One Nice Bug Per Day
Doug Jones
gracie abrams
YOU ARE THE REASON
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
TMBGareOK. The Official They Might Be Giants tumblr
Color Me Curious
Today's Document
Misplaced Lens Cap
tumblr dot com
official daine visual archive
#extradirty
The Stonewall Inn
bliss lane
blake kathryn
NASA
No title available
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
No title available
Show & Tell
seen from India
seen from Mali
seen from France
seen from Singapore
seen from Singapore
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from France
seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
seen from Ireland
seen from Vietnam
seen from Singapore
seen from Japan
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Spain
seen from Thailand
seen from Canada
seen from Vietnam
seen from Türkiye
seen from Philippines
@windowtoyourworld-blog
I got 4 and almost died
A few things here.
1. This is NOT measuring your lungs, it’s measuring your ability to tolerate hypercarbia (high CO2 levels)
2. It says more about overall metabolic conditioning than lung capacity.
3. Your lungs are not muscles and cannot be “strong”. Pharmaceutical companies should probably know this.
4. Screw your effective corporate hypnoviral thing I shouldn’t even reblog
5. I got a 10 I win give me a pony
6. WHERE MY PONY??
Too many depictions of autistic people rely on tired clichés. The neurotypical world needs to take note of our own voices
Greetings in BSL
I love how hello is the same as goodbye
“hello”
“how are you”
“I’m good too!”
“hello”
Lip pattern changes ;)
Quality. Content.
Needless to say, I am HORRIFIED.
‘All that you need to know about boars can be summed up in the fact that if you wish to hunt them, you must have a specially made boar spear. This spear has a crosspiece on it to prevent the boar from charging the length of the spear, driving it all the way through his own body, to savage the human holding the other end.’
-Boar and Apples, T. Kingfisher
fuck OFF
Note that pigs are also HUGE. So, yes, they ARE slightly larger pigs.
So I grew up in the city and have never seen a pig in real life and I just googled it and WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS
I thought they were like labrador sized, like, fat labradors, not mini-cows.
every time I see this post there are more people discovering how fuck off huge pigs actually are and I love it I thought this was a thing everyone knew but clearly not and I’m laughing
This is me with our Tamworth boar, a heritage breed closer to their wild cousins than the Yorkshire above. I am a fully grown, average sized human. He was a gentle sweetie who, sadly, is no longer with us. His name was Mr. Big.
FUCK OFF
Forever laffin’ at people who don’t understand how enormous, terrifying, and tenacious wild boar are.
They’re like if bears had knives protruding from their closed mouths and Didn’t Know When To Quit. Their survival instincts when they’re wounded aren’t “run away and minimize injury” it’s “take the thing that hurt you down with you” They also make sounds like someone crossed a pig with an alligator.
Their head and neck alone can be like the size of an entire human torso.
Also forever laffin’ at people who think pigs are tiny, ‘cause we designed those things can get in the neighbourhood of a thousand pounds in ideal circumstances.
It’s like when people assume Tuna must be small because they’ve only ever experienced them in hockey puck form.
Like seriously why the fuck y'all think everyone FREAKED THE HELL OUT when Dorothy fell into the pig pen in Wizard of Oz? It’s because pigs are HUGE and weigh a shitton and would crush her in an instant.
also dont they eat like, basically anything?
YUP. Pigs will eat people, if given the chance. They dgaf.
That’s why boar hunters use a team of very tenacious dogs to hold the boar so they can be speared without fucking you up. The dogs wear body armour.
I’ve heard stories of people shooting boars, and if it didn’t kill them, it just pissed them off.
how the hell did we ever domesticate these things?
…“how the hell did we ever domesticate these things?”
Very carefully, I would imagine.
WIld boar babies are rather cute, like living humbugs…
…but the adults and their ferocity have been associated with warriors for thousands of years, from Mycenaean Greece (a helmet made from sections of boar tusk)…
…through Celtic Europe (reconstructed carnyx war-horns and standards)…
…Ancient Rome (the crest of Legion 20 “Valeria Victrix”). A couple more legions also used a boar as their crest - I wonder did they squabble over which was the “right” one the way a couple of Swiss cantons had a little war over whose bear was best…?
