Trying to live slower to improve my mental health
Trying to live slower to improve my mental health
Trying to live slower to improve my mental health
One of my biggest changes i made was if I'm not working or on call but spending time with another person, I'll fully turn off my phone. I realize in an emergency I need it, so I still bring it with me. But when I sit down with someone, my phone is off. And it will remain off.
It's helped me realize so quickly how often we reach for our phones to demonstrate something rather than describe it. Saw a funny video? Describe it. Can't describe it? Send a link later. It doesn't have to interrupt the flow of the conversation.
I was always someone who had a batch of online stuff to show when things got quiet. Now I let the quietness stand. It's much more enjoyable getting to see friends now.
Well good on you for your effort. I know it sounds silly but one of the things I find helpful to live more in the moment is to take a moment to describe the world around me.
Like i am in a 10' by 13' room that has a bookcase on the far wall. The walls are painted light blue. I feel the slight breeze from the fan. Also describe how you are currently feeling.
It's really hard at first as the vocabulary for those feelings are hard to come by but it gets easier the more you practice. Most people that are on autopilot don't feel anything so trying to describe how you feel and describing where your environment. Breaks you out of autopilot.
@lordnikon@lemmy.world That's intriguing! I'll see if I like doing this in my obsidian daily note :) My daily note consists of a list of timestamps which I used a template to automatically place in my bullet pointed daily-note lists, each timestamp has a thought that I have next to it usually, so I'll try incorporating those descriptions you're talking about into that!
Cool yeah also note it's not like a once a day thing. You could be out and about at the grocery store. The idea is to remind yourself like set an alarm if you have to. To just pause for a moment the idea is you are trying to take in the sights , sounds, and feelings in that moment and store therm in long term memory. Internal narration helps draw a more vivid picture for long term storage. That way the year does not fly by. When you go from task to task.
What steps are you taking to achieve your goal? I'm genuinely curious-
@Adudethatis@lemmy.ca I've been taking notes for almost everything I do, and writing essays, todo's, thoughts I have in obsidian and linking it all together. So for example if I'm reading a book, I'll make a note for that book and take little notes whenever I have some fleeting thought about it. This helps me have like, something beside me whenever I'm doing something which helps me slow down my actions and think slower.
Also I've recently been liking the concept of a "forever world" in Minecraft - a world you play in forever, forever cultivating what you've made and shaping it over years. I play for 20 minutes a day but sometimes I even play for a couple of hours. While playing I play slowly, try not to sprint so I can take in the creations I've made and the environment. Also incorporating the notes into this (mostly just logs about thoughts I have while playing).
But yeah the essence of all this is just to not rush the things I'm doing like I have a bad habit of doing. I often rush things and then don't even complete the thing that I was doing anyway. Living more slowly allows me to do things more intentionally and just go at my own pace regardless of whether or not I'm gonna "complete" something.
I've thought about this to, I'm doing quite well financially, not rich, but rich enough where I could buy a humble couple acres in the countryside and do sustenance farming/gardening while following my hobbies and doing small work to sustain myself slowly rather than working my big corporate job and paying a mortgage and running the capitalist treadmill
I haven't made the decision yet, but I'm building towards it
I have a nice, but small, garden in my backyard with a hammock, and I find myself escaping to it whenever I have a spare moment because its one of the very few places I feel calm and happy and meaningful - and eating veggies, herbs, and flowers strait from the garden, from your soil and labor, is something that truly is special and not reproducible at any store or restaurant - no matter how fancy
I think I'd rather live slowly and simply and humbly with my garden and hobbies, than how I'm living now rushed, complexly, hollowly in the city with my corporate job
@cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world That's awesome :) I'm happy for you - even if you don't get to that final goal, all the steps you're taking towards it will improve your life surely.
Also want to note for anyone reading this that you too can live slowly in many ways even if you're not doing well financially.