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[she/her] (@lauraklinke_art)A few days ago I had a beauty of a meltdown.
Maybe it was a breakdown.
I’m not really sure, but either way…I lost it.
It was coming for a while, if I’m going to be honest. Overwhelm can do that to you when the hits just keep hitting.
My voice got high and squeaky. My arms flailed about like a bird unable to fly. My legs, too, if I remember correctly. I’m not really sure what their plan was, but they were moving and I was not directing them. I ended up on my kitchen floor, face in my hands, trying to gently soothe my overwrought nervous system back into some semblance of order.
And I did.
I recovered.
I gently brought myself back to the present moment and into my body, rather than acting like a stranger looking at myself from the outside. We could talk about methods I used to do that, but Elephant Journal is filled with articles like that. Instead, I want to share what I did later that night.
I may have calmed my body down but the emotions were still thrumming. I had forgiven myself for acting like a toddler, but I was upset. I was feeling a little down. A little blue, perhaps? I certainly wasn’t feeling myself.
I didn’t want to override my feelings. Ignore them. Fake feeling wonderful and cheerful and happy when I wasn’t. But I did want to feel more like myself…and sometimes that means noticing your feelings, and getting over the hump of feeling confined and “stuck” in them.
I wasn’t going to get “stuck” in that rut of living out the moments on the kitchen floor with my head in my hands contemplating my life choices. Nope.
This is my summer of chasing whimsy, of choosing joy, of noticing the glimmers—because, my friends, there are always glimmers. Often, they shine bright for a moment and you’re lucky if you notice them because they slowly fade, making them all the more special and worth experiencing.
In a HuffPost article, they spoke with Deb Dana, the licensed clinical social worker who popularized the concept of glimmers. In it they say, “…glimmers are there to help balance out the bad, but should not be mixed up with toxic positivity. Dana stressed that society often only looks at the silver lining, which is not the point of glimmers, they are not here to mute the hard days but are instead here to make the hard days more manageable.”
I was having a hard day. I wasn’t looking for a sliver lining; I was looking for a way to make the “bad” more manageable. I needed some glimmers.
I needed to reset my emotional body with small bursts of joy in the midst of my personal upheaval, and I turned to the good people of Threads.
I present to you the 19 best moments of glimmer that I spotted on my feed that night.
They made me smile. Laugh. Joyfully giggle. Feel seen. Appreciate beauty. And they just made me feel human again because in all of their glimmeryness, they are examples of humanity at its best—be it extraordinary moments, or everyday, normal observations.
And all I needed at that moment was to feel human again.
I hope you enjoy these 19 Glimmers of Joy as well:
1. Same Internet Friend, same. Norway has won my heart, nearly as much as Scotland.
2. This is my life. And oddly, I am pleased to know that I am not alone.
3. Yes, let’s get it together people!
4. I’m so here for this level of trolling. I can’t lie.
5. My heart needed this. That’s all. It just did. I may save it and revisit it—every week.
6. I somehow missed this when it actually happened, but this is as timeless as timeless gets. And, Mr. Hegseth, sir, if we can’t laugh at ourselves, is life even worth living? May you look at this and giggle.
7. This quick-thinking brilliance is only one reason why we adore him. And yes, the chuckle and nod of agreement I experienced while watching? Lit. Me. Up.
8. Holy schnikes I needed to hear this too.
9. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that watching this approximately 17 times in a row healed a small piece of me.
10. This clip makes me stop my entire life and watch the magnificence of this Queen-level performance every single time I see it. Like, let’s be honest. You don’t scroll past this one.
11. Like nearly every other Millenial, you will pry my LOL out of my cold dead hands, and this response from Calm made me feel seen.
12. Nothing turns a bad day “good” like a good ol guffaw.
13. My entire life stopped for a moment (or seven) while I watched this beauty unfold. Sometimes we just need some beauty in our lives, and I’m so grateful for the people that pursue it. This? Stunning.
14. And I’m not even sorry about it.
15. I can’t even. This simple, matter-of-fact statement somehow sent me.
16. We need to talk about this more. Honestly, The Muppets are nothing to laugh at—although, they are—they’re a godd*mn treasure. There’s nothing else to compare. Can we get a reboot already? That would bring some serious glimmers back into our lives on the regular!
17. Is any list of glimmers complete without a toddlerism?
18. I think I did this last week. So, guilty as charged.
19. And, finally, this. Because…well, let’s call it a cathartic end with a side of sarcasm, and a heaping portion of feeling seen and validated.
author: Molly Murphy
Image: @lauraklinke_art/Instagram
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