relaxation
Apr. 11th, 2012 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird1Just realised something I've never really understood before...
A colleague walked past before, and asked "Do you ever just relax? Every time I see you, you're doing something!"
By which they mean that
- I'll walk over to get a cup of tea, and take a book with me.
- I'll sit down to watch television, and do some cross-stitch.
- I'll take the train to work, and crochet all the way there.
...and it suddenly hit me. For other people, not doing anything is relaxing. This blows my mind.
I spent years working at a bookshop, being utterly baffled by the other workers. I would go on break, pick up a book, and spend fifteen minutes sitting there reading; they would go on break, sit down, and spend fifteen minutes staring at the wall. They weren't doing ANYTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. And I couldn't get my head around how this would work and how they weren't slowly going insane for the whole break time.
For me, what I'm doing is relaxing. It occupies my hands, and allows my brain to drift off in happy directions. Whereas, if I'm literally doing nothing, I'm horribly tense and wanting to jump around and bite my nails and crinkle bits of paper and do something, ANYTHING, to get rid of all the excess energy wanting to jump out of me.
...Which leads to the slightly ludicrous situation where someone can ask me "Don't you ever just do nothing?" and I'll look up, baffled, and say "Huh? I'm just watching tv, knitting a jumper, and plotting world domination using mutant sheep. I am doing nothing."
A colleague walked past before, and asked "Do you ever just relax? Every time I see you, you're doing something!"
By which they mean that
- I'll walk over to get a cup of tea, and take a book with me.
- I'll sit down to watch television, and do some cross-stitch.
- I'll take the train to work, and crochet all the way there.
...and it suddenly hit me. For other people, not doing anything is relaxing. This blows my mind.
I spent years working at a bookshop, being utterly baffled by the other workers. I would go on break, pick up a book, and spend fifteen minutes sitting there reading; they would go on break, sit down, and spend fifteen minutes staring at the wall. They weren't doing ANYTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. And I couldn't get my head around how this would work and how they weren't slowly going insane for the whole break time.
For me, what I'm doing is relaxing. It occupies my hands, and allows my brain to drift off in happy directions. Whereas, if I'm literally doing nothing, I'm horribly tense and wanting to jump around and bite my nails and crinkle bits of paper and do something, ANYTHING, to get rid of all the excess energy wanting to jump out of me.
...Which leads to the slightly ludicrous situation where someone can ask me "Don't you ever just do nothing?" and I'll look up, baffled, and say "Huh? I'm just watching tv, knitting a jumper, and plotting world domination using mutant sheep. I am doing nothing."
no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 12:05 am (UTC)And if I'm ever so tired that I actually do nothing (as has happened the past two weekends thanks to job-related woes), I do start to go insane.
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Date: 2012-04-11 12:37 am (UTC)Gabrielle
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Date: 2012-04-11 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 01:43 am (UTC)I'd like to keep busy; it'd make sense to knit at the same time as thinking. Once I started using Dragon to dictate stuff into my computer, I considered picking up knitting. Then I remembered that I was using Dragon to give my RSI-beleagured hands a rest and knitting might be counterproductive....
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Date: 2012-04-11 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 12:01 pm (UTC)Even if I am plotting stories I will be playing Chuzzle, or driving the car, or whatever.
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Date: 2012-04-11 02:21 pm (UTC)