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mattwdelong 31 minutes ago [-]
About a year and a half ago, I cleared and rough graded my land for our house build. I rented a kx40-4 for about two weeks and put about 140 hours on it. That was pure meditation. The hydraulics became an extension of my body, with the immediate gratification of instantaneous change, I was able to shape the land as I see fit. My wife asked me what I was thinking about and my response was “dirt dirt dirt..rock..dirt” and that was wonderful. I have not had that feeling since I was completely disconnected for a week on an island in Belize. Very calming until the tap root of a big oak tree wrapped around the bedrock 6’ underground. Then you’re reminded that every task has its challenges. I’m now on the look out for a good deal on an excavator.
Otherwise, I enjoy flower farming and grow about 1/2 acre of flowers and sell wholesale. Close second. Sometimes it is stressful in the midst of July/August weeds but then once you come out the other side, it’s all worth it.
chung8123 14 minutes ago [-]
I have always dreamed about operating an excavator and learning to do so well. I am not sure if it was a midlife crisis or what but I ended up buying a Chinese 2 ton excavator. I live in the suburbs but when I just want to clear my head I go in the backyard and play around with it. My skills have improved a little but nothing like putting 140 hours on a project good. The one I got was about the same as a U17 but less than half the price.
criddell 8 minutes ago [-]
There are places in (or around) Las Vegas where you can operate heavy equipment in a playground setting. You can dig holes or smash cars or just push dirt around. I'm thinking about spending an afternoon there next time I go.
agumonkey 8 minutes ago [-]
I believe ability to shape our immediate surrounding is deeply placed in our brains.
steveBK123 20 minutes ago [-]
> completely disconnected for a week on an island in Belize
I used to enjoy 18 hour flights to Asia pre-WiFi for true disconnection, plus time zone difference to US East Coast made the time spent on the ground there feel at least half disconnected
gcanyon 1 hours ago [-]
Seattle has wild (foreign, invasive) blackberries all over the place, and in Summer you can easily drive around a bit, spot them, and then spend twenty minutes picking and eating them. As someone from southern California, it's a marvelous thing for food to just be out there in the wild for the taking.
VladVladikoff 45 minutes ago [-]
I used to live in the PNW and picking blackberries, mushrooms, cherry plums & oysters kept me quite busy for most of the year. Where I live now the mushrooms and wild berries are nowhere near as abundant, and I feel quite depressed, I’m also spending a lot less time walking (hiking) than I did before. I should probably move back to the PNW for my health.
artisinal 51 minutes ago [-]
> for food to just be out there in the wild for the taking
Wait until you hear about hunting!
Alien1Being 44 minutes ago [-]
Yuck ....
Way to ruin something good .
steveBK123 2 hours ago [-]
I get it, same reason I enjoy gardening alone in general.
Most of us spend our work time balancing 100 different things, putting out fires, bouncing between meetings, answering adhoc pings via calls/zooms/slacks, and struggling to do the deep work we are allegedly paid for in between.
There's a therapeutic aspect to certain kinds of physical hobby/chore work or full focussed hobbyist time that counterbalances this.
Otherwise at the end of a day of being burned out, we ruminate & doom scroll which only makes things worse.
Tade0 1 hours ago [-]
I'm currently on a week-long vacation and it's been so long since I had some proper time off that I forgot how slowly time flows when you're not under pressure.
unimplmntd_trap 2 hours ago [-]
It’s amazing what 5 minutes spent picking weeds out of my garden does for my mental health.
stantaylor 2 hours ago [-]
I do long distance solo road cycling. The riding takes just enough of my cognitive capacity that the rest of my mind wanders lightly, usually not thinking about anything of substance. It feels like meditation to me.
newsclues 2 hours ago [-]
Yes, if you’re on a car free path, even better!
Hilliard_Ohiooo 3 minutes ago [-]
Picking berries is women's work.
chanux 37 minutes ago [-]
For me it's sweeping the garden.
I hated having to do this a s a child. When I returned home after being away for quite a while, I picked up just to reduce mom's burden.
Then I found myself actually wanting to do it, just for the mental space it gives. The sense of cleanliness you get adds to the quality of the experience.
the_sleaze_ 23 minutes ago [-]
I find the more and the better I can optimize a routine the more gratification it gives me. Mowing the ideal path through the yard, sweeping the kitchen east to west against the far wall so no crumbs escape under the cabinet and no strokes are duplicated.
Same feeling as well a well optimized hot path.
randusername 42 minutes ago [-]
I think it is underappreciated how you can make almost anything meditative, even things you previously did not like as mentioned in this article.
For me it's loading and unloading the dishwasher. I hated it, still do, but if I'm careful to approach it with a very delicate kind of focus I can lose myself in the deep mysteries of the task.
maguay 42 minutes ago [-]
Washing dishes, strangely, hits that for me. One of the reasons I've never found dishwashers to be worth it.
Guestmodinfo 11 minutes ago [-]
Polishing my shoes is mine
suslik 1 hours ago [-]
Very nice post. I wish life didn't ruin this for me. As a child, I was forced to pick berries and mushrooms alone when all my friends were playing football - and it made me hate the process with all my heart. But that was so long ago - maybe I should give it one more chance...
wtk 60 minutes ago [-]
If in the process you realize it still triggers you, maybe lessons from dr. Gabor Maté are useful. He teaches that emotional triggers are valuable teachers because they highlight unresolved past trauma.
denis-stable 57 minutes ago [-]
I also hated picking berries as a child because it was so boring. Nowadays, with so much stress in my life I wouldn't mind spending a day picking berries as it seems pretty relaxing.
ascorbic 1 hours ago [-]
I love picking blackberries, sloes, elderberries, elderflowers, crab apples etc from the hedgerows around me in the south of England. I also love then using them to make preserves etc. Very relaxing and rewarding.
Havoc 2 hours ago [-]
For me its walking.
Life seems a bit better after a long walk preferably somewhere nice
wtk 57 minutes ago [-]
Walking in cities is often doable on 'autopilot' which annoyingly makes room for my overthinking. Walking in the hills is what probably works better for me as the attention needs to be on the pebbles, stones, holes, path forks.
ginko 37 minutes ago [-]
Hm, picking redcurrants usually isn't so much work because you collect entire strigs of berries. It's picking the berries off the strigs later that's more annoying but you can do it while watching tv or something.
Otherwise, I enjoy flower farming and grow about 1/2 acre of flowers and sell wholesale. Close second. Sometimes it is stressful in the midst of July/August weeds but then once you come out the other side, it’s all worth it.
I used to enjoy 18 hour flights to Asia pre-WiFi for true disconnection, plus time zone difference to US East Coast made the time spent on the ground there feel at least half disconnected
Wait until you hear about hunting!
Way to ruin something good .
Most of us spend our work time balancing 100 different things, putting out fires, bouncing between meetings, answering adhoc pings via calls/zooms/slacks, and struggling to do the deep work we are allegedly paid for in between.
There's a therapeutic aspect to certain kinds of physical hobby/chore work or full focussed hobbyist time that counterbalances this.
Otherwise at the end of a day of being burned out, we ruminate & doom scroll which only makes things worse.
I hated having to do this a s a child. When I returned home after being away for quite a while, I picked up just to reduce mom's burden.
Then I found myself actually wanting to do it, just for the mental space it gives. The sense of cleanliness you get adds to the quality of the experience.
Same feeling as well a well optimized hot path.
For me it's loading and unloading the dishwasher. I hated it, still do, but if I'm careful to approach it with a very delicate kind of focus I can lose myself in the deep mysteries of the task.
Life seems a bit better after a long walk preferably somewhere nice