…then Anglo-Saxon and pre-Viking helmet crests…
…right up to the late Middle Ages (here the white boar badge of Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III of England)…
…and the blue boar badge of the Earl of Oxford, more usually represented by the De Vere arms, quarterly gules and or, in the first a molet argent.
After Richard was defeated at Bosworth in 1485, there was a run on blue paint as inn-signs were changed to reflect new loyalties since Oxford was on the winning side…
And pigs will definitely eat people.
It gets mentioned in the movie “Snatch”, the book/movie “Hannibal” and the webcomic “Lackadaisy Cats”, among numerous other fictional sources, and IRL it’s suspected to be the reason why numerous missing persons have stayed missing.
More here (another comment to this same OP) and here (slightly different).
Here’s some boar-hunting armour for dogs, ancient…
…and modern…
…and the modern one looks very like a simple style of ancient…
So when Odysseus’s old nurse recognizes him by the scar he got from the boar-tusk slash that almost killed him… now you get the resonance.
This post…it just really went places on me.
I hope you read this entire post, and that it made your entire day so much better, even if just for a few moments, like it did mine.
I admittedly get a kick outta here posts cause even though I grew up in the city, I have close family who were pig farmers and spent a good deal of times as an Animal Science student through our College of Ag, so I’ve worked with livestock close up and forget so many people just don’t know.
Just you wait until you hear about Hellboars (Daeodon) :^)
When you're driving and a boar crosses the road, your heart stops a little, because if that boar decides to charge your car...
For anyone who wants a free pose-able human reference for drawing
The other day I came across this awesome program by accident (I don’t even remember what I was actually searching for, but on the several times I’ve looked for a program like this I’ve had no luck). It’s cool enough that I wanted to share it.
It’s called DesignDoll (website here) and it’s a program that lets you shape and pose a human figure pretty much however you want.
There’s a trial version with no expiration date that can be downloaded for free, as well as the “pro license” version priced at $79. I’ve only had the free version for two days so far, so I’m not an expert and I haven’t figured out all of the features yet, but I’ve got the basics down. The website’s tutorials are actually pretty helpful for the basics, as well.
Here’s the page for download, which has a list of the features available in both versions.
There are three features the free version doesn’t have:
Can’t save OBJ files for export
Can’t download models and poses from Doll Atelier (a sharing site for users; note that the site is in Japanese, though)
It can’t load saved files
The third one means that if you make a pose, save it, and close the program, you can’t load that pose/modified model later. You have to start with the default model. I found that out when I tried to load a file from the day before (this is why reading is important…). Whether saving your modifications (and downloading models and poses) is worth $80 is up to you.
But, the default model is pretty nice and honestly if all you’re looking for is a basic pose reference it should work fairly well as it is. Here’s what it looks like:
There’s a pose tag that lets you drag each joint into place and rotate body parts. The torso and waist can be twisted separately, and it seems like everything pretty much follows the range of movement it would have on an actual human.
Even the entire shoulder area is actually movable along with the joint! See, like how the scapular area of the back raises with the arm:
The morphing tag is one of the coolest features, in my opinion. It lets you pick and choose from a library of pre-set forms for the head, chest, arms, legs, etc. It has some more realistic body shapes in addition to more anime-like ones. Don’t like the options there? Mix a few to get what you want! Each option has a slider that lets you blend as much or as little as you want into the design.
So you, too, can create beautiful things like kawaii Muscle-chan!!
The scale tag lets you mess with the proportions and connection points of different joints. This feature combined with the morphing feature not only allows more body shape variations, but it also means that you can do things like make a more digitigrade model if you want. (The feet only have an ankle joint, but for regular human poses that’s all that you really need, so whatever.)
Or you can make a weird chubby alien-like thing with giant hands and balloon tiddies if that’s more your thing.
The ability to pose hands to the extent it allows is far more than I could have hoped for from a free program. Seriously, you can change the position of each finger joint individually, as well as how spread out the fingers are from each other. Each crease on the diagram below is a point of movement, and the circles are for spread between fingers.
