Modern Rosery

[liralen]

I think that, honestly, when I have to just process on a problem, not think, not analyse, not find specific words, but just process, I just let the back-brain grind away without concious words or streams to back it up. The only way I can occupy the conscious mind enough, distract it enough to let that back stuff burble is by doing something that occupies it without engaging it deeply.

Letting the emotional, endocrinal, decision making, doing not thinking part of me work without "you shoulds" and other such phrases getting in the way is hard. I can do it while doing tai chi. I often think that old roseries used to be for precisely that purposes. I think my modern equivalent is the solitaire game on the machine. I can play Spider set to Easy or Medium for quite a while as I process and keep out my stupid second guesses quite nicely. And, usually, when I'm done, I pop into an appropriate application and do what has to be done now that it's all structured so nicely in the back of my head. Sometimes it's just to get enough courage to just do and not try.

Comments

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

Spider is my drug of choice; when things were awful I could hypnotise myself with it for hours and for a while repeat games per session per day was my barometer ;-)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It is something of a barometer for how bad things are getting for me, too...

[bwb-archive.livejournal.com]

This is the exact reason why I play videos games so much. I disengage completely, even if the game is challenging, and my back brain processes and sheds weight.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

They used to work that way for me, too; but with Jet watching it takes on a different dimension than it used to when I'd do things like Parasite Eve or Bushido Blade. Crash and Jaxx have entirely different personalities and there's something more hopeful there that has echo'ed nicely sometimes on the decisions that I take.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

puzzlepirates does that sometimes for me... exercise might too, except I distract myself with old Star Trek episodes.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin* I have tried puzzle pirates, and I like what I've tried, but the whole having to do it with other people on their schedules has made it really hard for me, as my computer time I like to have all to myself. I'll admit that I probably wouldn't play Halo except in personal mode for the same reason, too.

[diony.livejournal.com]

I do this with so many things, sometimes computer games -- but they have to be pretty simple or repetitive. Browsing recommendations at Amazon is actually pretty good for it, or any other interactive list-making technique...

[diony.livejournal.com]

And have you read _Animals in Translation_ by Temple Grandin?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I have not, and now I am entirely intrigued.

[diony.livejournal.com]

It was a bit of a leap from your entry; I was thinking of my own list-making behavior and that reminded me of something from the Grandin book. Apparently what we think of as the 'pleasure circuits' of the brain do not, contrary to popular opinion, produce feelings akin to orgasm -- when stimulated they give one of a feeling best described as 'pleasurable anticipation' -- the sense that something really good is just about to happen. And that's how I feel when I think about making lists & organising them!

I really recommend the book; it was wonderful, although it had some sad animal bits in it too.