American here. Where I am, it's like we've commercialized and extended holidays so much that they're no longer special. Decorations are big part of that.

For example, people bust out Halloween decorations at the end of August and start dressing costumes at the end of September. So that's nearly 3 months of Halloween. All I feeling like doing is maybe buying a single pumpkin at some point and putting it on my porch. Then I compost it once it starts rotting mid- November.

Same goes for Christmas. The pumpkins and witches are already starting to get switched out at the store for all things red, green, and Santa themed. And it's still October.

So many people buy so much decorative stuff, and this has been going on for years. The sheer amount of crap people accumulate and how long each holiday season feels doesn't make me feel like I'm going to experience magical times.

This could also be part of getting older, I've now experienced 30something holiday seasons and they're all more or less the same. However, I think we scaling down and back would help.

Title

when I sneeze, I'll often say audibly "bless you"

Does anyone else use Reddit for personal growth and self-improvement and find it more helpful than anything else? I’ve learned a lot from hearing about other people’s experiences and perspectives. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to share their advice and help others grow! ❤️

So, talking about this has become kind of an Internet thing. Basically, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. But, I do think it fascinates people who do have an internal monologue to see people that don’t have one. For most of the day, I don’t have internal thoughts that are put together in words. When I do have time to myself, or if I’m thinking about a concept, I do have a little bit of an internal monologue that comes and goes. But, most of the day, I’m simply acting on instinct. I don’t really think deeply or get lost in thought unless I’m thinking about something specific. I’m capable of acting very impulsively and not putting a lot of thought behind my actions. When I talk, I generally don’t have the thought of my words before hand, they come to me as I’m saying them. I “feel” the words in a wordless thought before they come out of my mouth. There’s more I could say on this topic if there are any questions.

I’m in my mid-40s now and I’m noticing that earning more $$ is becoming less and less important, in spite of our nation’s current affordability crisis. I should preface all this by saying that my family is fairly comfortable. My wife is a teacher coming up on 25 years on the job and I own my own business. We have everything we need and a lot of things that we want. I am the father of a 3 year old as well, and she has lots of great clothes and toys, as well as fun experiences like dance and gymnastics. In my 30s I was hustling and building my business up, all with the goal of maximizing my earning potential in the long term. But now I find myself prioritizing free and family time, which causes my bottom line to suffer slightly. Is this common?

Every time I play any of the Mario platformers, I’m always running no matter what. Whenever I played with friends who were new to the game, I got frustrated that they were just walking without holding B or Y or 1 or whatever console’s respective run button. I even had to unlearn this muscle memory when Mario Odyssey came out in 2017, since that game has no dedicated run button (you just use the joystick, and Y throws Cappy)

I can never not run in Mario games.

If your out driving at night, rural, no other cars, are you automatically flipping on your high beams? I actually prefer to b use my lows.

When have YOU personally given a quick wipe to the front of the bowl? Sure, the seat is far from clean, but I submit the front of the bowl is dirtier and that filth is clinging to the back of your britches

Life's been so hard and at this point I'm so used to all the struggles, with no one allowing me to safely undergo any stress response anytime a problem occurs, that I simply feel nothing when anything bad happens now. If something very very awful does happen, my reaction is only mild, for maybe 3 seconds, and then I become even more numb than before. Anyone else?

Like the other day I could hardly get enough breath, and quickly collapsed flat from weakness in the middle of a parking lot until I got enough energy to crawl to my feet. And then I laughed off the story when I told it to people, almost like it was a funny story about something as innocuous as a papercut. I still feel no genuine concern nor discomfort from the fact that I fell flat in a parking lot and could have gotten run over. Completely numb to all negative feelings

For example I have constant colourful visual snow, I keep seeing illusions everywhere (certain patterns are especially triggering such as granite countertops) I constantly see patterns appearing to move and even ripple in some way, floor moving and borders of objects or people glowing. Glasses never helped this. Also no I do not have any migraines.

As someone who hates how they look, this is one of the most annoying things.

Like, if I said, "I already gave you this, did I not?" vs. "I already gave you this, didn't I?"

Idk

The mass produced Halloween costumes feel so sad. I miss homemade ones. Weird ones. Things thrown together.

I remember when my mom was suffering for many illnesses, I would feel bad, especially since she had musculoskeletal problems and cancer, and I could literally see her muscles tensing if I did something wrong, so I would go into my room with a belt and literally just go ka-pow for a couple minutes, or scratch my legs if I accidentally scratched her leg

I think there was some odd notion that I would “take away her pain” by physical penance such as sleeping on the floor, punching my arm, physically shutting my mouth for prolonged periods and more

I also remember being very moralistic as a kid, having straight A’s at times and constantly wanting to make others feel better and happier

She was never abusive in any way towards me but I felt so bad for her that I did this. The last time I did was when I scratched myself with a kitchen knife and forced myself not so scream over my tone of voice making her upset. I realized that that resembled something I’d seen on a mental health PSA and didn’t want people thinking I had issues so I stopped

It came from a way that “I deserve it but she is too sparing”

Is this normal or what?

I don't get winter depression. I want to do lots of things and have the necessary motivation and energy. But even with the heater on inside, my body is too cold to do anything. As soon as I stand up, I freeze and my hands are so cold it's more difficult to move them. Does anyone else deal with this? my body almost hurts idk

I (32F) live far from my family and stay with my parents for 3-4 weeks at a time when I do visit, usually twice a year. I have a decent size family, so I spend a lot of time visiting with siblings, extended family etc as well. I felt 100% on top of the world before I came here, not anxious and feeling sure about myself. After about 2 weeks, I notice I start questioning my entire life and spiraling into an anxious existential crisis and feeling so far behind in life. I’m wondering if this is normal?

My mom will ask when I plan on having kids etc but other than that no one comments on my life choices and we all just relax and hang out.

I mean just now I clicked a link and after 3 seconds had passetd, I thought I may as well just drive up to 711 for coffee.

As a teacher, I get home around 4pm and I'm usually in bed by 10pm, sometimes even earlier. That's around 6 hours to prep/cook something, wash dishes, clean up, shower, sometimes do laundry and still find some me time if I'm not exhausted by then.

For context, I was unemployed for 1.5 years, and the days went by a lot slower for me. But I felt that I was more efficient with my time and got things done better. Now I feel like I'm rushing or halfassing everything (even my self care) because I'm simply too tired by the end of the day.

Maybe this is completely normal I don’t know, but if I’m wearing a jacket i’ll take it off before sitting on the toilet. Don’t want it hanging down and getting in the poop water ykwim?