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I don’t think I’m alone in having been struck down by the inescapable feeling of meh, the feeling that nothing is exciting anymore, nothing is inspiring, the feeling that nothing is really anything, the feeling that I have called the funk. The funk is a tricky one because it doesn’t always have a cause, and it certainly doesn’t have one set remedy. The funk can last for an hour, or a day, or a year.

But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to beat it. As ever, the solutions I’ve come up with are things that have worked for me, and might not work for everyone. If you’re really struggling with this demon, or any of the others I’ve written about in this series please seek some proper help.

Because the funk is so tricky, I’ve made two things to try and fight it. The first is a check list of things to do when I’m feeling that cloud descending on me, because quite often I get restless and don’t so anything and end up feeling worse because I’m stewing. I’ve left some spaces at the bottom so you can print it and add your own funk fighting activities at the bottom, because what makes everyone happy is different. If you’re stumped for ideas I’ve written a list of 48 self-care activities you might like to browse.

The second weapon in my arsenal is an emergency anti-funk kit. I sometimes send bits of these out in cards for friends in case they’re ever feeling down, but I’d never made one for myself and I thought it was about time. In my box there’s everything from chocolate, to movie suggestions, to a candle I like, to a card a friend wrote me that makes me happy.

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It’s rare I want to read a book again before I have even finished it, but that’s the feeling I had when I was reading Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones. Set on All Souls’ Day, a day when the dead are said to return, Solar Bones is Marcus Conway’s elegy to himself. It’s his recollection of the events that took him away and then brought him back to his family’s home in Mayo. It’s a story of a series of ordinary events that come together as something extraordinary when viewed together with their ripples and their lyricism.

Solar Bones is one novel length sentence, broken up by line breaks and other bits of punctuation, like a very long prose poem. Its single sentence runs like a thread looping out to touch relationships, politics, philosophy, religion Ireland, Europe, the world, the solar system, the universe, but always coming back to a family home in Mayo. I love the sheer distance this novel covers in a series of infinte links that is just so clever in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s showing off at all.

McCormack’s choice to write in a single sentence has led to him being compared with the likes of, other great Irish writers, Joyce and Beckett. I can’t deny that it feels like McCormack has taken up something of the great Irish modernist mantle. However, I don’t want comparisons to some of the most difficult writers in the canon to put a large swathe of this novel’s potential audience off, because it is infinitely readable.

While Solar Bones certainly isn’t a thriller, it is a completely compelling read. Once you start reading you’ll find it hard to put down, in part because of its structure and in part because of its engrossing subject matter.

The only problem I had with this novel is that its single sentence structure made it hard to pick up and put down, there are no natural breaks. But that’s more of a complaint about not being able to sit down 6 hours in order to devour it in one go. Perhaps, I’ll try and do that on my inevitable second reading.

If you hadn’t guessed already, Solar Bones comes highly recommended by me. It also highly recommended by some people with a lot more literary know-how, as it won the Goldsmith’s prize last year.

When (not if) you pick up a copy from Tramp Press, Canongate Books, or anywhere else you’d buy books. Here’s my mini guide.

SOME QUESTIONS TO PONDER AS YOU READ

  • How did the single sentence structure of the novel affect your reading experience? Did you change how you read practically? Did you notice the lack of punctuation as you read, if so why?
  • McCormack’s choice to write in a single sentence has been seen as distinctively Irish. How would a similar novel written in England, or America have differed? How did you feel the novel’s Irishness coming through?
  • Solar Bones is a quiet novel of a man’s life, how did that, seemingly unexciting, subject matter grip you as you read?
  • Marcus is an Engineer; how does his profession reflect in his prose?
  • As well as a novel about a man and his family, Solar Bones is concerned with religion and politics, how did you feel they were sewn into the novel? Did you enjoy those interludes?

