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I look at and treat humanity as if I’m observing and interacting with wild animals.
Consistently working out, the routine and predictably of it is surprisingly good for the mental side. It has done wonders for my emotional regulation and actually learning to notice emotions in my body, kinda like mindfulness meditation. Under the barbell i am forced to focus on my body and how my body reacts and moves, even after working out. Figuring out how my body functions as i was never handed a manual to run it.
Every time i bend over or squat down to pick something up, the weakened muscles remind themselves and once again force me to focus on my body making memmore aware of it or just flex, not for showing off reasons. Just for my own pleasure.Of course the physical side is an added benefit as well.
It has become the highlight of my day and i am in a worse mood if i miss it or it gets disrupted, which is rare.
Added benefit is that others are assuming I’m highly disciplined as well.
Edit: dieting aspect as well. Fully tracking my calories and weighing food and myself and eating rather monotone meals up to the same meal every morning. Makes me look even more disciplined and health conscious.
I’m just doing it for fun and i find it easier.
Wearing exclusively loose/comfortable clothing, and having short hair.
Suddenly I had more mental bandwidth for a lot since I wasn’t constantly stressed by subconsciously processing extra sensory input.
YMMV to personal taste; adjust accordingly.
I think a lot of us do this already, but I regain energy by spending time with my special interests and by stimming. I need to do both daily while being alone.
I also like to be with my family, but I also really need that alone time when I can shake my legs and fidget and read about bats or something.
Stop catering to the expectations neurotypicals seem to have. You will never do right by them. Accept that they’re usually wrong about things when it comes to what you can and cannot do, and do your best to tune them out any way you can. You know what you can and cannot do. Don’t let them dictate where your limits lie.
Years before I had the bulbs (or self-awareness) to do this, but dim the lights, switch to wall lights / upside-down ceiling lampshades, kill the lights… and suddenly I’m not constantly a bunch of seething snakes
Having a physical planner and writing in it using only pencil helps me a lot to budget energy. I plan out all energy consuming activities ahead for each week. I plan to do 5 stressful tasks each day, but what counts as stressful changes constantly, which is why I write in pencil. If I don’t have the energy for something on one day I will erase and reschedule it and write something less demanding as a task, otherwise I always have to do what’s on the list. I am not allowed to do more than 5 stressful things even on a good day, because then I usually overwork myself, and I have to plan in recovery time after an especially demanding day. Also, I break down big tasks beforehand, so I can be as specific as possible with my task setting (Goblintools can help with that). I use a physical planner because it gets me off of my phone and because I can remember stuff better when I write it down by hand, and I use pencil so I don’t have to cross out unfinished tasks and be reminded of “failing” when looking back.
So yeah, TLDR: an analog planner with strict rules on how to budget energy and some flexibility to acommodate fluctuating energy levels
I second the physical planner. The way I use it has changed over decades to meet my needs at the time. But I really enjoy that I can look back on the record and reflect. It helps me know what’s working, what’s not, understand my current feelings sometimes – (like oh yeah, I’m exhausted because I was sick then had to travel and its only been 3 days of home). Helps me be a little kinder to myself, and sometimes im really proud of what I’ve accomplished. That pride could easily been lost in the noise of life if I didn’t have that longer term physical record.
Right now, I like a weekly agenda that gives me enough room to track a few things each day and a memo section next to it for a weekly to do list or whatever notes about what comes up. My point here is just that for anyone interested in such a habit, you dont need to allocate a lot of time to make it useful to you.
am I the only one who finds what I do to deal with life is tough enough and can’t imagine adding to it. Its like I want to read the list but it also feels like it will be exhausting just to read.
This might be the ADHD more than anything, but making alarms on my phone changed my life. I used to forget important things all the time, but then I started making alarms for the most important stuff, and all of a sudden I stopped forgetting them!
Nowadays I’ll make an alarm for everything. I said I’d go get groceries after I finish this episode of my TV show? Better make an alarm for 7 minutes from now. I’m going to the store to buy eggs? Better make an alarm titled “eggs” to go off at the store in case I get distracted by something.
At this point I open my alarms app automatically any time there’s anything at all to remember. I have dozens of concurrent alarms, and it’s great.
Lol I’m constantly scrolling to get to the later in the day alarms like 7pm because the list is so large
I’m not smart enough to answer this. Is social anxiety or extreme shyness autism? If so, then I have a lot of coping mechanisms.
A mid range smart watch does double duty for me; I can quickly pause white noise or music to talk to people so I can wear my over ear headphones at all times and have schedule alarms that aren’t as obnoxious as my phone alarms
Oh! The watch alarms are a huge one. It is way nicer to wake up to and great if you and a partner have different schedules.
Leave your phone on do-not-disturb, and inform anyone you give your number to that the phone is always on DND so they shouldn’t expect you to answer or have an immediate response.
Never debate anything with strangers on the Internet. It’s just a waste of time, as in the best case scenario nothing actually changes. It’s not worth the time, frustration, emotional toll or being the target of insults. Just tell anyone looking to argue with you that they’re right, that they’re always right without exception, and then walk away.
I’ve turned off read receipts on signal and feel so much less pressure to instantly reply to things and always be available
Years ago my old vacuum cleaner finally broke and I was looking for a new one, but then my car broke down so instead of the new vacuum my money went to fixing the car. So I was without a vacuum and had to brush the floor clean… And yeah. It’s so, so, so much better. Quiet, doesn’t get stuck, doesn’t flip to it’s back, no cord, doesn’t smell like dust… Now when I clean the floors I no longer feel THE ANGERY which would be enough to make me kill a kitten in the process.
Fuck vacuums. Unless you have carpet floor, you don’t really need them. It’s just marketing.
I use a broom with a shovely part and also a “squeegee” that is usually used to try the shower room floor. And I of course mop the floors between few months. Rugs I spank outdoors.
Only downside is that if I mention that I don’t own a vacuum, it has made people call me gross and I have gotten questions like “do you even mop like ever!?” when I have already said that I use a brush instead. Almost no house has carpet floor in this country.
Just fuck vacuum cleaners. All my homies hate vacuum cleaners.
EDIT// Haha I think broom is better word than brush, I meant that one.
Here I was, imagining you sitting on the floor with a brush! Lol. Brooms are nice! When the bristles are good and not mangled. Had a cat that looooved chewing on the bristles!
Brush would still win a vacuum cleaner! And the cat here does the same. :3
Wearing a mask. Oh my god. People finally stopped commenting on my stupid face. No more “why so sad?” Or “it can’t be that bad” or “cheer up” or “where’s a smile!” Just leave my fucking resting sad bitch face alone! And now they doooooo and its so much better because I don’t have to devote brain power to remembering idiots care about my mouth at all.
I fricken loved this aspect of the COVID times. People were so much more friendly toward me by default when we all wore masks.
I still wear one. People might look at me strangely, but outside of doctors asking if I’m wearing it for a specific reason no one comments on it. Which is good!
What type of mask?
Werewolf
Usually a medical face mask.
Noise cancelling headphones, not just for avoiding other people’s noise in general but also to make noisier tasks easier. Vacuum, blender, cooking in general with all the loud pots and pans, fans, drill, epilator, electric toothbrush. I either avoided them or tried to get them over with as quickly as possible and did a haphazard job, they’ve helped me in about every aspect of my life.
It was a pretty big shift for me when I realized that a big part of my mood was tied to my sensory load. Using tools like earplugs or shades makes life go better when my nervous system decides to flare up and make everything loud, bright and annoying.
