung gave him immediately aside and walking after you.
"Hey, (y/n), let's jump in at the same time and see who can climb back out faster!"
That's what you guys did, Mingi diving in facing the side so he could watch with a twinkle in his eye the way you flipped in. Amazing. He managed to get his footing on the way out, scrambling up not too clumsily for once, but when he turned around he saw your hands clutching at the side, floundering a bit.
His heart thudded. "Hey, you helped me earlier. Do you need me to return the favor?"
"Yes, please," you replied with a nod, loosening half your grip to take Mingi's proffered hand.
He yanked you free of the cubic foam menaces in no time, and soon you were standing right in front of him. "Guess you win," you remarked with an amused smirk.
"Yeah, I guess so, but your jump was way cooler."
"I can show you how to do it if you want, but only on one condition."
"What's that, (y/n)?"
"You keep helping me out when I get stuck."
"Of course."
~
(POV: You)
Jump time over, you made your way across the arena to the exit, taking the long way as you, San, and Jongho sprung across every single central trampoline. Giggling, you landed, shuffling over to the locker where the park had you lock up your shoes. When you got there, Yeosang had lowered himself onto the bench by your locker, so you dropped down next to him to lace yourself back up. Out of the peripheries of your vision, you saw him fixing you with a look.
"Really?"
You blinked. "What?"
"Fake falling into the foam pit?" He asked in response, one eyebrow raising.
"You mean the dive?" Pulling your right foot into your shoe, you fixed the dark-haired singer with a look of your own, this one conveying a lack of understanding.
Or so you thought. "No, I mean the way you obviously didn't even try to get out and the little drama performance as you feebly grabbed the sides."
"Hey, I'm not feeble!"
"No, you're just into Mingi, aren't you?"
"Because I had him help me out? In case you haven't noticed, he's pretty tall and strong, and he's so nice I really didn't think he would mind if I-"
"Yeah, you hear yourself, don't you?"
Busted. "Ok, please don't say anything, I mean there's no way he likes me back and I don't want to make things weird, so it's just something I get to live with as you guys' friend."
Yeosang just chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh, man."
"What?"
"Nothing," he grabbed his bag, "just...look, I know Mingi very well, and let me just tell you he'd rather get hit by a bus than make the first move. If you're into him, the best thing you could do is tell him. Very, very directly."
Your mouth fell open. "What? Confess?" Heat bloomed across your face. "It's ok, I don't need to hear him reject me, I know we're just friends, it just...he's just...he's just so..." You trail off with a sigh.
Yeosang just elbows you, rolling his eyes lightly. "Handsome? Dreamy?"
"Shut up," you shoot back in a drawn-out giggle as you make your way to the rest of the group at the lobby, where you surreptitiously popped open the doors on one of the little ice cream coolers, sliding a bar out and taking it up to the desk to purchase. Giving people food, after all, was a flirtation method in your mind. Like hey, hello, please like me, I can feed you. You weren't sure if it worked on Mingi or not, but hey, worth a shot.
You strolled up to him, pulling the strawberry cream bar out from behind your back. "Look what I got you! It matches your hair!"
With that big, bright smile you loved, Mingi pulled an ice cream bar out from behind his back, too. "I got you an ice cream!" He exclaimed, though he trailed off as he glanced at his offering. "Though this one doesn't match your hair."
A smack sound at your back had Mingi starting and you turning around, only to see Yeosang with his face in his hand.
~
(POV: Yeosang)
"This is stupid."
"Oh, you think?" Yeosang, frankly, was over the moon to have someone who sympathized with him, that person being his longtime friend Wooyoung.
Wooyoung who stood at Yeosang's side taking in the very same scene that laid out before them: you and Mingi had jointly chosen a very particular 노래방 song, your favorite romantic movie duet to be exact. You two were gripping your microphones like lifelines, both absolutely belting the song at each other for the bit, key and perfect notes be darned. Your eyes never left each other's except to dart ever-so-slightly down every now and again as you grinningly deafened everyone else, whose rolling eyes you were blind to thanks to that focus on each other. Mingi let his jacket slide down his shoulders as he dropped down to really yell a note, revealing the tank top he was wearing underneath, and boy did your eye contact falter then.
"Uh, yeah," Wooyoung's eyes slid upward so hard they practically disappeared under their lids as he crossed his arms, "My God, I feel like a third wheel. Are they-"
"Deeply convinced they have torturous one-sided crushes? Yes, they are," Yeosang replied, mirroring his friend's posture.
