Blah.

It’s only occurred to me in more recent years that when I am feeling sad for whatever reason, there are in fact very few things that can coax me out of my state of mind in the present moment. In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes of the importance of being and staying present – while I’m with this all the way, there are many times when I yearn to be anything but present, now perhaps being one of those times.

A lover of politics, football, news, the written word, Radio 2, Frankie Boyle, many a land far far away, the sunshine, kittens, Twitter, Chardonnay, a good melody, and of course Gabriel Byrne, I don’t consider myself to be someone who has problems with their level of spirit– but there is no getting away from the fact that there are times when very little can induce me to change a gloomy mindset. I have decided to name this mindset Blah.

One afternoon quite recently I found that none of the things which usually give me mood upgrade were working. I used to experience something similar once every couple of months when I lived in London when songs I love would come on my mp3 player during my commute – I’d know I’d been taken over by Blah if they suddenly failed to have any effect.

Later on that same afternoon I came home to find that although lots of little things hadn’t managed to improve my mood throughout the day, there were certain things which were failsafe options: select music, Family Guy, my laptop, my notepad, a bath, a book and, though less than ideal, a packet of cigarettes.

Right now I’m listening to Paloma Faith. I feel better already.