I see a therapist each week to manage my emotions. She assigns me homework so that I can always think about my mental health, not just on therapy day.

I've been bogged down in a job I don't enjoy for MANY years, but it pays the bills. Usually work is what I talk about in my sessions since I've worked in my field so long that it becomes part of my identity. My homework this week was to think of ways to improve my quality of life.

I wish I could say this task was easy. Yet I honestly have nothing. So when I normally don't have an answer, I ask Google.

A lot of the results that came up were generic. Eat healthier. Drink more water. Smile. Think happy thoughts. Meditate. Exercise. Then I came across suggestions like daily learning. Contribute. Do one thing your afraid of every day. Do one thing you've been putting off.

I'm not sure if these are guaranteed to improve my quality of life, but they sound like good starts.

With daily learning, it is suggested that I learn something new and subscribe to magazines. I grew up in libraries, so this one is something I'm certain I can do. There's always something to learn within a library.

Contributing is something I do regardless of anything. Sporadically I can be caught volunteering for LGBTPQA+ community causes and of course adding to the journalism community by sharing thoughts here in Odysessy Online. I also add to the literary community by submitting my poetry to different journals, and in the past, I've served meals to the homeless.

I would do one thing I'm afraid of, but I'm afraid of too many things in this world. Spiders. Heights. Death. Not being smart. Being alone forever. Doing one thing I'm afraid of will take a lifetime to do in my case!

I've always been a serial procrastinator. Its never on purpose when I do it; its just things beforehand take longer than expected. Now sometimes I've put off doing something beforehand that effects what I'll do afterward.

Usually, though, its something took too long beforehand, which pushes back something else so it looks like I'm procrastinating but in actuality, I just have really poor time management skills. So do things I've been putting off would be another lifetime achievement goal.

I still don't feel like I have the answers to improving my quality of life. These all seem like suggestions to just keep my life from not just working. But at least I have a lot to talk about in therapy this week.