And to make it a bit more convenient, there’s a library of pre-set hand poses you can pick from as well, and then change the pose from that if you like.
In both versions, you can also import OBJ files from other places for the model to hold, like if you wanted to have them hold a sword or something.
Basically, this program is awesome and free and you should totally check it out if you want a good program for creating pose references.
I just wanted to add a little more to this. If you have trouble figuring out how light sources work in your drawings this also allows you to choose where to have a light source.
That shaded ball on the left is your light source. You can see how moving the point changed the shadow cast.
Oh and all those other nifty looking things in that bottom bar there, yeah it’s what you think. You can change the model color to one of these presets or even customize your own palette.
Plus for all you lovely people who want something a little more simplified to use as a pose reference
You can turn your model into the classic wire frame.
Why reblog this? Because for more visual creators, this will be like the lumberjack discovering chainsaws. “Reblog to save lives” as the saying goes.
@ravesinthesky
Yesssssssss thank you @cupcakesandfucks
@incaseyouart I have no idea if this is something you would be interested in but I’m over here freaking out!
Where have you been all my life? °^° ❤️
Because I want all my arty friends to have all the helpful things so we an see more of the arts!
@jayeiqi @mothdice
I found the links didn’t work for whatever reason, but if you google it its the first thing that pops up!
Autistic Adults are Largely Forgotten
Sensory rooms, for example. Google it, you get only things about kids, soft play, sensory play. There are no places where an adult can go! Why not create sensory rooms that can be enjoyed by adults, too?
Unless you are a child, or are deemed “low functioning ” as an adult, you get nothing. No help. Since my diagnosis, only I’ve really helped myself, by learning about myself and spending energy looking for services.
I don’t get disability payments, I don’t get therapy, I don’t have access to support near where I live and I sure don’t get treated with as much flexibility as a child does.
I even WORK. Oh, us disabled folk, we’re such huge burdens though, right?? You know why people don’t see me as disabled? Because I don’t inconvenience them. They don’t have to cope with my issues. My disability doesn’t affect me stongly, in their eyes, because it doesn’t affect them
On Monday I will be going in to work, putting in tons of energy to function, whilst colleagues congratulate themselves on how inclusive they are.
Yup.
And even the ones deemed “low functioning” usually get more pity than help.
I’d also like to point out that actually getting a diagnosis is more difficult too if you’re an adult, and considering that autism is often overlooked, especially in young girls, this is a problem.
I asked my doctor to be tested for autism not too long ago and was informed that they couldn’t do it, and the NHS doesn’t cover it either, so I’d have to pay to get it done privately.
Its extremely shitty.
As soon as I left secondary school pretty much all the support networks dried up. I was honestly shocked my Uni gave me any help, but I had to go seek it myself. Nowerdays it’s an uphill struggle. Because I’m not obviously low functioning I have to fight tooth and nail for any sort of understanding from employers, the job centre, benefits people. Basically anyone. Even then it never seems to come up until I’m pushed to my limit and flip my shit, when I becomes an inconvenience. Sick notes from doctors and psychs emphasising that my increasingly worsening issues with anxiety and depression largely come from my condition just seem to get disregarded. Hell, friends and family do it as well. For all the Autism awareness shit me Ma shares on Facebook she’s got a habit of pushing the triggers that have been known for 20 odd years now, and my Dad doesn’t even try a gentle touch. On the sensory room thing, the place I currently work at has two but has only just started to consider opening session slots up for neurodivergent adults during the school terms when they’re less busy and have made it inordinately more expensive compared to kids sessions. The only thing they’ve really offered beyond that is some dodgy holistic treatment stuff which is… well, shit.
Because everyone knows neurodivergent adults are loaded! /sarcasm
Pushing up prices for an age group is just awful, and not logical to me. I have friends that know I'm autistic and STILL don't get how to help me/ avoid adding to my anxiety. And if I talk about it well "everyone struggles"
For three days
I've been quite calm, and suddenly, this evening, I was totally hyper and off the charts nonsensical.
Calling autists everywhere!