The sputtering that followed was very satisfying to what little bit of Yeosang's sanity remained. "Wh- What? How? Can they not see themselves doing..." Wooyoung extended a black-sleeved arm, palm flat out and pointing incriminatingly at you two, who were now giggling over some dumb mic twirling contest. "That?"
"That's what friends do," Yeosang asked facetiously, falling back against the red plush bench the inactive singers sat on, "right?"
"I mean," Wooyoung commented, hands wringing, "I'd do that with you, but just with a drinking song or something, sheesh."
"And even then I'd contemplate slapping you."
"That's why I love you." Wooyoung slid a little closer to his friend with a teasing grin. "See? That's so easy, why don't Mingi and (y/n) do that?"
"Good luck, they're like an unstoppable force and an immovable object." Yeosang quickly motioned to the duo with a sweep of his open hand, directing Wooyoung's eyes off him and back to the antics, which this time consisted of Mingi trying to coolly toss his microphone and catch it, totally missing and sending it flying to the floor, making the two of you laugh.
"Is that why Mingi was practicing juggling in the dorms?"
"He what?"
"Yeah, one of Seonghwa's legos got knocked over...not a pretty afternoon."
Yeosang ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "Yeah, we'd practically need to trick them into getting together to stop the carnage."
Suddenly he felt a slap to his shoulder. Starting, he swiveled his head from the Mingi-(y/n) train wreck to meet the devilish eyes of one Jung "Schemes" Wooyoung.
"Well, I think that can be arranged." Leaning in, he whispered a plan to Yeosang, who nodded and shook his hand in agreement. "Alright then! Celebratory song?"
"Sure, why not?" Yeosang replied, rising from the couch and coaxing the thrice-tossed microphones from (y/n) and Mingi. "Anything to stop the showtunes."
"Hey," you pouted, "that's a classic, you know!"
"Yeah!"
"Mingi, my friend, you've never even seen that movie," Wooyoung chuckled, wrapping an arm around his friend, who flushed.
"I can appreciate lyricism, you know."
~
(POV: You)
Yeosang was not letting you breathe. Ever since you admitted to liking his friend back in the trampoline park, he wouldn't stop wiggling his eyebrows at you after you brushed hands with Mingi, elbowing you and making jokes in the kitchen, and now just straight-up playing devil-on-your-shoulder telling you you needed to practice confessing.
"No, I don't," you griped back, "I've already ruined my life enough by even falling for a friend in the first place, I don't need to creep him out, too."
"Sheesh, what do you think you're going to say, that you've got names for all three of your kids or what?"
"Well for starters, how does Song Minseo sound to you?"
Yeosang looked like he was going to puke. "Oh, God."
"That was a joke!" You waved your hands back and forth wildly as if very inexperienced-ly directing a plan landing. "I was kidding!"
"You came up with that way too fast," he said, shaking his head, "but, see, it's hard to get the white picket fence if you never share how you see him, right?"
You crossed your arms. "I guess."
"You had no problem telling me how tall and strong and nice he was," Yeosang pointed out, leading you further down the dorm hall and shooting a brief look into Wooyoung's room before stopping you in his, "just say all that to him instead of me."
Your hands shot up to cover your reddening face. "That would be so embarrassing."
"I mean, he probably already knows he's tall, strong, and nice, so you should be pretty safe with that one."
"I'm not just going to say that, that's, like, basic stuff! I'd tell him how happy he makes me just by being happy himself, how he's pretty much a ray of pure sunshine and I love the way he calls my name and I can't imagine being half as comfortable with anyone else as I am with him. He has eyes, he can tell he's hot or whatever."
Yeosang got an absolutely catlike smile on his face. "And who are we talking about again?"
Glaring daggers into those pleased-looking eyes, you bit out "Mingi, you idiot! You were the one who made me admit I liked him in the first place, what do you mean who?"
Before your long-haired friend could answer, his silence starkened a not-so-subtle "Really?" from outside the door, through which Wooyoung and Mingi suddenly came barreling, the latter practically shoving the former aside to get next to you. Your eyes widened, heartbeat speeding up multiple times its normal pace.
"Yes!" Those dang sparkly eyes you wanted to stare into forever. That deep voice. Excitement in that deep voice. Mingi's gaze traveling all around your face as he reached clumsily for one of your hands, the other pumping like he'd just won a football game. "Yes!"
