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Mhyrion

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  1. Yesterday I took my rest. Went to a prophetic meeting in the midday and got invited to dinner. It's really nice to be taken care of, not having to cook etc. I really enjoyed it. When heading to bed I realized I was super nervous for the appointment of today. I woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night, but prayer calmed me down in each instance. I dreamt of gaming, but that's just what my brain does when I experience a lot of stress and anxiousness and it will eventually pass. So, today I met the animation teachers. Teachers, because the one I had an appointment with immediately asked the other teacher to also come and take a look. I was nervous. I wanted to tell my whole story, but when sitting there with two new met strangers who also happen to have a lot of knowledge, I just cut to the chase and told them in about two sentences the subject of my project, audience and reason for choosing an stop-motion animation. After that we watched the storyboard together. They were impressed. They asked how I was going to solve a couple of things, nodded in agreement with my answers. I was baffled. I had expected them to be super unimpressed, having a lot of tips for improvement. I asked if I should not try to improve this or that, and they thought that what I wanted to improve was actually a strength and I should keep it that way. I thought that if my graphic design tutor were not impressed, then animation teachers, surely, would have even more to say about it. Instead, I feel boosted in my confidence now. This whole experience is such a boost for me. Sometimes I check with myself what past-me would've thought of my current experiences. If I would've told myself half a year ago I would ask -relatively- strangers for help while I wasn't forced to, I would've laughed at myself thinking I was making a joke. I do think I need to work on my confidence, it's unhandy and perhaps also unhealthy to need others to tell me what I am making/doing is good and on the right track. I also want to make the one negative voice of my tutor less important to me. I have so many people admiring/complimenting/liking what I do, but I keep getting confused and lost because of one negative voice. No more.
  2. Counselling didn't go so smooth. I fell silent after a while, knowing what I should or could say, should or could do, should or could feel, but I didn't say, do or feel those things. However (Lately, every time I type 'however', I am reading it in the voice of Tuvok. Really brain?), there was a bit of process so I am still happy. I can also continue to work on it at home. Slow and steady wins this race.. The session also completely exhausted me. It was an hour long, but it took the energy of the rest of the day. I got so tired I got into my hysterical laughing mode, which means all energy is basically drained but I am still awake and little, normal things might suddenly look very comical to me. Very. Comical. Also normal, easy things suddenly require all of my attention. I realized I wouldn't be able to cook, so I got this ready-to-go-lasagna; failed to open the package at first. At least the decision to not cook was sound, that would've been dramatic, hah. Needless to say, I went to bed early. I slept quite well, and I do not feel 100% rested, but I want to get some things done for my study because I haven't been able to yesterday and feel motivated to get some things done. I haven't spoken with tomorrow's tutor for two weeks now, which is all on me, I need to be there. Also, I've committed myself to resting this midday. I keep crashing on Thursdays, so I figured (finally, or again?) that I just need to implement a break halfway through the week.
  3. Hey Steve! I am sad to hear you relapsed on facebook games. But I believe in your strength to stay away from them! You've managed 34 days so you can do 1 day too! Coincidence perhaps, but my highest streak to remain completely game-free is 34 days. So we are rivals now *maniacal laugh*. No, but seriously, let's both beat our past selves and streaks! Also finding activities to replace some of the needs games provide for you really helps. I am sure others have already said this in your journal, but I am just going to repeat it Acknowledging games provided in some of your needs and then finding and filling those in other, ultimately more rewarding activities is really worthwhile. Continue fighting!
  4. I have absolute terrible focus today. It's hard to be productive like this, but I've managed to put some work in. I think the lack of focus is caused by some nervousness for counselling this midday. It will probably be quite emotional considering the subject matter, and even though it's a safe place and all, I don't like the prospect of being so real with my feelings. However, it's going to be beneficial for my general emotional well being and understanding, so it's well worth it.
