7 ms·

I had an unusual experience this weekend while I was sick. After laying around for 2 days with brain fog, I woke up early Sunday morning and watched TV, checked

I had an unusual experience this weekend while I was sick. After laying around for 2 days with brain fog, I woke up early Sunday morning and watched TV, checked social media, etc, but was sick of consuming information and had the strangest feeling that I wanted to work on something productive but my body aches wouldn't let me concentrate. I also felt like.. playing video games? I haven't had the urge to play video games since my first semester of college in 1995 before I discovered partying and dating. I was bored. It finally hit me that I haven't been bored in over 25 years. I've been hopeless, exhausted, overworked, financially destitute, depressed, burned out, lost in countless ways. But never bored. Now, I meditate often, I've learned a great deal about the higher self on neurodivergent TikTok, and I'm mindful of my contribution in service to others. But I can't really emphasize enough how much this shook me. I'm still processing it. I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. I don't mean filling the time with something else like work or other obligations. But literal you-time, with a rule that you can't exert yourself in any way or you'll risk relapsing into nonprogress. This is more like transmuting one form of attentive energy (negative) into another (positive) by dwelling on the opposite thing than you're used to. For example, I perceive every stoplight as being red. Since I started commuting a half hour to work a few days per week, I've been bringing coffee. Now I find that I never get a chance to drink it, because every light is green.

abledon 5y ago
you may like the youtube channel "HealthyGamerGG", its the intersection of gaming and meditation/psychology
serverlessmom 5y ago
Thank you for sharing your experience. I find that it mirrors my own in many ways. I especially relate to the idea that life goals are accomplished when we dedicate time to ourselves and are adapt to being more flexible with the patterns in which our minds move. I also have learned over time that through the use of caffeine, a beer, or having a smoke I can help shift my mind into other modes. The same goes with exercise and meditation or sitting down to take a break for five minutes and be mindful about where my mind is at and what I need to do for myself versus others.
brimble 5y ago
On rare occasions, I'm left with both wife and kids out of the house for a few days. Just about every time I lose the first (non-work) day entirely to video games. Then the next day I'm just... done with games for a good long while, and start doing productive things because I want to. It's like I have a fucking-around-uselessly tank that's never full (near-empty, in fact) usually, so most of my free time goes to worthless activities like games or bad TV or—ahem—certain websites of dubious value, but as soon as I'm allowed to fill it up, I don't need to "add more" for a while. I was very surprised the first time this happened, because I fully intended to waste all of the time, but when it happened I simply did not want to. Same thing happened the next time. Seems to just be how I operate, which kinda sucks because 360+ days per year that "tank" is both very demanding of time, and yet unsatisfied. Relatedly, I think the worst thing about work is that it's the same shit day after day, week after week, month after month. Left to my own devices I would still write code—but, like, hyper-focused, a few scattered weeks per year, and in between I'd probably hardly touch a keyboard. It becomes a draining grind when that's all you do, with only infrequent and never-long-enough breaks. Keyboard and screen. Again. And again tomorrow. Indefinitely. Ugh.
- paulryanrogers 5y ago
  Try fixing up a project house. It's amazing how quickly once beautiful properties can get run down without maintenance. And the hundreds of hours you can lose trying to undo the damage.
  - mlac 5y ago
    And the hundreds of hours of YouTube videos learning about tools and techniques to fix the house.
  - hanoz 5y ago
    That does sound really appealing, but, as is the case for increasingly more of us these days, it really takes the edge off when your landlord is the ultimate beneficiary.
    - 5y ago
WaitWaitWha 5y ago
> I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. I don't mean filling the time with something else like work or other obligations. But literal you-time, with a rule that you can't exert yourself in any way or you'll risk relapsing into nonprogress. This is more like transmuting one form of attentive energy (negative) into another (positive) by dwelling on the opposite thing than you're used to. So, like the day of rest, like Sabbath?
- javajosh 5y ago
  Not every group just does nothing on the sabbath. Orthodox Jews traditionally spend the day studying (and arguing) Torah. (But I'm not really sure - can you opt out of the Torah-wrangling and just take a walk on the beach?)
  - WaitWaitWha 5y ago
    True; I referenced Sabbath since it is most heard of rest day. What I am suggesting is that the need to be "bored" has historical background. What the author discovered appears to have been discovered and confirmed centuries ago.
    - javajosh 5y ago
      I think your comment about the Sabbath is a good one and took it further. I suppose I'm wondering if boredom is the key component or not. At least one tradition, the Jewish one, would appear to say "not".
ChildOfChaos 5y ago
Everybody always raves about meditation and although it makes me feel nice for a short while after, i always struggle to get anything like this out of it...
- maroonblazer 5y ago
  I rave about meditation, not because it makes me feel nice but because it's an antidote to the psychologically toxic and maladaptive thoughts that pop, unbidden, into my consciousness.
jb_s 5y ago
I have ADHD. Being bored is simply.. not something that happens naturally. I have a zillion unfinished things, too many hobbies, too many games, too much work that I was supposed finish yesterday. My brain gets filled with all of this junk every day. As the day passes my thoughts progressively get more and more cluttered and noisy, like I've got every radio station on at the same time. I also get really anxious if I've blown past a few too many deadlines, which compounds the issue immensely. The only way to fix it... is to make myself bored. To FORCE myself to be bored. I sit on the ground with my legs crossed, close my eyes, and slowly count down from 60, 120, 180.. while shoving all the other thoughts out of my brain. It's like meditation, but meditation apps are a bit too interesting. I get distracted over how utterly weird they are. Eventually, interspersed with all the intrusive thoughts and stressful shit ricocheting around, I start feeling a few brief twinges of boredom. If I'm really worked up it might take 10-15 minutes for these to take hold, finalling boring myself into calmness - at which point my shitty brain has stopped spazzing out and I can go back to getting shit done. If you're neurotypical you can probably just put the phone away and go for a fucking walk. It will let your default mode network do its usual thing for a while, like it's designed to.
- porknubbins 5y ago
  I used to try to go for walks in the city and it was no relief from overstimulation at all. Aside from the need to be alert for threats you see or hear something like every block that distracts you. Then I moved to an older suburban neightborhood and walks were super boring for the first few months until I really learned to look at things. Now I can go an hour just like enjoying looking at the sky, grass and trees etc. I still bring my headphones by habit but its been months since I pulled them out and its extremely restorative for creativity.
  - Shocka1 5y ago
    I feel ya here. My family has owned a couple nice parcels of rural property for years and I just kind of took it for granted. A few years ago I read The Overstory by Richard Powers and it really fired up my interest in nature and trees. I can't walk anymore without trying to identify every tree in the woods. It's humbling how much longer some of the older ones have been on this earth than we have - several of the very large white oaks in my dad's woods would have witnessed Native Americans. I'm in my 30s now and can't get enough of being in the woods or mountains, bow hunting, walking, or whatever, especially in the fall and winter seasons. I'd take a day in nature over any other hobby at this point.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
syntheweave 5y ago
I find the examples of rest periods abound when you go looking. Strength training, for example, is now known to need periodization to stop the overtrain-and-crash cycle, but periodizing well means letting go of days where you feel great and could do a million reps because you need to accommodate longer term fatigue. Renowned artists often engage in regular periods of "automatic drawing" (scribbling on the page without imagining or observing a specific image) as a way of giving their minds a break from structured practice, allowing raw imagination and muscle memory to present itself. Something astonishingly common in the diaries of creative people is lengthy days-to-weeks periods of total inactivity, bookended by maniac phases of high output. Often the inactivity phase consists of hyperfocus on something a bit trivial like playing billiards or visiting the movie theater five nights in a row.
ecf 5y ago
> Now, I meditate often, I've learned a great deal about the higher self on neurodivergent TikTok… Ah yes, the great mental health clinic of TikTok.
bearbearbear 5y ago
guhsnamih 5y ago
> I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. Does 'them' in the end mean 'life goals'?

