Things that make me happy:

1. My daughter
2. My boyfriend
3. My friendships I've made online through various forums
4. Cross Stitch
5. Listening to audiobooks
6. Disney World
7. Music
8. Gardening

Things that help me relax:

1. Hot baths with epsom salts
2. Music (instumental or ballads)
3. Cross Stitch
4. Listening to audiobooks

There are a few that cross over...but the #1 thing that makes me happy (my daughter) makes those few things almost impossible to do unless she is napping, in bed for the night, or at daycare (when I am usually at work but not now due to a torn rotator cuff). When I don't feel up to doing some of those things like gardening, stitching, or going to Disney World...I like to research them or make plans for the future (like new things to try in the garden, plan my next trip to Disney (or dream trip), plan my next stitching project, etc). When I was at my worst I spent a lot of time planning my "comeback" trip to Disney World when I got better...and I was able to take it a couple years later after much therapy and work...gave me something to look forward to and a reason to keep pushing myself to put in the effort to get better. Gardening was a new thing I got into after RSD set in...I started with a couple pots on the deck and have slowly expanded to perennials throughout the yard. Makes me feel better on the bad days to sit out there or at least in the kitchen and look out the windows at my beautiful flowers. It is important to find those things in your life that can give you joy...be they new things or old things that maybe you have to do differently (like me with stitching) but that you can still get some pleasure from. You need a reason to keep going...or at least I did...and these things help me. When I can't do the things I enjoy...it is harder to cope with the pain.