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  • P&S Moderators: Xorkoth | Madness

What takes you away from yourself?

swilow

swilow

Sr. Moderator: AADD, CE&P, TD
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We all need things which allow us to leave our cares aside or transport our consciousness elsewhere. Drugs are very effective, but what are some other things you guys use to give yourself a break?

For me, I find certain music is really able to do this, really arouse emotions in a very intense fashion. I get this kind of escape from pretty different genres, but from a lot of metal/black metal and gentler ambient music. Something very emotionaly evocative and reminds me of a better world. I get a similar sense of escape from reading, very strongly from fantasy and some sci-fi, as well as 'science' books, especially astronomical ones. Again, it reminds me that the mundane bullshit of so much of daily life is/can be inconsequential and there's something grander happening.

I guess things like meditation could be considered. I certainly meditated today whilst at the dentist, I usually get physically anxious and sweaty but today managed some sort of acceptance of the affair. :\

Share something if you will. :) Anything. I might escape with you too.
 
Hope this doesn't sound nerdy.

I really enjoy educatiton. Self teaching. I've been self teaching chemistry for a couple months now with the Zhumdal textbook.

I also love the security scene of computers. I used to spend hours on end tweaking open source software to see what it does. Recently I was grounded for over 7 months (stayed up too late), during which time my stuff broke.

I got ungrounded and was only able to save my desktop, which is heavily underpowered for gaming but is fine for everything else.

The ethical hacking scene takes me away. Drowning in intelligent communities is what I love.
 
This Nixiam guy will end up with an MIT scholarship if he does not pay attention and performs a behavioral uturn immediately ! Do you use BlackArch by any chance @Nixiam ?

I can relate to all of the above mentioned activities. I also was interested in organic chemnistry, even attended a totally unrelated (to my field) oc-class at uni, but the duty to pay for rent did not allow my to pursue it any further. It is an awesome field to learn autodidactically by conducting experiments.

Unfortunately I got so fed up with academia recently, that I did not even touch a book for several weeks now (okay, I read 2 pages of some Asimov-novel). In those weeks I exclusively indulged in brainless, but mindful, mostly physical activites :

- open-eyed sitting in front of wall here aka meditation (never tried a new posture for >10 years)

- running in the nature

- biking (city and nature, could not survive in the city without a bike)

- following sports (European football)

- (minor ab)use of substances, mostly beer a few times a week, but this is not a longterm escape solution of course

- evaluating choices of a new habitat

A few years ago my most passionate and time-consuming hobby (aside from reading) was electronic/guitar music production (thjs is the most fullfilling field to get totally lost in and away from reality). After I get back on track (not being robbed of any residual of creative energy), I will try to get back into the game, not to release music, but to satisfy mostly myself and get a boner creating new aural gestalts.
 
aside from drugs and television i like reading and surfing the internet and hanging out with girls

i mostly just like drugs and tv though/
 
I spend time outdoors. I both live and work in the mountains in BC and have spent countless hours hiking through the wilderness. I can't imagine life without this anymore. After living most of my adult life in the city, moving back to nature has been profound.

Otherwise, weed, binging bad tv or taking on a new hobby that I found on YouTube. Cooking with weed is a nice pass time but after you eat the get the munchies so plan accordingly.
 
Going to have to go with music. I like all types but my heart lies in electronic music. Lets face it, the repetitive nature of much of house or techno is in of itself medatative. There are times, usually late at night I go outside, headphones in, and sit and close my eyes and just sway a bit to a good beat. I dont even have to be high anymore. Its the closest Ive ever felt to an actual spiritual escape. I dont care who sees me, its just a little bit of joy that nobody can ever take from me.

Also the endless searching for new music is also an escape. When Im alone and bored or sad or feeling everything is working against me, I just start searching. Its like a trance and very often I look up and hours have gone by without me noticing.

Going to hear electronic music at a club also would be on my escapism list but thats kinda the point of partying anyway.
 
I used Backtrack before switching to Kali and Tails.

Right now though, I'm running Ubuntu with XFCE enviornment.

So, Xubuntu.
____

Music is also something that takes me away. A numbingly cheerful song called Candyland by Tobu is awesome when high.
 
Self-Education, good choice Nixiam, is one of those things I can drown out my misery with for days, weeks, even months on end at times. Pharmacology, specifically pharmacokinetics + pharmacodynamics of psychiatric medications, I find to be very interesting and it makes me realize how little so many psychiatrists, and other doctors as well, really know about what they are doing; scary shit. Anything psychology and sociology is fair game as well.

My nerdy side loves anime and magic the gathering, that stuff has kept me away from the parts of myself that want to kill me about as well as anything else has in a positive sense at least.

Caring for my dog, she's the light of my life and an excellent everyday distraction from overthinking about things I've already overthought too much about.
 
The biggest thing that takes me away from myself is playing music. When I am lost in that flow state, I am not in myself at all, it's more like I'm channeling the essence of the music, whatever that is. I step outside myself into something more fundamental and universal. It removes me almost completely for a time, so much so that after a really good session I have a strong music high, where I feel incredibly euphoric, amazing, perfect, excited, wide awake and engaged.

Experiencing love also does this, whether snuggling with my cat or my girlfriend, or having sex, or having a deep conversation with a close friend.

In an emergency, if I'm feeling bad and can't get there in one of the above ways, watching an episode of a funny show or something amazing about space or whatever can remove me a bit, enough to help the negativity pass. But the two above give me energy, they transform negative energy into positive and leave me better off. I can think of a variety of days I went to band practice feeling anxious or low, and allowing myself to submerge into the music flow transformed this energy and afterwards it was resolved.

Listening to music is also great, especially being present for live music. Playing it is like that but tremendously more powerful.
 
MUSIC, listening & working on my own, been one of the only things I truly care about since I was a child really
 
I'd vote for self education too. And music of course. I love music, another great nondrug option. Alternative, rap, rock sometimes, 90s stuff. And my music nerd choice, tv and movie soundtracks. Which I love.
 
Reading, holidays, mountains. Reading in the mountains on holiday.

Driving around Europe. I've covered most of Europe in the last two summers. That's a lot of driving.
 
As an ex-gamer it use to be MMORPGS that would completely envelope me. I have very specific and fond memories of been totally immersed in those worlds. God I was happy back then.. I spent more time in that universe then real life, but this was some odd 10 years ago when I had less responsibilities. I've never been able to recreate that depth of immersion again with anything else.

I don't have time for games these days, but music is the one consistent medium that allows me to disconnect immediately from the moment I put my headphones on.
 
For me, Progressive House.

Time simply stops. The stresses of daily life simply fade away. At this point, I am free.
 
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