This blog is real interesting for self reflection. I recently noticed that I started a post in early March that looked like this:
"I've been feeling energized. One thing is, I've recently been traveling; that often tends to energize me. I'm doing a project at work that's more execution and less deep thinking and that's kind of energizing; it's within what I feel like I can do.
I'm feeling more connected to music and stuff than usual. Like, I feel like I want to *make art*, despite the fact that I have zero experience actually making art, and whenever I give myself a large chunk of unstructured time, I can't say that I do amazing things with it."
This is no longer the case, and I forgot that it even happened, and so recently! Though I do now remember it; it was busy and only pleasant in a kinda hyped up way. Plus, said work project became kinda a bummer, but then finished, so I'm feeling some sense of accomplishment and relief, but mostly just glad to be done with it.
These days, well. For the last couple years, I've been working with at least one professional, often two, sometimes even more, that kinda... help me be a person? Currently it's therapist J and meditation teacher K. It changes sometimes, often with moves, but sometimes otherwise too. It's nice to have a couple outside perspectives, and it's extra nice when they converge.
Recent convergence I've been summing up as "think less, feel more." Step 0 of getting good at meditating seems to involve being able to switch between the fast, feeling system and the slow, focused System 2 thinking system. Living in the present, not worrying about the future; applying your awareness like a floodlight, not a laser; being, not accomplishing.
This essay about "bandwidth" feels relevant. Quote:
"Personal "bandwidth" implies that we must move through the world like machines; and that experience is, to use a different metaphor, something that we need to process, and process, and, process, up until we hit some kind of capacity."
And that's what I've been doing: optimizing for processing the most information, basically. Or for churning through the most tasks on a list.
So, I don't know how relevant it is, but I've been trying to stop thinking about myself as an information processor. Some ways:
- sleeping more (because what do I have to do so late, anyway?)
- listening to podcasts almost entirely
- playing Pokemon go, finally. It wasn't even fun anymore! It was just a way to spend every spare 30 seconds accomplishing something!
Some things that have made this hard:
- Slay the Spire is a great new video game that I like a lot, and I kinda want to spend all my time playing it. I can't decide if this is Good (because I'm doing something I like!) or Bad (because I sure do feel like a computer while I'm doing it).
- I mean, work and stuff; there's kind of a lot of things you need to do just to exist. Work, errands, appointments, etc.
It's a thing I'm thinking about now, anyway.
"I've been feeling energized. One thing is, I've recently been traveling; that often tends to energize me. I'm doing a project at work that's more execution and less deep thinking and that's kind of energizing; it's within what I feel like I can do.
I'm feeling more connected to music and stuff than usual. Like, I feel like I want to *make art*, despite the fact that I have zero experience actually making art, and whenever I give myself a large chunk of unstructured time, I can't say that I do amazing things with it."
This is no longer the case, and I forgot that it even happened, and so recently! Though I do now remember it; it was busy and only pleasant in a kinda hyped up way. Plus, said work project became kinda a bummer, but then finished, so I'm feeling some sense of accomplishment and relief, but mostly just glad to be done with it.
These days, well. For the last couple years, I've been working with at least one professional, often two, sometimes even more, that kinda... help me be a person? Currently it's therapist J and meditation teacher K. It changes sometimes, often with moves, but sometimes otherwise too. It's nice to have a couple outside perspectives, and it's extra nice when they converge.
Recent convergence I've been summing up as "think less, feel more." Step 0 of getting good at meditating seems to involve being able to switch between the fast, feeling system and the slow, focused System 2 thinking system. Living in the present, not worrying about the future; applying your awareness like a floodlight, not a laser; being, not accomplishing.
This essay about "bandwidth" feels relevant. Quote:
"Personal "bandwidth" implies that we must move through the world like machines; and that experience is, to use a different metaphor, something that we need to process, and process, and, process, up until we hit some kind of capacity."
And that's what I've been doing: optimizing for processing the most information, basically. Or for churning through the most tasks on a list.
So, I don't know how relevant it is, but I've been trying to stop thinking about myself as an information processor. Some ways:
- sleeping more (because what do I have to do so late, anyway?)
- listening to podcasts almost entirely
- playing Pokemon go, finally. It wasn't even fun anymore! It was just a way to spend every spare 30 seconds accomplishing something!
Some things that have made this hard:
- Slay the Spire is a great new video game that I like a lot, and I kinda want to spend all my time playing it. I can't decide if this is Good (because I'm doing something I like!) or Bad (because I sure do feel like a computer while I'm doing it).
- I mean, work and stuff; there's kind of a lot of things you need to do just to exist. Work, errands, appointments, etc.
It's a thing I'm thinking about now, anyway.
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