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 ;-)

[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.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

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

[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?