  5. Mondays are the best days for my study. Achieved a lot today. I decided to rewrite my concept and convinced myself again of the greatness of my idea. It's really well worded this time around, I could sell it like this. I could pecha kucha it like this, for real. Now the images have to follow in this greatness. This week I will work on the tree house, have some ideas I want to make some more elaborate sketches of. Also I hope that the stop-motion teacher will have time for me on Thursday. This man makes stop-motions for a living (besides teaching here and there) and his work looks great; he has a lot of experience to offer me. My tutor is still being a pain in the ass however, thinking it's a bit too boring and conservative as far as the imagery goes. I have explained in him the ways I will improve, and I hope he will be sold once there's music with the piece. You really can't set the pictures apart from the sound. If all goes according to plan, I will receive the first piece of sound near the end of the week. I am excited about that. And well, if my tutor still doesn't see the great in my product, that's his loss. I can't please everyone and I don't think he thinks it's unworthy of graduating either, so there is no problem. Hubby picked me up from the train station, so sweet. He made this great day even greater. Tonight I will proceed to make this day a total success by swimming laps and finishing some little to-do's. Yea, mondays!
  6. Today was great. Great service at church. Spend the midday together with hubby cycling and walking along the river. It was amazing quality time. I had a bit of an doubt meltdown over my graduation project, but after rubberducking with hubby I felt a bit better. I just need to finish this. I need to keep that in mind. Just finish it. I am done with slacking on my study. Bad days happen, but I need to pick up the pace now. 10 more weeks, pressure is starting to get on. In a month I have a major deadline, but I will be prepared. I am going to make a 10 week schedule tomorrow, to make sure I keep things timely and under control.
  7. I am back to my good and happy self. My house is the cleanest it has been in weeks. Laundry is done. I love Saturdays, it's so satisfying to do all this stuff with immediate results. *happy sigh* One of my facebook friends liked something from LoL, so it popped up on my timeline. I looked at it for a couple of seconds, then blocked it. It gave a strange sensation, I felt so drawn to it. Activated perhaps. Silly brain of mine, still reacting so strongly. I am on 21 days free again today, I want to make the 90 days this time. I need my brain to stop reacting to games so strongly, it's distracting. I got rid of a lot of my games, those on the laptop are all gone ofcourse. But I still have the PS2 and the Nintendo DS. I am not even sure if the latter is working anymore. But anyhow, why hang on to it? I am not going to play games anymore, and my favourite venoms I've thrown out already. I don't think the PS2 is worth money anymore, so it's basically just trash taking up my precious space. Also, ye olden tv screen we have in our room can go, we don't watch telly, the only reason we had it was to connect it to the PS2. I should make work of this.
  8. Well, that happened. I did nothing for two days. Finally got myself to go outside this midday, made me feel better. But it's interesting how I first have to go down kicking and screaming (and crying and crumbling) before I am able to get back to myself. Well, at least I feel better now. I wish it made sense to me how I felt the past two days, but frankly, it doesn't and I don't see any special cause that started this chaos. It rather sort of crept onto me, perhaps this dark side is changing tactics that I'll have to adjust to (if that makes any sense, it does to me in this moment). I have to work on this, although where to begin? Perhaps I'll get better with it as time progresses, the last bad day I solved pretty quick and I already concluded that was progress. I perhaps have misled myself by believing I would be able to deal with any bad day that followed in the future. I certainly didn't live up to my own expectations for that. Hubby finds all this very confusing but he's been super sweet none the less. He's great. I sometimes fear I am too much of a burden for him, he's working so hard and I fail to finish my graduation and even consistent day to day life. I swear I don't see how my sweet smile (it's there at times) and care weight up to that, but for him it does; and it makes me very grateful and thankful to have him as my man. We have bought a jigsaw puzzle that will be here a week or so from now, I really look forward puzzling with him. Right, back to picking up the pieces. Youtube etc is once more banned. All systems need to be reinitialized. I should stop buying chocolate and cookies and sweets. (How many times I need to come to this conclusion before I actually act on it, I wonder?) I ate everything that was still left in the house. I also need to fathom a way for people not to gift us things like that, everything I ate yesterday and today was gifted goods. Come to think of it, most of it was gifted by my mom. Perhaps there's some secret plot going on to keep me the fattest child of the fam. At least she's one of the persons I can ask to stop doing that without coming across impolite and ungrateful.