abledon 5y ago

you may like the youtube channel "HealthyGamerGG", its the intersection of gaming and meditation/psychology

serverlessmom 5y ago

Thank you for sharing your experience. I find that it mirrors my own in many ways. I especially relate to the idea that life goals are accomplished when we dedicate time to ourselves and are adapt to being more flexible with the patterns in which our minds move. I also have learned over time that through the use of caffeine, a beer, or having a smoke I can help shift my mind into other modes. The same goes with exercise and meditation or sitting down to take a break for five minutes and be mindful about where my mind is at and what I need to do for myself versus others.

brimble 5y ago

On rare occasions, I'm left with both wife and kids out of the house for a few days. Just about every time I lose the first (non-work) day entirely to video games. Then the next day I'm just... done with games for a good long while, and start doing productive things because I want to. It's like I have a fucking-around-uselessly tank that's never full (near-empty, in fact) usually, so most of my free time goes to worthless activities like games or bad TV or—ahem—certain websites of dubious value, but as soon as I'm allowed to fill it up, I don't need to "add more" for a while. I was very surprised the first time this happened, because I fully intended to waste all of the time, but when it happened I simply did not want to. Same thing happened the next time. Seems to just be how I operate, which kinda sucks because 360+ days per year that "tank" is both very demanding of time, and yet unsatisfied. Relatedly, I think the worst thing about work is that it's the same shit day after day, week after week, month after month. Left to my own devices I would still write code—but, like, hyper-focused, a few scattered weeks per year, and in between I'd probably hardly touch a keyboard. It becomes a draining grind when that's all you do, with only infrequent and never-long-enough breaks. Keyboard and screen. Again. And again tomorrow. Indefinitely. Ugh.