This is my Spectrum is a zine by autistic people. I’m preparing for the first issue and we’re looking for anything you want to contribute. And we do mean ANYTHING! Social media posts of any kind, writing, art, an opinion/story you want to share, a picture of a booger on a tissue that you sent in just because… Anything goes. As long as it’s by you and you’re autistic, it counts. Message the editor here, or email content to [email protected]
The deadline for the first edition is August 5th, 2018. The zine will be published on Tumblr and you will be credited unless you don’t want to be. Even if you don’t submit, please like and reblog for the signal boost.
For all the autistic artists, intellectuals, and entrepreneurs out there who want even more exposure
HEY THIS IS IMPORTANT whats your favorite place to find drawing references?
so far we’ve got
senshi stock
croquis cafe
line-of-action.com
quickposes.com
posemaniacs
clip studio paint models
pexels.com
sketchdaily
eggazyoutatsu atarichan drawer
designdoll
if you have any more please reply!
Unsplash: All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible. More precisely, Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash. This license does not include the right to compile photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.
Freeimages: You can use the images in digital format on websites, blog posts, social media, advertisements, film and television productions, web and mobile applications. In printed materials such as magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, product packaging for decorative use in your home, office or any public place or personal use. The rights granted to you by FreeImages.com are: Perpetual, meaning there is no expiration or end date on your rights to use the content. Non-exclusive, meaning that you do not have exclusive rights to use the content. FreeImages.com can license the same content to other customers. Unlimited, meaning you can use the content in an unlimited number of projects and in any media. For purposes of this agreement, “use” means to copy, reproduce, modify, edit, synchronize, perform, display, broadcast, publish, or otherwise make use of.
Stocksnap: Every single image on StockSnap are governed exclusively by the generous terms of the Creative Commons CC0 license. Specifically, that license means you can do any and all of the following: Download the image file.Publish, revise, copy, alter, and share that image. Use the image (as-is or as you’ve altered it), in both personal and commercial contexts. Moreover, you can put StockSnap CC0 images to any of these usages without buying the right to do it, acquiring written permission from the image’s creator, or attributing the work to the image creator. In other words, there’s no fee to download or use these StockSnap images in accordance with the CC0 license. They’re free to download, free to edit, and free to use - even in a commercial project! You don’t even need to attribute the image to the creator, the way you do with other CC or traditional copyright licensing schemes. (However, even though it’s not required, we here at StockSnap do encourage you to include an appropriate attribution. It’s a nice thing to do.)
Burst.Shopify: Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. Their image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images that were shot by their global community of photographers. You can use their pictures for just about anything — your website, blog or online store, school projects, Instagram ads, facebook posts, desktop backgrounds, client work and more. All of their photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required.
Pixabay: Images and Videos on Pixabay are released under Creative Commons CC0. To the extent possible under law, uploaders of Pixabay have waived their copyright and related or neighboring rights to these Images and Videos. You are free to adapt and use them for commercial purposes without attributing the original author or source. Although not required, a link back to Pixabay is appreciated.
Viintage: All images hosted by Viintage.com are considered to be public domain images, each image is presumed to be in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by applicable law. Viintage.com assumes no ownership of the images and they may be downloaded and can be used free of charge for any purpose. They may be downloaded and used for commercial and personal use. Understand “public domain” as the permission to freely use an image without asking permission from the photographer or the illustrator. Thus, the creator of the work will not sue you for violating his/her copyrights. It is your responsibility to make sure, displaying the image does not violate any other law. Viintage.com assumes no responsibility for how or where you use the images found on the site.
Gratisography: You may use Gratisography pictures as you please for both personal and commercial projects. You can adapt and modify the images and get paid for work that incorporates the pictures. This includes advertising campaigns, adding your logo or text to an image, printed in any size print runs (e.g., book covers, magazines, posters, etc.), on your website, blog, or other digital mediums, and on merchandise as long as the picture itself is not the merchandise.