IF YOU WANT SOME FURTHER READING TRY…

  • The Culture Trip’s analysis of why Solar Bones won the Goldsmith’s prize
  • A lovely review of the novel from Ian Sansom in the Guardian
  • Stephanie Boland on Solar Bones and Irish modernism, and its potential resurrection, for The New Statesman
  • An interview with Mick McCormack in the Irish Times which focuses on Solar Bones but reaches out more widely to cover some of his other thoughts on writing

IF YOU WANT MORE BOOKS LIKE THIS HAVE A LOOK AT…

Why not use the Solar Bones bookmark I designed to keep your place as you read? You can print and download it for free here.

As ever, let me know if you’ve read Solar Bones, or if you have any recommendations for what I should be reading next.

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Happy international women’s day! I wanted to celebrate this year by putting together some portraits of a few inspiring feminists along with some of their best quotes. I had so much fun doing this, it’s really made me excited for things to come.

I’ve even made them into a set of postcards you can pick up in my store!

So without further ado, these are the illustrations:

How are you celebrating International Women’s Day?

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I’m definitely a tidy desk tidy mind kind of person. I love having a clean environment and I know that I work best when my surroundings are clear and tidy. Even though I keep my space pretty ship shape most of the time, I’m planning on using the change of season as an excuse to have a proper deep clean and clear out. I find kon marie-ing my life every once in a while helps me kind of hit a reset button and really start work again feeling refreshed. If you’re looking to have a spring clean soon, this is the method I’ll be working through to make sure I’ve gotten into all of those nooks and crannies.

PHYSICAL SPACE

Clearing out your physical space is the most obvious first target of a spring clean. It’s also the one I enjoy the most so I like to get the ball rolling with having a proper tidy, before moving onto anything else.

PULL EVERYTHING OUT

This step is very much taken from Marie Kondo’s now seminal The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, it’s famous for a reason! I pull out all of my stuff and decide what I actually use and love. When I say all of my stuff, I really do mean everything. I go through my wardrobe right down to the underwear, I go through every pen and pencil on my desk checking they work and I use them, I check every beauty product is still in date and something I want, basically I audit everything I own. Now that I’m trying to buy more consciously this doesn’t lead to me throwing out quite as much as I used to, because I don’t have as much, but I’m still always amazed at how much rubbish (sometimes literally) that I’ve accumulated.

CLEAN

Actually cleaning is an essential, if obvious, part of a spring clean. While you’ve got everything out clean all of the things you wouldn’t normally bother with, I’m talking wiping out your wardrobe, dusting all of your bookshelf, vacuuming behind the bed etc.

MAKE SURE EVERYTHING HAS A PLACE

As you’re putting all of your stuff away make sure everything has a place. What I mean by that is if, for example, you’re keeping all your old journals but you’re planning on just leaving them in a pile on the corner of your desk do something about it. Put them in a box, or on display on a bookshelf, or keep them organised in a magazine rack. This might require you going out to buy some supplies, but it will mean your space feels that bit tidier and is easier to keep uncluttered in the future.

HAVE A RESHUFFLE

Whenever I have a big clear out I like to also have a bit of a reshuffle so my space feels different. Not only does moving things around help change up your perspective it also acts as a bit of visual evidence that things have been cleaned and changed, because a lot of the work you do in a spring clean you don’t actually see because it’s in cupboards or behind beds. For me, that normally means I move around the display of pictures on my wall, or I move them to a different section of the room. When I was in my old room I would also move all of the furniture around, which isn’t as much of an option currently. But I will be moving some of the bits I have out like lights and books, to try and imitate some of that effect.

 

DIGITAL SPACE

If you’re anything like me, you spend a significant chunk of your time on your laptop, meaning that your digital space needs to be cleaned out just as much as your physical space. While I’m good at trying not to accumulate pointless junk in the real world, I am as big of a tab and free download hoarder as they come. So, this is quite a big task for me.

CLEAN OUT THAT INBOX

Step 1 of this is just getting rid of any blinking unread emails, it always feels so good to get rid of that little red bubble on your inbox. Step 2 is going through and deleting anything I don’t need and saving anything I do need in the best way, even if that’s not in your inbox. In step 3, I delete my deleted box, and junk mail folder. Step 4 is then to use the control panel to make sure I’ve deleted any wasted data in my mail folder. By doing all of this not only do you end up with a much nicer, easier to manage, inbox, you also free up a load of all important disk space.

