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I need to feel productive. Be it a programming project or woodworking. Just creating something new instead of maintenance like oil changes and mowing the lawn. Creating something new.
Also, take a walk in the forest. Get out on the water. Both are great therapy to disconnect from the mental todo-list of things going on around the house.
Renting a paddleboard and just chilling on a lake on a sunny day. It really is a kind of heaven.
I'm a huge advocate of gardening. It gets you outdoors and active, gives a sense of achievement, you learn and improve over time, it's popular enough that you can get involved in a community, if you're growing veg it promotes healthy eating.
It should be mandatory.
Reading. It doesn't have to be much, but occasionally filling idle moments with a few pages read instead of doom scrolling social media can do wonders. It did for me at least.
Doing this actually got me back into reading. Started with Manhwa (Solo Leveling) and that spiraled into reading books such as Midnight library, Before Coffee Gets Cold, The Words We keep and now β1984β.
I allways read a bit before going to sleep. It helps with shutting down. My sleep improved a lot
Installing an ereader app (ReadEra) helped me so much with this. I always have my phone with me anyways, and tapping the ereader app instead of Instagram takes away so many barriers.
The Libby app with most public libraries is really good!
I'd say anything creative, something which pushes the mind to focus on generating new ideas instead of just running through the same old ones - this worked for me, at least, as rumination and catastrophising have been stapled to my noggin my entire life.
To be more specific, painting, building stuff with Legos, drawing, writing poetry, composing songs, whittling, woodworking, stuff like that.
Another important aspect (at least from personal experience, ymmv) is keeping the hobby a hobby - what I mean by this is not falling into the trap of perfectionism or productivity with it, keeping it light and fun. I now strongly believe that the brain needs something "inconsequential" on which to chew if only to remind it that not every stimulus it receives is do-or-die.
Jigsaw puzzles. Start with a couple of hundreds of pieces and then go with the ones of thousands. Also gardening, but you need to have a garden or enough space to have plants inside your home.
How do you know if you don't have good mental health? I feel fine almost all the time.
In much the same way that almost no one has perfect physical health, almost no one has perfect mental health.
You don't need to be a complete wreck to be able to benefit from paying attention to your mental wellness.
Eating well, regular exercise, mindfulness, forgiveness, good sleep practices are all worth practicing whether you feel unwell or not.
I do those things by default. Only have one body, I like it to be healthy.
Youβd know, trust me
As a very stable genius, I completely agree with this.
Petting kitties.
Eating kitties...
... I mean, making stupid jokes nobody understand. It works for me at least.
talking to people. friends, strangers, idc. people seem too stiff these days and i think it keeps people lonely.
Strength training has such an incredible impact on your overall wellbeing everyone should incorporate it into their routine as much as possible
Yoga/mobility/flexibility of some sort. Counteract the repetitive, static positions many of us hold during work hours.
League of Legends /s
Yeah, totally! The best answer so far!
Only (former) League players will understand.
Lol
That is indeed the correct abbreviation
But honestly, quiting such a toxic dumpster fire is really relaxing on your nerves.
Lets all try beekeeping, it will teach you to:
It depends a lot on the person, but it always does me good to do something tactile after working all day on a computer. Cooking, baking, sketching, woodworking, Legos, hiking, that kind of thing. I've noticed it really helps me ground and be mindful.
Cooking, it is satisfying enjoying the fruits of your labor and with cooking you can get that satisfaction every day if you choose.
Hard disagree. The process is fun, and everyone loves to eat, but the cleanup is drudgery at its basest form.
Tidy as you go. Don't see it as a separate task. Tidying up is part of the cooking process.
This is not an everyone thing: I for one get no satisfaction from it.
There's not gonna be a proper answer that applies to everyone. For myself, riding BMX flatland, riding unicycles, carving wood, learning survival skills, keeping time..
β¦ keeping time?
Also, a 1 meter pendulum swings at a rate of once per second. Handy info to know if all the clocks shut down, like in a survivalist situation or natural disaster.
Ah yes, because in an Apocalypse I'm gonna have a 1 meter pendulum handy.
Anything one meter long swinging on a pivot is a 1 meter pendulum no?
It probably only costs like $10 to get a measured line professionally tattooed on your leg/thigh for reference.
Check my username. I've been partly obsessed with keeping accurate track of time since I learned to read an analog clock at age 9.
By age 12, I started learning the exact times of the school bells. By age 15, I learned how to rebuild digital watches, and even replace the quartz crystal with a more accurate one.
By age 17 I was rebuilding mechanical self-winding wristwatches, and also learning to overclock computers.
Edit: For extra clarity, I also now know how to tune the firing order on an ICE engine, no matter how many cylinders. I also know how to time a VCR and tune a guitar.
I'm 42 years old now.
Interesting hobby. Iirc Einstein had his breakthrough trying to sync timepieces.
Sounds like you should pursue a career at NIST so your hobby can align with a profession. They're all about keeping track of time to extreme precision with atomic and optical clocks.
355/113
Close enough right?
Going on a walk regularly.
... Where there is greenery. It's scientifically proven to improve mental wellbeing if you see greenery just 20 minutes a day.
I was just coming in here to say walking in nature or hiking. π
Although I do also get some benefit in driving through nature too.