  9. @giblets Jigsaw puzzle is a great idea, we will try it some time soon. Thanks for the suggestion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am failing and it is (so, so!) uncomfortable. Shit. I basically didn't move today, only consumed food and series. I am not able to understand what is going on in my head. I tried to motivate myself, but failed spectacularly. I don't understand. My study is on track, I didn't have stressful social appointments today, hubby is in a good mood, I took decent care of myself, the weather was absolutely beautiful. Is hiding just for hiding even a thing? I noticed yesterday midday I couldn't focus anymore and felt less happy, couldn't sleep last night and today I barely got dressed. I am shutting off hubby, which is painful for both of us, but until I know what I am going through, talking with him will only bring confusion. I don't know what and how I am feeling, which makes me feel panicky when I do try to think about it. I hope I can sleep tonight, but I sincerely doubt it considering my current chaotic state. I am disappointed in me, I thought I had enough experience to not let days like this get so out of hand. I guess not. I am saying sweet motivational nothings to myself like ´focus on tomorrow´, 'you know you can do it' and I am só not believing myself it's a bit ridiculous.
  10. I also got addicted after leaving home. My husband nagged a lot when I started playing more and more. He had all the rights and reasons to, but I just rationalized everything and I started lying about my whereabouts etc. In the end the lying is one of the things that added up to the 'this is definitely not right' feeling and acknowledgement that I had a problem. But the nagging also made me game more, as that was one more thing I wanted to escape. In the end, you need to find the reasons to quit that work for you, goals that you can work towards and are enthusiastic about. No parents or Significant Others can do that for you. I also talked with my hubby how he can best support me, turns out we had different expectations about that and syncing them really helped.
  11. Yesterday evening was so great. I should do every evening like that. I made burrito perfection (I can cook! Who would've thought?), chilled a bit with hubby while eating, did the dishes, skyped with friends and then went for a walk to return home at the perfect moment to head to bed. I didn't dream about games last night, I did however woke up from one dream about a very big spider and a couple of times more after/before that, so not the best nights rest. I stopped making a to do list every day, because I kept beating myself up over not completing the list. Instead, a weekly to-do list gives enough support for me and feels more satisfactory. I also feel more free to adapt it if needed. If I have really important stuff I set an alarm for it. This seems to work for me. My current to do list is starting to look good. Hubby and I still haven't found a good shared activity to do, which is bothering us both. We sometimes play board games, but that only goes so far. We watch a lot of series, but that's passive and we don't really connect over it. We have sex more (especially since I limited my braindead browsing haha), and that's great. But we both would like a relaxed, indoor activity for our evenings together. He had some miniature ships lying around, so we are going to try and build those tonight. I am not super enthusiastic about it, but I like building/creating things so perhaps it is enjoyable to me. It will at least give us the opportunity to work together and connect a bit. We'll see.
  12. Yesssss! Kicking ass today after the little bump this morning! Thanks for your continued support
  13. Woot woot. Bit moodswingy today. I woke up pretty unmotivated. Well, madly unmotivated really. I spoke with one of my tutors yesterday, and even though he was mildly enthusiastic last week, this week his critique wasn't making me happy at all. He was basically suggesting I'd try something else then an animation and the current look of things. I was probably cringing in my face when I gave my most diplomatic 'I'll think about it'. I've been working on this for a long time, I am not going to switch now. That'll just give problems and oh, it's just generally a bad idea for any number of reasons. The only thing I agree with is that the whole thing needs a bit more humour, I probably need some help with that because I am not a funny person nor a writer. I am unhappy I haven't been able to convince him about the good in my product and the direction I am moving in. This morning I spoke with Hitaru about all this, basically thinking while chatting. And I came to the conclusion that I am going to do what I think best. Whether my tutor agrees with it or not, I believe in what I am doing. I take his critique seriously, but I am not going to overhaul the whole thing. If he misses the imagination to see where my project is heading, then he'll just have to see what it becomes. Meanwhile I'll work on making the project and product and a way to present it in a way it will be convincing. Working on confidence probably will help. Next time I want to stick to my guns instead of saying I'll think about it. There, determination really sparked. I realized I am fed up with where I am now. This whole graduation set up is not working for me. Working alone, being surrounded (unavoidable) by unmotivated people, being my own boss and employee at the same time, working on only