for Clothing refs,
Yesstyle.com
they have flattering and elegant clothing
Have you ever wanted to make your own enamel pin or embroidered patch? How about a sticker or a shirt? I used to work for companies that produced these items, and obviously made tons of my own designs. I wanted to share my knowledge with everyone that was scared to take the first step. I made a post that covers these common questions: What kind of product is best for my art? What kinds of options are available for these products? What company should I use? What is the ordering process like? What about shipping? Where should I sell online? Should I crowdfund or not? Do you have any tips for self promotion? Check it out here <3 http://kingstoncreative.net/ultimate-guide-turning-art-product/ (It’s pretty BIG, I didn’t want to recreate it on tumblr because omg this took forever to make) Anyways, I hope this helps some people! <3 Photo credits: Fuzzy Shark patch Courage Patch & Hedgehog pin Doggo Sticker
Fellow autistic people
How do you deal with blocked noses? It's driving me mad. Why do I even have a cold in summer???
Reblogs > Likes | It truly does make a difference for us
For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE reblog art if you like it! This is so important to an artist!
This is an actual tweet by dennys
UHM OH MY FUCKING GOD???
YOU HAVE TO CLICK ON THE PICTURE I HAD NO IDEA THERE WAS ACTUALLY SOMETHING TO SEE
Shhsgdjhshzbja
@lycaanroc
Window to Your World #3
It was Sunday night, and, with only ten minutes to go till her bedtime, Thaïs was neither clean nor remotely ready for bed. In fact, she was currently sitting on top of the kitchen counter, screaming whenever Julia approached too closely. Ever since her dad had left for work, it had all gone very wrong. The evening had been completely ruined and nothing would ever be right again. How could it? If you knew that orange always came after red, always, in a rainbow, and one day, it was blue - blue! - how could anything ever be right again?
Now Julia had stopped talking to her, had stopped repeating over and over “come on Thaïs, please, you need to take your bath”, and was picking up the phone, which slipped through her fingers, falling. Twice, she dropped it on the linoleum floor. Through her own tears, Thaïs noticed that she was crying. Her hands were shaking as she finally managed to dial the number.
Normally, her dad did not work Sundays, but he had been putting in extra hours recently so that he could liberate some Fridays and take her out. The weather was perfect for evening strolls, which she would only do with him and no one else, certainly not any babysitters. At four fifty, Julia had arrived, and at five o'clock, Thaïs’ father had left, despite her protestations. “Don’t be grumpy, he had said. You know I have to work. I told you last week, remember? We wrote it on the calender.” But she had remained angry with him long after he had departed.
And then, the fight. Julia had taken her to the park. Thaïs loved the park, and almost forgot about her bad mood as she ran for the swing, until an older boy got there first. She had clenched her fists, glared at him, growling, and Julia had walked over, put her hands on her shoulders and turned her away, saying “you have to wait for your turn”. Next thing she knew, she had walked over to the boy and punched him in the stomach. She didn’t remember much of what had happened next, except that there was a lot of shouting, and someone heavy pressing her body against the dusty ground as she fought to free herself. At some point, they had made it back to the flat.
Thaïs looked down at her arms and realised she had been scoring lines into them with her nails. She wasn’t sure exactly what was so wrong, but she did know that it was. It was all bad, and everything hurt. When Julia had tried to run her a bath, she had bolted, ended up here on the counter. How long had it been? She wasn’t sure. She hadn’t known how to tell Julia that the bath was wrong, she had used the wrong bubble bath, and anyway, on Sundays, baths were meant to be after watching TV, not before.
Julia was sitting on the couch now, head in her hands. Who had she called? Thaïs closed her eyes and tried to shut it all out.
Part 1
Part 2
Alternatives to Self Harm
Alternatives for when you’re feeling angry or restless:
Scribble on photos of people in magazines
Viciously stab an orange
Throw an apple/pair of socks against the wall
Have a pillow fight with the wall
Scream very loudly
Tear apart newspapers, photos, or magazines
Go to the gym, dance, exercise
Listen to music and sing along loudly
Draw a picture of what is making you angry
Beat up a stuffed bear
Pop bubble wrap
Pop balloons
Splatter paint
Scribble on a piece of paper until the whole page is black
Filling a piece of paper with drawing cross hatches
Throw darts at a dartboard
Go for a run
Write your feelings on paper then rip it up
Use stress relievers
Build a fort of pillows and then destroy it
Throw ice cubes at the bathtub wall, at a tree, etc
Get out a fine tooth comb and vigorously brush the fur of a stuffed animal (but use gentle vigor)
Slash an empty plastic soda bottle or a piece of heavy cardboard or an old shirt or sock
Make a soft cloth doll to represent the things you are angry at; cut and tear it instead of yourself
Flatten aluminium cans for recycling, seeing how fast you can go
On a sketch or photo of yourself, mark in red ink what you want to do. Cut and tear the picture
Break sticks
Cut up fruits
Make yourself as comfortable as possible
Stomp around in heavy shoes
Play handball or tennis
Yell at what you are breaking and tell it why you are angry, hurt, upset, etc.
