4 ms·

I get it, same reason I enjoy gardening alone in general. Most of us spend our work time balancing 100 different things, putting out fires, bouncing between me

I get it, same reason I enjoy gardening alone in general. Most of us spend our work time balancing 100 different things, putting out fires, bouncing between meetings, answering adhoc pings via calls/zooms/slacks, and struggling to do the deep work we are allegedly paid for in between. There's a therapeutic aspect to certain kinds of physical hobby/chore work or full focussed hobbyist time that counterbalances this. Otherwise at the end of a day of being burned out, we ruminate & doom scroll which only makes things worse.

stantaylor 2mo ago
I do long distance solo road cycling. The riding takes just enough of my cognitive capacity that the rest of my mind wanders lightly, usually not thinking about anything of substance. It feels like meditation to me.
- newsclues 2mo ago
  Yes, if you’re on a car free path, even better!
  - DC-3 2mo ago
    For a confident road cyclist it is usually a better experience to be on an actual road than a cycle path even though you have to manage vehicular traffic.
    - newsclues 2mo ago
      The city I grew up in used to have lots of rail routes and they were converted into mixed use paths, some paved, others gravel. It's so much nicer to enjoy a car free path, where you don't have the sounds, smells and brake dust to breath from cars. More trees on a path than a road. I am a good cyclist, I ride in downtown Toronto, but if I want to space out and let my mind really wander, a path is orders of magnitude better than a actual road. There is no benifit to navigating traffic and risking injury. More relax and free to stop or slow and take notes. There is nothing better about being on a road with cars vs, in a nice park or path.
  - mantas 2mo ago
    Eh. Not the op, but calm backroads are perfect for such rides. Good enough surface so no need to scan it for the better line as on gravel roads or offroad. Little traffic. And cars are much more predictable than the chaos of bike paths.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- embedding-shape 2mo ago
  Similarly, in the summer I do long open sea swims, and the calm is incredible when it's just you and nature, nothing else. Your mind is guided to focus at the task at hand and lets you wander around just a bit. The post-activity decompression is also real nice afterglow to complete the experience.
unimplmntd_trap 2mo ago
It’s amazing what 5 minutes spent picking weeds out of my garden does for my mental health.
- Noaidi 2mo ago
  You know what, that’s pretty depressing.
  - contagiousflow 2mo ago
    Why?
    - Noaidi 2mo ago
      Weeding is the act of removing unwanted plants, known as weeds, from a garden or other area where they are not desired. Capitalism "weeds" out the people that are marked for inefficiency. I see this mimicking of capitalism as a depressing attempt to be in control. A re-expression of the power dynamic. This is just my opinion.
      - embedding-shape 2mo ago
        "Tending", which is the act of removing undesirable parts of whatever, isn't a parallel to how capitalism favors a winner-takes-it-all scenarios, if that's what you're alluding to. If you're growing edible stuff, you need to remove the weed in many parts of the world otherwise you won't have any vegetables eventually as the weeds will overgrow everything else. You also don't want something you cannot eat to take nutrients and sun from what you can eat.
        Noaidi 2mo ago
        You also don't want [someone who] cannot [work fast enough] to take [efficiency] from [the assembly line].
        2mo ago
Tade0 2mo ago
I'm currently on a week-long vacation and it's been so long since I had some proper time off that I forgot how slowly time flows when you're not under pressure.
ingvay7 2mo ago
Have much more respect for "yard work" after realizing how therapeutic it is.Hours in the sun doing heavy work after sitting at a desk all week is incredibly relaxing and something i look forward to.
xattt 2mo ago
The missing part in a lot of this is the deliberate silence. Sure, I enjoy catching up with podcasts, but it’s hard to fully settle in and hear your own thoughts if there is other audio on the go.

stantaylor 2mo ago

I do long distance solo road cycling. The riding takes just enough of my cognitive capacity that the rest of my mind wanders lightly, usually not thinking about anything of substance. It feels like meditation to me.

newsclues 2mo ago
Yes, if you’re on a car free path, even better!
- DC-3 2mo ago
  For a confident road cyclist it is usually a better experience to be on an actual road than a cycle path even though you have to manage vehicular traffic.
  - newsclues 2mo ago
    The city I grew up in used to have lots of rail routes and they were converted into mixed use paths, some paved, others gravel. It's so much nicer to enjoy a car free path, where you don't have the sounds, smells and brake dust to breath from cars. More trees on a path than a road. I am a good cyclist, I ride in downtown Toronto, but if I want to space out and let my mind really wander, a path is orders of magnitude better than a actual road. There is no benifit to navigating traffic and risking injury. More relax and free to stop or slow and take notes. There is nothing better about being on a road with cars vs, in a nice park or path.
- mantas 2mo ago
  Eh. Not the op, but calm backroads are perfect for such rides. Good enough surface so no need to scan it for the better line as on gravel roads or offroad. Little traffic. And cars are much more predictable than the chaos of bike paths.
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
embedding-shape 2mo ago
Similarly, in the summer I do long open sea swims, and the calm is incredible when it's just you and nature, nothing else. Your mind is guided to focus at the task at hand and lets you wander around just a bit. The post-activity decompression is also real nice afterglow to complete the experience.

unimplmntd_trap 2mo ago

It’s amazing what 5 minutes spent picking weeds out of my garden does for my mental health.

Noaidi 2mo ago
You know what, that’s pretty depressing.
- contagiousflow 2mo ago
  Why?
  - Noaidi 2mo ago
    Weeding is the act of removing unwanted plants, known as weeds, from a garden or other area where they are not desired. Capitalism "weeds" out the people that are marked for inefficiency. I see this mimicking of capitalism as a depressing attempt to be in control. A re-expression of the power dynamic. This is just my opinion.
    - embedding-shape 2mo ago
      "Tending", which is the act of removing undesirable parts of whatever, isn't a parallel to how capitalism favors a winner-takes-it-all scenarios, if that's what you're alluding to. If you're growing edible stuff, you need to remove the weed in many parts of the world otherwise you won't have any vegetables eventually as the weeds will overgrow everything else. You also don't want something you cannot eat to take nutrients and sun from what you can eat.
      - Noaidi 2mo ago
        You also don't want [someone who] cannot [work fast enough] to take [efficiency] from [the assembly line].
        2mo ago

Tade0 2mo ago

I'm currently on a week-long vacation and it's been so long since I had some proper time off that I forgot how slowly time flows when you're not under pressure.

ingvay7 2mo ago

Have much more respect for "yard work" after realizing how therapeutic it is.Hours in the sun doing heavy work after sitting at a desk all week is incredibly relaxing and something i look forward to.

xattt 2mo ago

The missing part in a lot of this is the deliberate silence. Sure, I enjoy catching up with podcasts, but it’s hard to fully settle in and hear your own thoughts if there is other audio on the go.