#161: How the Upward Spiral Can Help You Untangle Blankness

April 30, 2020—So often, I try to go straight from emptiness to happiness, and that can work, but most times it’s more effective to take the steps in between.

You can’t do much with nothing. Sadness, anxiety, and fear can all be converted into creative fuel, but emptiness is like trying to topple a four-hundred-pound sumo wrestler who just…stands there.

He’d be easier to fight if he was coming at you because you could at least use his momentum against him.

I’ve been feeling like that lately.

My daily comics have been kind of lame and I haven’t been able to get into a rhythm with writing. But I’m not even in a bad mood — it’s like I’m not in a mood at all!

Spiraling Upward

A question I ask myself all the time is “How can I be happy?” The problem is there are a lot of steps in between emptiness and happiness. Sometimes you get lucky and teleport straight there, but luck is not a great way to manage your sanity.

This morning, I was messing around with comic ideas and I started thinking about one of my classmates from high school who OD’d last year.

I saw him at a climbing gym a few months before trying to sell his membership card. He said he was saving money…