Buy a cheap plate and decorate it with markers, stickers, cut outs from magazines, words, images, what ever that expresses your pain and sadness and when you’re done, smash it. (Please be careful when doing this)
The Calm Jar (Fill a mason jar or similar with colored water and glitter. When feeling upset or angry you can shake it to disturb the glitter and focus on that until the glitter settles.)
Blow up a balloon and pop it
Alternatives that will give you a sensation (other than pain) without harming yourself:
Hold ice in your hands, against your arm, or in your mouth
Run your hands under freezing cold water
Snap a rubber band or hair band against your wrist
Clap your hands until it stings
Wax your legs
Drink freezing cold water
Splash your face with cold water
Put PVA/Elmer’s glue on your hands then peel it off
Massage where you want to hurt yourself
Take a hot shower/bath
Jump up and down to get some sensation in your feet
Write or paint on yourself
Arm wrestle with a member of your family
Take a cold bath
Bite into a hot pepper or chew a piece of ginger root
Rub liniment under your nose
Put tiger balm on the places you want to cut. (Tiger balm is a muscle relaxant cream that induces a tingly sensation. You can find it in most health food stores and vitamin stores.)
Alternatives that will distract you or take up time:
Say “I’ll self harm in fifteen minutes if I still want to” and keep going for periods of fifteen minutes until the urge fades
Color your hair
Count up to ten getting louder until you are screaming
Sing on the karaoke machine
Complete something you’ve been putting off
Take up a new hobby
Make a cup of tea
Tell and laugh at jokes
Play solitaire
Count up to 500 or 1000
Surf the net
Make as many words out of your full name as possible
Count ceiling tiles or lights
Search ridiculous things on the web
Colour coordinate your wardrobe
Play with toys, such as a slinky
Go to the park and play on the swings
Call up an old friend
Go “people watching”
Carry safe, rather than sharp, things in your pockets
Do school work
Play a musical instrument
Watch TV or a movie
Paint your nails
Alphabetize your CDs or books
Cook
Make origami to occupy your hands
Doodle on sheets of paper
Dress up or try on old clothes
Play computer games or painting programs, such as photoshop
Write out lyrics to your favorite song
Play a sport
Read a book/magazine
Do a crossword
Draw a comic strip
Make a chain link out of paper counting the hours or days you’ve been self harm free using pretty colored paper
Knit, sew, or make a necklace
Make ‘scoobies’ - braid pieces of plastic or lace, to keep your hands busy
Buy a plant and take care of it
Hunt for things on eBay or Amazon
Browse the forums
Go shopping
Memorize a poem with meaning
Learn to swear in another language
Look up words in a dictionary
Play hide-and-seek with your siblings
Go outside and watch the clouds roll by
Plan a party
Find out if any concerts will be in your area
Make your own dance routine
Trace your hand on a piece of paper; on your thumb, write something you like to look at; on your index finger, write something you like to touch; on your middle finger, write your favorite scent; on your ring finger, write something you like the taste of; on your pinky finger, write something you like to listen to; on your palm, write something you like about yourself
Plan regular activities for your most difficult time of day
Finish homework before it’s due
Take a break from mental processing
Notice black and white thinking
Get out on your own, get away from the stress
Go on YouTube
Make a scrapbook
Colour in a picture or colouring book.
Make a phone list of people you can call for support. Allow yourself to use it.
Pay attention to your breathing (breath slowly, in through your nose and out through your mouth)
Pay attention to the rhythmic motions of your body (walking, stretching, etc.)