You couldn't take it; flushing and grinning a winning expression of your own, you felt your heart burst and soar as you stepped forward, carnival bell ringing over and over again. It rang so loud, in fact, it practically possessed you, Mingi's victorious shouts and even the way he started bouncing started to drain away in the swell of your heart, your eyes and brain only seeing him. More specifically... without a single forethought, as you did most things when you were around Mingi, your hands reached out to grab his collar, yanking him forward until he crashed into your lips, responding as soon as physically possible. Arms sliding around his neck, you picked up the pace, feeling Mingi smile and totally coming undone, knees almost buckling until you felt a hand steady you around your waist. When you pulled away, Mingi tightened his grip, keeping you in place as your foreheads connected, both of you giggling like schoolkids who got caught passing notes as you began whispering all the once-secret feelings you shared for each other.
"Hm, this might get annoying, too," Yeosang commented.
"Yeah, totally," Wooyoung agreed, leaning against the doorframe he'd just been pushed against, "but at least they'll break less stuff now."
3 Chapters, 1 Blog Post: Because Attention Spans Are Overrated
sup papa pat today's blog post is gonna be split into 3 sections talking about each chapter IN DEPTH with a slightly less funny tone because i crave a full 20 points. SO let us begin with chapter 4
"Practicing Gratitude And Positive Thinking"
In this chapter, Lyubomirsky talked a lot about performing happiness activities, and I mean a lot. Gratitude practices were honestly interesting too because, according to her, regularly expressing gratitude can shift one's attention from what's lacking to what's abundant. She expressed that keeping a gratitude journal, writing thank-you notes, and even just a simple task like mentally acknowledging your blessings can all contribute to a more positive mindset, and honestly, this really works. I spent some time reflecting and realizing what was positive in my life, and I genuinely believe that it made me happier that day. She goes on from there to discuss another few topics, such as how optimistic thinking helps you bounce back from temporary setbacks and how visualization techniques can help reinforce that optimism. After that, she went on to explain lots about how you should savor life and not rush through positive experiences and "flow" activities, which is where you engage in a deep state of engagement with an activity… which, like, I guess? I don’t really get her point here all that much because if this only occurs when skills match the challenge, and it’s something you can always overcome… then where’s the challenge? If you're doing activities that are hard but you never fail at, then it wasn’t much of a challenge at all, was it? It was just difficult. Me personally, I think failing and trying again at something is more rewarding than this "flow" state, but I GUESS I understand what she meant by it—it's just worded in a weird way.
"Investing In Social Connections"
OK, honestly, you've seen I'm capable of a good summary, so I'm gonna go back to the writing style that makes ME happy, but I'll still cram as much info about the chapter summaries as I can in. SO, in this chapter, she talks a lot about how one of the STRONGEST and MOST CONSISTENT findings in the ENTIRE field of happiness research is that social relationships are the key to well-being. And like, yeah, I can't imagine a world in which any friendless dork is happy—like, how can you be happy without friends to spread joy and whimsy? OK, so continuing on, she talks a lot about how happiness is strongly tied to the quality—but not necessarily the quantity—of relationships. Which I fully agree with. As long as you can have a few super close friends, I think you'll be way happier than with a ton of just fair-weather friends.
This chapter continued on a lot about how expressing love and gratitude is important, and you should always remember to do small acts of kindness for your friends and family to nurture that good relationship. Tbh, who wouldn't be happy if your friend was like, "OMG, I love you, oomfie, you're the greatest and coolest and awesomest friend ever and ever"? I'd like that personally.
Finally, in this chapter, she said to limit toxic relationships, and dude, I'm not even gonna extrapolate on this—it's so self-explanatory. Don't surround yourself with chuckle schmucks. Like, just don't.
"Managing Stress, Hardship, And Trauma"
The Big Lyubomirsky talks about a few key strategies in this chapter about how to manage—well, it's in the chapter title, so you figure it out—and they're all pretty simple, tbh. First off, you've gotta develop some resilience. Resilience is the ability to recover from setbacks, and you do this by having a positive mindset and lots of optimism.
The next strategy is to reframe negative experiences to look at them in a new light—take a look at the silver lining and all. Next on the agenda is to meditate and let the anger and sadness flow out of you. It apparently does something, but tbh, who meditates?
FINALLY, you've gotta seek social support from the besties, which lets you trauma dump on them in a HOPEFULLY effective way.