one project at the time. I need to change at least 3 of those 4 after I graduate. And I really need to move on from the academy before I lose all enthusiasm for designing. Ha, while writing musicguy replied. Reinitialization of contact is a success! I keep having game/relapse dreams. It's starting to frustrate me to have them every day. But it has learned me something, reflecting on it. In counselling we discussed regression, basically moving back to a past place which is less threatening and scary. What could possibly be less threatening then gaming all day, ignoring all feelings and responsibility? Being responsible for graduating, taking care of our home and cat, keeping contact with friends and family, this all can be perceived as threatening to me as there is a real option to fail with any of them. And all of these things bring forth emotions. Gaming is basically low risk, high 'reward', for my brains at least. That my whole life is falling to pieces is something I cannot overview while gaming/hiding in general. Or, basically:
  14. I felt the need to process the weekend before starting the week, so here we are. The weekend has been great. I've been recharging my battery; taking it easy, enjoying the sun and nature blooming, relaxing with hubby and getting icecream together, reading, chilling with the cat, cleaning some. It was a very good weekend and I feel blessed that I can spend it in this way. Also, spring is the best season for me and I feel motivated to enjoy it to it's fullest. Going to kick ass this week. Yesterday evening we had the last Beyond call. It was awesome seeing how everyone has experienced it and grew as a person. Step 1 towards world domination complete. I think for me personally, it will be great to focus on counseling I receive from church, it has really propelled me forward the past weeks. It's really helping me process things from the past and get into alignment with what my faith stands for. I am again on a 14 day game free streak, which is worth celebrating. I celebrate me. Who would've thought I was able to do that in so little time? I am worth celebrating. If I could, I would buy yall cake. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly goals: -pick up swimming again (1/2) -contact mediamusic student (0/1) (Cannot afford to screw this up!! Do it today! GO GO GO!) -finish editing photographs (0/11) -speak with tutors (0/2) -fix window blinds together with hubby (0/1) -treehouse sketches (0/10)
  15. You certainly deserve a break! Congrats on the test!
  16. Prettig om een keer wat in het nederlands te lezen, ben benieuwd naar het vervolg.
  17. The support of you guys is priceless <3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday wasn't as productive as it could've been. I went home early because I was done having people around me. Had another fight with hubby in the evening, I dunno what's in the air this week, but it's wearing me out to fight with him this much. It's pretty pointless too. He keeps complaining I should exercise more, but he never gives me credit for all the other stuff I accomplish in the meanwhile. Yes I failed to exercise again, it's just not something I am naturally interested in at all. It takes a lot of effort to keep doing it and I rather do something else with my evenings, like the social things I have picked up. I am pretty done with him expressing disappointment in me, I need support. At the same time, I really need to work on staying cool when he's not as supportive as I would like him to be, because I was super inpatient and got really mad. I need to stay cool to prevent the situation from escalating, my reactions at times are putting oil on a fire that's already hot. I rather prevent the situation as a whole, but it's not conceivable this will never happen again. This morning I felt utterly unmotivated and I noticed I was in a destructive mood. Again(!) dreamt about gaming, only a different game this time. It was a Sims NSFW version, interesting things my brain fabricates. I tried to stay in bed for as long as possible, as staying in bed was a better option then the things my mind was thinking about doing. I haven't done anything productive till this point, but I also prevented myself from relapsing. I want to game so bad, but in essence I just want to hide. I felt strong urges to watch a gaming stream, but prevented myself. I got to the twitch page though, walking a fine line here. Instead I watched the 'what to do when you're about to relapse' vid of Cam. Lifesaver <3 It's pathetic that I still need that, but it worked. I did act on my destructive urges by eating way too much till the point of nauseousness, but that will pass. I feel like I've shattered this morning, but I can also see the pieces. This is interesting, because normally I would not have been able to see things this clear yet. Perhaps experience in reflection is paying off. I am going to try and force myself to go outside in the sun. The weather is beautiful today. I shouldn’t care about being productive right now, I need to keep it together first. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly goals: -Fully animate 1 minute 30 (~500/~1080 photos) Still a succes! -Speak with both tutors (1/2) Failed to speak with the 2d. -Finish a 3d sketch of treehouse (1/1) Succes. -Give 100% to counselling -preparation (1/1) Nailed it. -counselling (1/1) Job well done. -Continue being kind and patience with myself. Went pretty good I think. -Update in Beyond. Slacking, let's do it today!