Learn HALT signals (hungry, angry, lonely, tired)
Choose a random object, like a paper clip, and try to list 30 different uses for it
Pick a subject and research it on the web - alternatively, pick something to research and then keep clicking on links, trying to get as far away from the original topic as you can.
Take a small step towards a goal you have.
Re-organize your room
Name all of your soft toys
Play the A-Z game (Pick a category ie. Animals, and think of an animal for every letter of the alphabet
Have a lush warm bubble bath with candles!
Do some knitting
Do some house hold chores
Alternatives that are completely bizarre. At the least, you’ll have a laugh:
Crawl on all fours and bark like a dog or another animal
Run around outside screaming
Laugh for no reason whatsoever
Make funny faces in a mirror
Without turning orange, self tan
Pluck your eyebrows
Put faces on apples, oranges, or other sorts of food
Go to the zoo and name all of the animals
Color on the walls
Blow bubbles
Pull weeds in the garden
Alternatives for when you’re feeling guilty, sad, or lonely:
Congratulate yourself on each minute you go without self harming
Draw or paint
Look at the sky
Instead of punishing yourself by self harming, punish yourself by not self harming
Call a friend and ask for company
Buy a cuddly toy
Give someone a hug with a smile
Put a face mask on
Watch a favorite TV show or movie
Eat something ridiculously sweet
Remember a happy moment and relive it for a while in your head
Treat yourself to some chocolate
Try to imagine the future and plan things you want to do
Look at things that are special to you
Compliment someone else
Make sculptures
Watch fish
Youtube funny videos!
Let yourself cry
Play with a pet
Have or give a massage
Imagine yourself living in a perfect home and describe it in your mind
If you’re religious, read the bible or pray
Light a candle and watch the flame (but please be careful)
Go chat in the chat room
Allow yourself to cry; crying is a healthy release of emotion
Accept a gift from a friend
Carry tokens to remind you of peaceful comforting things/people
Take a hot bath with bath oil or bubbles
Curl up under a comforter with hot cocoa and a good book
Make affirmation tapes inside you that are good, kind, gentle (Sometimes you can do this by writing down the negative thoughts and then physically re-writing them into positive messages)
Make a tray of special treats and tuck yourself into bed with it and watch TV or read
Write words in the sand for them to be washed away
Alternatives for when you’re feeling panicky or scared:
“See, hear and feel”-5 things, then 4, then 3 and countdown to one which will make you focus on your surroundings and will calm you down
Listen to soothing music; have a CD with motivational songs that you can listen to
Meditate or do yoga
Name all of your soft toys
Hug a pillow or soft toy
Hyper focus on something
Do a “reality check list” – write down all the things you can list about where you are now (e.g. It is the 9th November 2004, I’m a room and everything is going to be alright)
With permission, give someone a hug
Drink herbal tea
Crunch ice
Hug a tree
Go for a walk if it’s safe to do so
Feel your pulse to prove you’re alive
Go outside and attempt to catch butterflies or lizards
Put your feet firmly on the floor
Accept where you are in the process. Beating yourself up, only makes it worse
Touch something familiar/safeLeave the room
Lay on your back in bed comfortably (eyes closed), and breathe in for 4, hold for 2, out for 4, hold for 2. Make sure to fill your belly up with air, not your chest. If your shoulders are going up, keep working on it. When you’re comfortable breathing, put your hand on your belly and rub up and down in time with your breathing. If your mind wanders to other things, move it back to focusing ONLY on the synchronized movement of your hand and breathing.
Give yourself permission to…. (Keep it safe)
Create a safe place for yourself and take yourself there
Lay on the grass and watch the clouds. You can try to make pictures with them too.