UNSUBSCRIBE

While I’m going through my inbox, I unsubscribe from any mailing lists I don’t actually want to be on. This is normally mainly made up of brand newsletters that I just automatically delete. I normally just search “unsubscribe” before I do the main clear out and go through all the emails I don’t want. I won’t lie, going through all of the unsubscription processes does take some time, but it’s an investment in for the time and happiness of your future self.

ARCHIVE

Once I’ve finished with my inbox I then move onto the rest of my hard drive. I go through all of my folders and archive anything I don’t need any more onto external hard drives. I also delete literally hundreds of things from my downloads folder that I had forgotten even existed. I also have a clean-up of my folder system so that it’s as efficient as it can be to try and make the job easier next time.

DON’T FORGET YOUR INTERNET BROWSER

This one is more of a note to self than anything else, because I am one of those people who has 50 tabs open at one time, who pockets absolutely everything, and has a random assortment of bookmarks just in case. As the final stage in my digital clear out I will be clearing my browsing history, my cookies, and my stash of bookmarks. I’ll also be having a bit of a social media audit, unfollowing anyone I actively scroll past or who doesn’t brighten my time online.

WORK SPACE

I feel like it can be easy to forget to clear out your workspace, and by that I mean all of the work bits you have to do rather than your desk. Having a sort out of any rolling tasks or niggly pain points is a great way to feel like you really are starting afresh, and you’ve not just made surface changes.

CLEAR YOUR TO DO LIST

I think we all have a couple of items on our to do lists that keep coming up, and we keep putting them off. For me, they include a couple of marketing things and taking out my recycling. A spring clean is a time to finally do them (or cross them off if you don’t actually think they’re useful) so that you can start with a clean slate.

CHASE ANY INVOICES/CLEAR ANY PAYMENTS

While I don’t have any outstanding invoices, now would be a great time to chase them. I will, however, be going through my own finances and getting them in order.

TAKE A DAY OFF

If having a clear out is about resetting, it’s really important that you give yourself chance to reset. So, this one is a bit of a spring clean for your mind The final section of my clear out plan is taking a full day off work, off thinking about work, and just get my mind in order. I’m going to set aside some time to look after myself and blow off any cobwebs, so I can come back fresh and raring to go as the days get longer and brighter. I think this might actually be the hardest one on the list, but probably the most worthwhile.

Are you planning a spring clean this year? What’s on your hit list?

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Sometimes my mood just changes in a snap. I don’t get angry at other people. I don’t raise my voice. But I snap and end up being so short with myself. It’s like I’m just walking along, not looking where I’m going, enjoying the view, and then I suddenly fall into a massive pothole of self-dislike. It’s really weird, and I absolutely hate it. Does anyone else do that? Just drop from a solid 48 on the happiness scale to a terrifying -373?

For me those sudden spirals normally happen after something very tiny has gone wrong, and someone else is there. I think it stems from being smart enough at school that when I got a question wrong I would be jeered at and knocked down. Being right and good at everything I try, and the fear of everyone thinking I’m stupid, are so ingrained in my behaviour and sense of self that whenever I feel like I’m in a similar situation I have such a visceral reaction.

So I had to add snapping to my demons to battle list.

I’ve created two weapons to defeat this demon. The first is all about identifying the situations where you’re likely to snap. This is something I started doing naturally as I thought about doing a ‘How to tell your demons to politely fuck off’ on this topic, but I think I’ve pushed it slightly further. It led to a lot of revelations, while I haven’t really put it to the test. I can imagine that knowing a situation is likely to push me into a negative space, must cut the legs off the problem. If you pre-empt freaking out by saying “this situation has the potential to trigger me, so anything my inner voice says to me doesn’t count”, you kind of pre-rationalise your freak out, and make it way less powerful. You can download the snapping journal above for free here.

The other weapon is this breathing gif. Breathing exercises, and meditation, really do work and I use them to relax on an evening. Remembering to breathe and take a second when I feel like I’m falling, is something I’m trying hard to do. I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to remember when I just see red, but as soon as I remember I take a step back, and breathe, and just remember all of the stuff I worked through in the first section.