  18. I'm so productive this week. This is amazing. I am amazing. I also am too tired to take care of household things I'd normally do, I'll have to adjust my planning accordingly if I want to stay this productive for my study. I am out of socks now, clean ones anyway, but my study progressing at great pace. I've added this morning to work in the animation studio, to make some precomp material and clean up. After that I can edit and see the fruits of my labour. I've sadly haven't progressed on my treehouse sketches yet, so I can't discuss them with my tutor today. And I am also not sure if I have the material I worked on this week ready to show, so perhaps I can better reschedule meeting him till next week. We'll see. I am starting to feel a tiny wee bit overwhelmed, I haven't been away from home this much for a long while and I have less ways to relax/get calm/take care of myself this way. Something to be aware of today. Yesterday evening I gave in to some instant gratification in the form of YT vids. I didn't finish a single one of em and quit after a half hour. I could've better done something else. Also dreamt about gaming again this night, but it's starting to get more... I dunno. It feels like it's more about bright colours and the surroundings of the game then the actual game and gameplay it self. I shouldn't dwell too long on it or I'll get nostalg…. Too late! Oh well.
  19. Yesterday was challenging. I failed my way through photographing, I had some technical issues that I had trouble fixing. I am glad I have (taken) the time to fail. It was frustrating, but necessary and I am proud I didn't give up. I also gave counseling my 100% and I felt really great afterwards. When the evening arrived, the day became more challenging. Hubby decided to not inform me about the developments in his job. Instead, he chose to tell that he might lose his job this week while we were with a group of people. Geez. I am disappointed that he didn't trust me with this beforehand, but perhaps he also felt ashamed. When we arrived home after that, I was super tired and didn't have any energy left to talk with him. I wanted to sleep, but I didn't fall asleep until ~01:00 due to a headache and hubby staying up late browsing etc. We quarreled a bit about it, and I felt horrible. I have enough self-knowledge to know I can't function with a headache and 5 hours sleep, so I slept in this morning and took a long hot shower to feel a bit better. Good decisions. I am a bit annoyed with my brain, because I dreamt about gaming again. I guess it's the stress and also lack of instant gratification which makes the urges stronger. I will adapt. After the shower I proceeded with my day as I normally would, only with everything two hours later then normal. I fixed my technical problem this morning, the solution was really simple but I didn't think of it. I will never reach my goal of 1 minute 30 due to all the delay, but I have learned a lot of practical stuff and still have a lot of images to work and proceed with.
  20. I had a terrible nights sleep, woke up to my phone seemingly dead (it looks like it's working again, but I'm suspicious) and hubby was whining about lack of underwear (just fucking grab it of the fucking line yourself) and then when I already looked pretty stressed he asked me when I am going to pick up cycling to the academy again. I was not planning on that, and he's pushed me so often to go exercise more, it's only annoys me. I asked him if he rather had cold food in the evening while I left for swimming and the answer was yes. Fine then. But I know already he will not eat when I do not put it on a plate for him. (pathetic, really) I should be able to let that go, let him go hungry, but I am the one having to deal with the whining that follows up on that and I actually like and take pride in caring for him. Hah, my tone of voice (type?) is even grumpier then I thought it would be. Lack of gratification setting in. Detox is working. I also was a bit upset with hubby because I heard him fapping yesterday evening. This made me feel sad, we had a lot of sex last weekend and I really want to be able to suffice for him. I don't mind him masturbating when I have been 'unavailable'/uninterested for a while, but clearly it doesn’t matter how hard I try to connect with him on this area, it's never enough. And now I really need to shake all of these feelings off and focus on my work at hand at the academy today. *takes deep breath*
  21. Today was productive. I could've done more, but I felt exhausted near the end of the day and wanted to take a breather at home before making dinner. Besides that, the work went fine. I also had a nice talk with my tutor. I think I handled myself well in explaining my project and came across modestly confident. He seemed optimistic and also gave some suggestions. I have to take some time to think about it. Even though my overall mood today was positive, I seemed to get grumpy quite easily. I hurt myself while working, it appears to be a minor thing but it's annoying and not easily ignored. I don't want to get distracted by little things like that, but I totally was. I also discovered that the academy scheduled a meeting for tomorrow at 15.00, but I have to leave for counseling at that time and I scheduled thàt appointment 3 weeks ago. I really hate it when they just schedule something for us without asking and not giving heads up in time. I hope one of the other students can swap times. This morning I had some short but strong game cravings. I feel like I have more game cravings then I had the last times around, but maybe I am just more aware of it. I failed to resist my food cravings today. And right now I am totally craving some cheap and braindead content. Instead, I am going to relax for a bit and then commence with my household duties. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly goals: -Fully animate 1 minute 30 (120/~1080 photos) -Speak with both tutors (1/2) -Give 100% to counselling -preparation (0/1) -counselling (0/1) -Continue being kind and patience with myself. (Not sure how to measure that) -Update in Beyond
