Everything that takes the mind off of all the stress of contemporary life.
i go stand in a forest for an hour every week. i don’t walk, run, or do anything interesting. i just stand there, watch and listen
The tree in the forest trying not to laugh and give away its sentience while you stare at it like this
I hike on trails near my house, but I make sure to look around and take in the small things. Even if I’ve been on the trail a thousand times, there’s always something new to see.
Interesting practice of mindfulness! How did this routine of yours come to be?
I was going for forest walks at the time to help deal with my depression and for some reason just tried to be as quiet as possible one day. It was the best and I realized I didn’t actually like the fitness part of the walk. Being as slow and quiet as possible felt much better
This is how you get the best animal sightings
yeah I see birds closer than I’ve ever seen them before
If you’re interested in ramping that up a bit:
- edge habitats: try to pock spots where ecosystems meet, like forest meets field
- wind alignment: stay
upwinddownwind (how did I do that) if possible - stillness (what you’re doing): 10-15mins of stillness between slow movement
- pinch points: check the map and try to find spots like where a ridge narrows that funnel animals
- tracking: look out for tracks, poop, etc
Investing in a little popup blind or camo netting or something to hide in can be magic
dude thank you this is very cool! I’ve noticed the forest meeting the field being interesting but hadn’t thought past that
Off-what? You mean in meatspace?
Jokes aside: Reading. Designing and playing Pen&Paper RPGs. Cooking.
Would you mind talking a bit more about your approach to cooking? I take some satisfaction from being able to cook and sometimes from the feeling of improving my skill as a cook, but mostly it feels like a necessary chore.
Sure! But it’s not particularly sophisticated. Other than staple recipes (like e.g. vegetables stews) I learned while growing up, when there’s a product I was previously dependent on buying ready-made that gets enshittified by the food industry so much I’m unwilling to pay the full asking price, I start looking into the recipe for it and experiment to calibrate quality, time efficiency, and material cost to the exact tradeoff I consider best for me. Frozen pizza vs self made pizza being one example.
My joy in cooking, aside from the above optimization process I find fun, comes from knowning I pay less money to eat a better quality (and almost always less unhealthy) meal than I’d otherwise be able to. Once I have a recipe dialed in, it also requires virtually no thinking to get done, which is the opposite of my daily work; that’s the “unwinding” for me. I can then also combine it with listening to some audiobook or TTRPG actual play / podcast.
Due to this depth-first approach my actual list of recipes isn’t incredibly large, but it’s enough to never get boring by now, at least.
Going for a walk is an essential activity for me to reset. Riding my bike has a similar effect. I’ve started leaving my phone at home.
Reading as well. Something light-hearted if I’m seeking joy.
I have a small garden on my balcony. It’s not successful right now but it’s enjoyable to watch something green grow.
What about playing FTL? :)
I’m with you on everything except gardening. It sounds appealing in the abstract, but then in the spring it turns into “ugh, too much to do” and “ugh, gotta get up early to water” in the summer.
Actually…what DID get you into gardening in the first place? Maybe there’s something to it that I’m missing.
Ayy you got the reference!
I started because I wanted to grow Thai holy basil which I was struggling to find in stores, extended to different varieties of kind of pricey hot peppers, then a few flowers to keep it looking nice. I’ve had a few bad seasons over the years that made me almost quit but at this point it would feel weird to not have a garden to take care of.
The maintenance can occasionally be a pain but it’s sometimes nice to have a good reason to get up early. It only becomes too much work if I get greedy and take on too many plants at once. I try to keep it to a small and manageable amount, and choose plants that don’t require a lot of care.
Outdoor back-to-basics stuff has only proven more beneficial the more I have integrated it into my life.
Carpentry, landscaping, gardening, and taking care of my many animals all help me get fresh air and exercise in addition to whatever else I get out of the activities.
I am living the superposition of that meme where the resume or linkedin profile goes from Senior Systems Architect to Goose Farmer. My day job is software for embedded systems. At home, in addition to the indoor projects I am slowly transforming my little fenced-in back yard into a combination of oasis, hobby farm, and town from an old RPG or zelda game.
Reading and hiking are the two main ones for me.
What are you reading?
On holiday this week, so I have a new read: Father Goriot. I have hardly started so far.
Picked up “The Flowers of Buffonery” and “The Cheese and the Worms” recently myself
Music. I have a degree in Music History, but I haven’t made a living with it for 25 years, although I still loved music.
During COVID, I was bored, and eating, so I took up guitar again, after leaving it behind decades ago. I’ve played every day since, and not only reached an intermediate level (far better than I ever was in the past), but I’ve also lost 100 pounds, by picking up my guitar instead of going to the fridge.
Now I’m experimenting with recording, using cheap used gear, and having a blast.
Photo walks. Your whole point just becomes to go out and take in the scenery. Makes you slow down and appreciate your surroundings in a way that a walk doesn’t. If you’re after wildlife you have to move with intention, lest you scare the subject. If it’s a more static subject you’ve more time to take in the light and shadows, frame your background.
Also a very good practice in Mindfulness! Lovely Idea.
Sex
This guy fucks
Good one, fellow adult. I too have had the sex. Many. 150%
Running. Just one foot in front of the other. Bonus points for running in a new place and taking in the sights.
What does your mind do when you’re running? Can you just clear all thoughts and focus on breathing and one foot after the other.
Or does the repetition make you spiral on every bad decision from the last 20 years like me 😅
My mind is writing books or short stories that will never be set on a paper, inventing new things that I have no idea how they’d work, but most importantly, my mind is busy arguing with others, and winning every argument :)
I am like you, running is good exercise but too boring and I can’t stop thinking. Aerobic dance like Jazzercise is perfectly calibrated so that I can just follow/do and not think but the class near me ended, they are only out in the suburbs now. Yoga is good if it’s the challenging vinyasa flow with music, I can sometimes get into that perfect mindset. But fucking Jazzercise was oddly perfect and is gone.
Start a group!
I build things, electronics mostly. Then the next day I get to admire what yesterday-me built.
Not sure if this counts as “offline” but I play video games, read books, edibles, and because I’m in my late 30’s I’ve recently picked up bird watching!
Painting. You can get a decent brush set, as many colors of acrylic paint as you need to make just about any color you’d want, and a few canvases for around $40.
Cheap drum machine (korg volca drum), cheap synthesizer, plugged into mixer + no talent + no formal music theory knowledge == unlimited hours of enjoyment. Someday, I might even make something I like.
I play guitar, read, and do a bit of yardwork.
Ice hockey! Love going to games, love watching it on telly, just love it
Hell yeah!