paulryanrogers 5y ago
Try fixing up a project house. It's amazing how quickly once beautiful properties can get run down without maintenance. And the hundreds of hours you can lose trying to undo the damage.
- mlac 5y ago
  And the hundreds of hours of YouTube videos learning about tools and techniques to fix the house.
- hanoz 5y ago
  That does sound really appealing, but, as is the case for increasingly more of us these days, it really takes the edge off when your landlord is the ultimate beneficiary.
  - 5y ago

WaitWaitWha 5y ago

> I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. I don't mean filling the time with something else like work or other obligations. But literal you-time, with a rule that you can't exert yourself in any way or you'll risk relapsing into nonprogress. This is more like transmuting one form of attentive energy (negative) into another (positive) by dwelling on the opposite thing than you're used to. So, like the day of rest, like Sabbath?

javajosh 5y ago
Not every group just does nothing on the sabbath. Orthodox Jews traditionally spend the day studying (and arguing) Torah. (But I'm not really sure - can you opt out of the Torah-wrangling and just take a walk on the beach?)
- WaitWaitWha 5y ago
  True; I referenced Sabbath since it is most heard of rest day. What I am suggesting is that the need to be "bored" has historical background. What the author discovered appears to have been discovered and confirmed centuries ago.
  - javajosh 5y ago
    I think your comment about the Sabbath is a good one and took it further. I suppose I'm wondering if boredom is the key component or not. At least one tradition, the Jewish one, would appear to say "not".

ChildOfChaos 5y ago

Everybody always raves about meditation and although it makes me feel nice for a short while after, i always struggle to get anything like this out of it...

maroonblazer 5y ago
I rave about meditation, not because it makes me feel nice but because it's an antidote to the psychologically toxic and maladaptive thoughts that pop, unbidden, into my consciousness.

jb_s 5y ago

I have ADHD. Being bored is simply.. not something that happens naturally. I have a zillion unfinished things, too many hobbies, too many games, too much work that I was supposed finish yesterday. My brain gets filled with all of this junk every day. As the day passes my thoughts progressively get more and more cluttered and noisy, like I've got every radio station on at the same time. I also get really anxious if I've blown past a few too many deadlines, which compounds the issue immensely. The only way to fix it... is to make myself bored. To FORCE myself to be bored. I sit on the ground with my legs crossed, close my eyes, and slowly count down from 60, 120, 180.. while shoving all the other thoughts out of my brain. It's like meditation, but meditation apps are a bit too interesting. I get distracted over how utterly weird they are. Eventually, interspersed with all the intrusive thoughts and stressful shit ricocheting around, I start feeling a few brief twinges of boredom. If I'm really worked up it might take 10-15 minutes for these to take hold, finalling boring myself into calmness - at which point my shitty brain has stopped spazzing out and I can go back to getting shit done. If you're neurotypical you can probably just put the phone away and go for a fucking walk. It will let your default mode network do its usual thing for a while, like it's designed to.

porknubbins 5y ago
I used to try to go for walks in the city and it was no relief from overstimulation at all. Aside from the need to be alert for threats you see or hear something like every block that distracts you. Then I moved to an older suburban neightborhood and walks were super boring for the first few months until I really learned to look at things. Now I can go an hour just like enjoying looking at the sky, grass and trees etc. I still bring my headphones by habit but its been months since I pulled them out and its extremely restorative for creativity.
- Shocka1 5y ago
  I feel ya here. My family has owned a couple nice parcels of rural property for years and I just kind of took it for granted. A few years ago I read The Overstory by Richard Powers and it really fired up my interest in nature and trees. I can't walk anymore without trying to identify every tree in the woods. It's humbling how much longer some of the older ones have been on this earth than we have - several of the very large white oaks in my dad's woods would have witnessed Native Americans. I'm in my 30s now and can't get enough of being in the woods or mountains, bow hunting, walking, or whatever, especially in the fall and winter seasons. I'd take a day in nature over any other hobby at this point.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

syntheweave 5y ago

I find the examples of rest periods abound when you go looking. Strength training, for example, is now known to need periodization to stop the overtrain-and-crash cycle, but periodizing well means letting go of days where you feel great and could do a million reps because you need to accommodate longer term fatigue. Renowned artists often engage in regular periods of "automatic drawing" (scribbling on the page without imagining or observing a specific image) as a way of giving their minds a break from structured practice, allowing raw imagination and muscle memory to present itself. Something astonishingly common in the diaries of creative people is lengthy days-to-weeks periods of total inactivity, bookended by maniac phases of high output. Often the inactivity phase consists of hyperfocus on something a bit trivial like playing billiards or visiting the movie theater five nights in a row.

ecf 5y ago

> Now, I meditate often, I've learned a great deal about the higher self on neurodivergent TikTok… Ah yes, the great mental health clinic of TikTok.

bearbearbear 5y ago

guhsnamih 5y ago

> I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. Does 'them' in the end mean 'life goals'?