Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you tell the great spirituality books from the bullshit ones? Are there spirituality books that an hardcore atheist such as myself can read? Lack of religious terminology would be a start.
I'll second that - I find the subject interesting, but must admit that almost all of the books I have picked up on spirituality start blabbering about force-fields and qantum mechanics without having a clue what they're talking about. I have yet to find a good book on the subject - if someone from this forum can recommend anything it would definitely be appreciated.
Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
41–50 of 53 posts
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only I had the discipline to keep myself going to the gym. I am always glad that I did, but with that in mind, I don't know why I can't seem to keep it consistent. What is it that fuels fitness freaks? And where can I get some? Not talking about roids or HGH, here. :)
Consistency doesn't matter. Persistence does. (Of course, what I mean is, "Don't think about consistency. Think about persistence.") Never let past slips become an excuse not to exercise today. Too many people try really hard until they miss a workout, which creates a bit of a letdown, but they keep going, and then they miss another, which discourages them a little bit, and so on, with each missed workout weakening t…
" Let tomorrow's you worry about tomorrow's exercise."
I've had more success in getting myself to exercise the past month or two than I had previously, and I think this sentence sums it up pretty well. Don't start thinking about yesterday or tomorrow, just focus on how good you're going to feel in an hour when you're finished today.
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#43Kitesurfing or snowboarding. You need a physical outlet.
Exercise will give you peace. It worked for me.
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#44I tend to be anxious and depressed like the author, but I've improved over the years. Things that have helped me: There are 3 kinds of books I read: business, programming and spirituality. (I don't read fiction.) It's a challenge to keep up to speed on all three, but when I start pouring myself into the latter (spirituality), I find myself feeling much lighter, living more in the moment and enjoying whatever momentar…
How do you tell the great spirituality books from the bullshit ones? Are there spirituality books that an hardcore atheist such as myself can read? Lack of religious terminology would be a start.
I think it is different for every person, as usual. I am a self-described atheist, and yet I have found much enjoyment in something as simple as The Tao of Poo by Benjamin Hoff. Seemed silly, at first, but I found myself listening to it (book on tape from the library at first) over and over again. Now I own a copy and the hard bound book. I usually get little lessons each time i relisten.
The lessons for me right now are: slow down, figure out a way to enjoy everything, because I'm still alive. Even in the bad stuff, there is some gleaming little tidbit in the corner that is helpful/instructive. And there is great stuff in what I used to consider mediocre. I don't need the extreme highs as much any more to feel good (still learning, still working on it).
I have a tendency to want to find the RIGHT way of doing anything I decide to do. Lots of angst, in that for me. Better to just let go, do my best at the time, and accept it as it is, as it happens. Eventually, it all seems to work out. If it does not look like it, It usually means I haven't waited long enough.
It then starts coming through in my work. Go ahead and ship it. Then keep refining it. Clients are usually nowhere near the perfectionist I am, and are usually quite pleased.
But, we're all different, your mileage may vary. :)
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#45Article is from 04/07. Is there any followup? It's not clear from all the commentary whether the author learned something from the anonymous solicitation of advice or if it served primarily as catharsis. For anyone else living like this individual, I particularly agree with the commenters who mention taking up photography to get you out into the world creating art without abandoning a detail/tech-centric tendency.
I have found that any art does the trick for me. Over my life I've played Viola, crafted pottery, attempted to paint, and done photography. Of those two were wildly expensive (photography, oil painting), and the others were cheaper. I think the main draw of modern photography for programmers is that a great deal of our technical skill transfers into every part of photography except taking a good picture -- so we don't feel baffled when we first start.
That said, if you want to take up music or some other art, it's never too late. Music lessons are fairly cheap and honestly indispensable (I held my viola wrong for six months of practice before I started lessons). Painting is a much freer art and you can produce decent works on your own without instruction. If you do painting, I personally found oil painting an amazing medium because it allowed me to constantly improve my paintings no matter how bad they started =p.