  22. Things I have done yesterday and today instead of watching useless, cheap content: -read -chilled with the cat -chilled, talked, cuddled and watched series together with hubby -cooked and took time to prepare fried eggs for lunch -cleaned -went to church and stayed afterwards to socialize -sat around bored but relaxed, not sleeping, just sitting -prayed/sang/danced -went for a walk This is me quitting gaming all over again, haha. I sure have a lot of time on my hands now and I am enjoying it. Big difference this time around is that I am so much more patient with and aware of myself and that I have a lot of habits actually supporting progress. Also, I went from happy peak, to little less happy, to happy peak again. Boom. No need to go totally down after a total up. Prove right here. This weeks feels important to me. I can get so much shit done. I am starting to re-embrace my identity as a Christian. It feels like solid ground under my feet, and makes me feel very loved and strong. This Tuesday I have counseling again, and I am so looking forward to it. I feel like my life is being swept clean again and I have this loving family that think alike me and can back me up. It's just amazing. I feel blessed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly goals: -Fully animate 1 minute 30 in the animation room I reserved on Monday - Wednesday (That's 1000 pictures folks, woo). This is important to complete because I can then: receive feedback from tutors on the images, pick up contact again with the student that offered to make the sound, improve the current product, arrange a acting student to do the voice-over. Basically, any progress will rely on this. I want to do this. I need to do this. I want to move on. I feel motivated to move on. I do not want to slack off. It doesn't need to be perfect this time around, it's a learning progress. If I do well, I can use big parts of what I make in the final product. If I fail in that, I have learned what I need to do to actually make pictures good enough to use in the final product. Whatever happens, it's a win. I already consider it a win. -Finish one 3d sketch of the treehouse. Remember it's a sketch. No need for perfection, things can still be changed. This will open up discussion with tutors and fellow students about the design. -Speak with both tutors about my current progress of my graduation project. I need to prepare the conversations and make sure I get the most out of it. -Give 100% to counseling on Tuesday. The last and first counseling session was super stimulating and this time round time is a bit shorter, so I need to be focused and prepared. -Continue being kind and patience with myself. (Not sure how to measure that) -Update in Beyond about contact with tutors(Monday and prolly Thursday) and challenges if they arise.
  23. Good job on starting your journal!
  24. It's midday and I've basically done everything I normally would do on a Saturday. And I took my sweet time about it, even walked somewhere instead of cycling. That means I normally spend about half of the day doing useless stuff. It's a Saturday, so I am relaxed about things, but this ratio doesn't seem to be balanced. But I am not sure what I want to do right now. I can think of plenty (useful) things, but I don't feel bothered to start any of them. On the other hand, if I just sit here, I'll get bored enough in a while that I'll go and do something, anything. I guess. I am wondering how I should go about it. It's not bad to be bored. Even though there are some feelings of guilt involved, there's plenty to do. 'ARE YOU GRADUATED YET?' Sigh. Some boredom is ok. But if I am just going to sit around doing nothing, it's just another, less entertaining form of procrastination. @Shine Magical I didn't even think of the outdoors in this aspect yet. I don't have an internet subscription on my phone, I guess that helps. I am not sure if I count music as easy entertainment, perhaps it is, but it is so useful to put myself in a good mood that I do not want to cut it out of my life. I had an interesting experience as far as connecting with strangers goes a couple of weeks ago, when the Beyond challenge was to compliment a stranger. Still haven't done that, but I said hi to some people and had two or three random conversations with people. I didn't find it worthwhile for the effort it takes me to be open and friendly towards strangers, but I now know I can do it. And I can perhaps use it in situations where strangers are a little bit less strange, like in places where I already have something in common with people. What kind of things do you plan to do in these situations? @Senescence For me it would be prayer, but I really like the idea of seeing 'empty' spaces in my schedule as an opportunity for mindfulness instead of viewing them as boring and useless.
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