Light a candle and watch the flame
Alternatives that will hopefully make you think twice about harming yourself:
Think about how you don’t want scars
Treat yourself nicely
Remember that you don’t have to hurt yourself just because you’re thinking about self harm
Create a safe place to go
Acknowledge that self harm is harmful behavior: say “I want to hurt myself” rather than “I want to cut”
Repeat to yourself “I don’t deserve to be hurt” even if you don’t believe it
Remember that you always have the choice not to cut: it’s up to you what you do
Think about how you may feel guilty after self harming
Remind yourself that the urge to self harm is impulsive: you will only feel like cutting for short bursts of time
Avoid temptation
Get your friends to make you friendship bracelets: wear them around your wrists to remind you of them when you want to cut
Be with other people
Make your own list of things to do instead of self harm
Make a list of your positive character traits
Be nice to your family, who in return, will hopefully be nice to you
Put a band-aid on the area where you’d like to self harm
Recognize and acknowledge the choices you have NOW
Pay attention to the changes needed to make you feel safe
Notice “choices” versus “dilemmas”
Lose the “should-could-have to” words. Try… “What if”
Kiss the places you want toSHor kiss the places you have healing wounds. It can be a reminder that you care about myself and that you don’t want this
Choose your way of thinking, try to resist following old thinking patterns
The Butterfly project- draw a butterfly on the place(s) that you would self harm and if the butterfly fades without self-harming, it means it has lived and flown away, giving a sense of achievement. Whereas if you do self-harm with the butterfly there; you will have to wash it off. If that does happen, you can start again by drawing a new one on. You can name the butterfly after someone you love.
Write the name of a loved one [a friend, family member, or anyone else who cares about you] and write their name where you want to self harm. When you go to self harm remember how much they care and wouldn’t want you to harm yourself.
think about what you would say to a friend who was struggling with the same things you are and try to be a good friend to yourself.
Make a bracelet out duct tape, and put a line on it every day (Or any period of time) you go without self harm. When it’s full of lines, take it off and make a chain out of all the bracelets and hang it up somewhere where you can be reminded of your great progress.
Alternatives that give the illusion of seeing something similar to blood:
Draw on yourself with a red pen or body paint, or go to a site such as this, where you ‘cut’ the screen (be aware that some users may find this triggering, so view with caution)
Cover yourself with plasters where you want to cut
Give yourself a henna or fake tattoo
Make “wounds” with makeup, like lipstick
Take a small bottle of liquid red food coloring and warm it slightly by dropping it into a cup of hot water for a few minutes. Uncap the bottle and press its tip against the place you want to cut. Draw the bottle in a cutting motion while squeezing it slightly to let the food color trickle out.
Draw on the areas you want to cut using ice that you’ve made by dropping six or seven drops of red food color into each of the ice-cube tray wells.
Paint yourself with red tempera paint.
‘Cut’ your skin with nail polish (it feels cold, but it’s hard to get off)
Use red food colouring on your skin
Alternatives to help you sort through your feelings:
Phone a friend and talk to them
Make a collage of how you feel
Negotiate with yourself
Identify what is hurting so bad that you need to express it in this way
Write your feelings in a diary
Free write (Write down whatever you’re thinking at that moment, even if it doesn’t make sense)
Make lists of everything such as blessings in your life
Make a notebook of song lyrics that you relate to
Call ahotline
Write a letter to someone telling them how you feel (but you don’t have to send it if you decide not to)
Start a grateful journal where everyday you write down three: good things that happened/ things that you accomplished/ are grateful for/ made you smile. Make sure the journal is strictly for positive things. Then when you feel down you can go back and look at it.
Alternatives to make you feel a sense of reality:
try slapping countertops
getting fresh air
going to a bookstore or a music store and just getting lost in it
take selfies
play guitar, feel the strings under your fingers
I think I am, therefore I am
Read a book, get lost in the unreality of that, and then remember your reality
Talking to someone, asking for reassurance
a run or walk (especially through a ‘pretty place’)
use one of the ‘sensation’ alternatives
tuckerbonxr
This list is so important. Thank you for this.
I still cant quite peg the reasons I used to self harm, but heres what I did:
- drew an injury on my arm and treated it as if it were a real injury
- wrote “I AM HURTING” where I wanted to self harm
- played kid: got a popsicle and a minnie mouse coloring book and took care of little me.
- wrapped myself in a blanket taco so I couldn’t move my arms super well and took a nap.
- go to the recycling center with a bunch of glass bottles and throw them into the big cement pits for recycleables and watch them shatter (eye protection reccomended).
This is important.