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#46The one thing I've found that has helped me the most is exercise. I wouldn't have believed it myself and most of the evidence I have is just my own subjective experience, but there is one incident that stands out where one day my boss mentioned that my attitude had completely changed for the better at some point. I didn't think it had, but apparently there was enough of a change for him to mention the observation. Of…
I'll third this. However, I've always had a challenge of mixing work (which i do a lot of), and finding time for things like going to a gym, etc. I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things. Using the computer 12+ hours a day is an intense amount of information / brain processing. I think thats why tech people get depressed — they're often mentally exhausted an…
For anyone struggling to find the time to get some exercise in, http://www.simplefit.org is pretty nice.
The workouts are quick, can be pretty intense, and are staged based on your progress. Not for some people, but I've been doing it combined with some running and have found it to be pretty good so far.
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can second that. You feel more energetic, you need less sleep, you think faster, your memory recall is better. Perhaps more importantly, by exercising regularly you will learn discipline and focus, and my life has benefited so much from having more of that.
If only I had the discipline to keep myself going to the gym. I am always glad that I did, but with that in mind, I don't know why I can't seem to keep it consistent. What is it that fuels fitness freaks? And where can I get some? Not talking about roids or HGH, here. :)
Don't go to the gym, the reason you have trouble doing that is because it is boring.
Find an activity you enjoy that involves physical labor, and do that thing. Since you enjoy it, the 'work' of exercise won't feel like work - it will be something you want to do because you enjoy it. Explore different outdoor activities and sports, and you'll find one that suits you.
Presently for me this is building a small farm. Before that it was learning to surf. Before that it was cycling for distance. The neat thing about all these is unlike gym time you are building real skills as you do them and they are rewarding beyond the calories burned and the physiological changes.
The gym is hard because other than the physical effects it is dead time, and you know it.
Although for some people the iron is that thing that is quite soothing: http://www.gittlen.com/rollins.htm
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll third this. However, I've always had a challenge of mixing work (which i do a lot of), and finding time for things like going to a gym, etc. I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things. Using the computer 12+ hours a day is an intense amount of information / brain processing. I think thats why tech people get depressed — they're often mentally exhausted an…
I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things I find it a bit funny you say that because I used to be "bulked up with weights" (now I mostly walk/run with a little weightlifting added) and I found it to be a very meditative experience. The euphoria of pushing a barbell off your chest, the total physical drain at the end of a set of heavy squats led me to a place…
I was the same way for several years, but nowadays I find lifting quite boring and not relaxing, so I had to find other activities.
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you tell the great spirituality books from the bullshit ones? Are there spirituality books that an hardcore atheist such as myself can read? Lack of religious terminology would be a start.
I think it is different for every person, as usual. I am a self-described atheist, and yet I have found much enjoyment in something as simple as The Tao of Poo by Benjamin Hoff. Seemed silly, at first, but I found myself listening to it (book on tape from the library at first) over and over again. Now I own a copy and the hard bound book. I usually get little lessons each time i relisten. The lessons for me right now…
I'm trying to find somewhere online where I can buy a downloadable audio book version of "The Tao of Poo", don't suppose you know of somewhere? Google isn't coming-up with much.
Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only I had the discipline to keep myself going to the gym. I am always glad that I did, but with that in mind, I don't know why I can't seem to keep it consistent. What is it that fuels fitness freaks? And where can I get some? Not talking about roids or HGH, here. :)
You need to approach it like any other habit. Take smoking. At first, smoking sucks so you actually have to work at it to make it a habit. Eventually it becomes rewarding to smoke. Exercise is no different, except for the fact that it's actually healthy for you, but I've never found that to be a convincing argument (just like nobody ever convinced me to stop smoking by telling me it was unhealthy). With that in mind,…
"at the gym, everybody is always in better shape than you, no matter what shape you're in"
Yes! It's hilarious. I learned this on the running trail near my house. Only a narcissist (which I doubt you really are) naturally compares himself or herself to weaker people. Most of us only see the people who are better than us. It feels exactly as it would if the others weren't there at all. Even when I consciously look at a fatter guy and tell myself I'm better off than him, my reaction is emotionally blank: "So?" But when I see a buffer, faster guy, the fact that I'm less fit than him seems extremely important.