Heather Masterson

Yes. Yes, I did, in fact, start this one off with an outrageous lie. Everything is not awesome, and that’s why it’s nice to have creative outlets.

Sometimes, when life is bringing me down (or pissing me off), I write it out. But there are times when even that doesn’t work, because I’m so down (or pissed off) that I just can’t write.

There are times when a good primal scream is really the only way to go. I tend to do this in the car more than anywhere else, because there’s less chance of someone hearing it and calling the cops on the crazy lady.

Sometimes, I boot up a game and try to work out my issues with a little virtual violence. That doesn’t always work, either, because there are times when my headspace is so disturbed by whatever-it-is that I can’t concentrate, and dying repeatedly just makes me madder.

That’s when it’s time for Legos.

Seriously, I think that Lego video games may be the single most effective stress-reliever ever invented. At least, they work that way for me. Every freaking one of them is basically about smashing shit; the only thing that changes is the theme. You can just smash things for hours and hours and hours… in Star Wars. Or Batman. Or Pirates of the Caribbean, or Jurassic Park, and on and on.  And they’re so lighthearted that you can’t help feeling a little better afterward.

Which is why the Forza Horizon 4: Lego Speed Champions expansion may be the greatest thing ever. Now I can smash Legos in a Lego car. (Or a non-Lego car, if I want to.) I don’t even have to worry about little Lego bad guys trying to hit me; I can just drive around the map and smash everything in sight at high speed. Trees. Fences. Farm equipment. Dinosaur bones. Even better (or worse, depending on your point of view), the expansion added Radio Awesome, which is a radio station that just plays “Everything is Awesome” on repeat. Forever. I think I listened to it for two solid hours last night while I got creative about smashing Legos at high speeds. (It’s also entirely possible that my brain has melted.)

It doesn’t solve any problems — and good freaking grief, are there a lot of problems out there that need to be solved — but it does put me in a less toxic headspace.

Less toxic headspace should be a goal. Less toxic environments in general, really.