6 ms·

It’s interesting because I spent many hours when I was young daydreaming. But today I can’t remember the last time that I did. I’ve always found time to medita

It’s interesting because I spent many hours when I was young daydreaming. But today I can’t remember the last time that I did. I’ve always found time to meditate but I don’t find that boring, and it doesn’t let me day dream like I used to in a Biology or History class as a child. I’ve been joking with my girl friend that my resolution for 2020 is to fill my days with less exciting things and somehow find boredom again. I always wonder if it’s the extra stimulation these days, or the extra responsibility or if I just headed my grandma’s words that only “boring people get bored”. Maybe it’s the freedom? As I child I was forced to sit in classes I didn’t enjoy. Today I have the freedom to get up and leave. I really want to understand boredom more in 2020.

kilroy_jones 7y ago
Leave your phone at home and go walk for 1-2 hours. You get a little exercise and as long as you're just cruising along level ground then you can space out for long stretches.
- rorykoehler 7y ago
  Cycling does it for me
- yazaddaruvala 7y ago
  I routinely go for 3 hour bikes rides where using a phone is not worth the risk attached lol. I love these bike rides and do a lot of thinking. But it’s not the same as when I was a kid and daydreaming and I’m not sure why. Maybe my mind is just more structured? So rather than meandering I end up think about more introspective/pragmatic things?
  - discreteevent 7y ago
    Try taking a break and sitting down for 10 minutes. It changes the atmosphere of the ride afterwards. Not in a major way, but it's good.
  - speg 7y ago
    I like to start with a good fantasy. What if I won the lotto or I had created Facebook? Then I could launch a war with the mayor. Become mayor. Create a new traffic enforcement group. Buy out the cable internet monopoly and make it a National coop. Or maybe I’m just crazy!
- catalogia 7y ago
  Swimming laps is what does it for me. I don't swim competitively anymore, but I think competitive swimming provides a good, almost contradictory, mix of teamwork/socialization and isolation.
noir_lord 7y ago
I find it strange that adults don't daydream. I was one of those kids who live in his own head and was forever daydreaming and I as I grew up I never stopped helped I think by my early adult life been working on production lines/factories usually alone or so noisy ear protection was required removing any irrelevant conversation - I'd turn up, go onto autopilot and disappear into my head. I still do it now, if I'm walking along the riverbank near where I live the world recedes and I visualise how it must have looked hundreds or thousands years ago and imagine the people/animals around then and so on. It's both an escape hatch and a pressure valve for me - I also don't dream (or more correctly I do dream but maybe once ever couple of years I actually remember one) which I think is likely somehow connected. My partner finds it odd because she'll come into a room and I'll just be sat still staring into space completely unaware she's entered the room. This was a great article though, the idea of deliberately cultivating that state by sitting in an isolated place is attractive. There are days where I hate the modern world (while accepting all it's advantages) - the constant distractions, clamour for attention from everything, the splitting of time into tiny increments in which everything must be done, it often feels like the world is just slightly off axis and I don't fit. I've never found it an issue and an hour just sat in that state leaves me feeling refreshed and alert, the days where I feel the most flattened are the ones that are so busy that I don't get chance to do it.
- atoav 7y ago
  I have to say I daydream all the time. If you were to ask me when I last did it, it was half a minute ago staring out of the window of a train. I am however somebody who always did this more than other kids and never lost it really. I hate beeing distracted all the time, stops you from seriously thinking about yourself and the world you inhabit.
  - magic_beans 7y ago
    When I was a kid, I had entire recurring plot lines of elaborate day dreams. These days my daydreams are more "realistic". I'm not fantasizing about riding unicorns and wielding ancient magic anymore, but I do daydream about starting my own company.
ajmurmann 7y ago
Your comment about daydreaming hit me really hard. I used to daydream all the time, but had completely forgotten that I even used to do it till you mentioned it. I now am always thinking about work, side projects, what to do next or worse investments. That's in the few moments when there isn't distraction like a podcast, audiobook reading it just simply doing random stuff on the phone. In essence even that is only while I'm in the shower. No wonder I'm never daydreaming. Thank you so much for providing this disturbing insight! I need to fix this..

kilroy_jones 7y ago

Leave your phone at home and go walk for 1-2 hours. You get a little exercise and as long as you're just cruising along level ground then you can space out for long stretches.

rorykoehler 7y ago
Cycling does it for me
yazaddaruvala 7y ago
I routinely go for 3 hour bikes rides where using a phone is not worth the risk attached lol. I love these bike rides and do a lot of thinking. But it’s not the same as when I was a kid and daydreaming and I’m not sure why. Maybe my mind is just more structured? So rather than meandering I end up think about more introspective/pragmatic things?
- discreteevent 7y ago
  Try taking a break and sitting down for 10 minutes. It changes the atmosphere of the ride afterwards. Not in a major way, but it's good.
- speg 7y ago
  I like to start with a good fantasy. What if I won the lotto or I had created Facebook? Then I could launch a war with the mayor. Become mayor. Create a new traffic enforcement group. Buy out the cable internet monopoly and make it a National coop. Or maybe I’m just crazy!
catalogia 7y ago
Swimming laps is what does it for me. I don't swim competitively anymore, but I think competitive swimming provides a good, almost contradictory, mix of teamwork/socialization and isolation.

noir_lord 7y ago

I find it strange that adults don't daydream. I was one of those kids who live in his own head and was forever daydreaming and I as I grew up I never stopped helped I think by my early adult life been working on production lines/factories usually alone or so noisy ear protection was required removing any irrelevant conversation - I'd turn up, go onto autopilot and disappear into my head. I still do it now, if I'm walking along the riverbank near where I live the world recedes and I visualise how it must have looked hundreds or thousands years ago and imagine the people/animals around then and so on. It's both an escape hatch and a pressure valve for me - I also don't dream (or more correctly I do dream but maybe once ever couple of years I actually remember one) which I think is likely somehow connected. My partner finds it odd because she'll come into a room and I'll just be sat still staring into space completely unaware she's entered the room. This was a great article though, the idea of deliberately cultivating that state by sitting in an isolated place is attractive. There are days where I hate the modern world (while accepting all it's advantages) - the constant distractions, clamour for attention from everything, the splitting of time into tiny increments in which everything must be done, it often feels like the world is just slightly off axis and I don't fit. I've never found it an issue and an hour just sat in that state leaves me feeling refreshed and alert, the days where I feel the most flattened are the ones that are so busy that I don't get chance to do it.

atoav 7y ago
I have to say I daydream all the time. If you were to ask me when I last did it, it was half a minute ago staring out of the window of a train. I am however somebody who always did this more than other kids and never lost it really. I hate beeing distracted all the time, stops you from seriously thinking about yourself and the world you inhabit.
- magic_beans 7y ago
  When I was a kid, I had entire recurring plot lines of elaborate day dreams. These days my daydreams are more "realistic". I'm not fantasizing about riding unicorns and wielding ancient magic anymore, but I do daydream about starting my own company.

ajmurmann 7y ago

Your comment about daydreaming hit me really hard. I used to daydream all the time, but had completely forgotten that I even used to do it till you mentioned it. I now am always thinking about work, side projects, what to do next or worse investments. That's in the few moments when there isn't distraction like a podcast, audiobook reading it just simply doing random stuff on the phone. In essence even that is only while I'm in the shower. No wonder I'm never daydreaming. Thank you so much for providing this disturbing insight! I need to fix this..