We all, to one extent or another, alter our mental state. If we go for a run, it will change our mental state, if we take a tylenol, drink green tea, shoot up heroin etc. All of it changes our state of being. Whether these things are for the better or worse is largely subjective. Only we can answer that for ourselves. I'm curious though...
What do you do, take or subscribe to in order to change your mental state for the better?
I drink coffee, lift weights and play music. I used to do a lot of LSD, but it's much harder to find now. I still believe it's good to have a strong psychedelic experience now and then to wipe the slate clean, but it's tough to find the time and space now that I've graduated from college and have a job.
Music
Culturally specific foods.
Cannabis
Psychedelics (mushrooms, LSD)
MDMA
Sexual activity
Cuddling
Personal Retreats/solitude.
Music is the most important listed above. I use music to keep me in a specific and personal space. Noise isolated headphones let me maintain a constant pulse regardless of the environment at large. It's key to my mental well-being.
Comfort foods specific to inherited Caribbean culture reminds me of the years spent under the protection of parents and family.
Sexual activity, whether it's a good fap or intercourse, is probably a biological response. But, I really really like sex.
Cuddling goes back to parental love and nurturing. Plus the benefit of holding another warm body close, especially if you love them.
Every few months, I get away from society and occupy rural areas for a weekend. It's easier to remain isolated from the constant activity of urban life.
The drugs are self explanatory.
I feel different to everyone else here, I don't listen to music or do any activity at all, I love silence, I can stay in a "disconnected from the real world" state for hours without doing anything at all.
If I feel depressed my solution is different, I write, I love writing when I'm depressed and it always makes me feel better.
Yeah... but do you really love silence? Because true silence can be very disconcerting.
edit: That podcast is when I officially realized that flagamuffin is awesome. I love that section.
Okay so I gotta comment on this.
First off it was a great podcast, and I had a lot of fun listening to everyone's ideas. I took notes during it concerning my thoughts and feelings because I value quiet and silence a lot.
Okay so I hope its okay to go through these notes here while they are still fresh!
Ear plugs. I wear ear plugs. Not just to bed, walking around my house I wear ear plugs. My wife (who currently is in China) likes to have background noise, she likes the television on, having a podcast going or music.
I also enjoy those things, but only for an allocated period of time and only when I can pay attention to them.
I wear earplugs because I feel so overwhelmed by the sounds around me all the time that I often become very emotionally distressed and irritable at constant noise. Even with my wife away, I wear them around because I find the sound of the motor on our refrigerator grating, and now that winter has started, our forced air furnace is a monster waiting to push against my ear drum.
kleinbl00 put a nice little thought in there about how people like to use sound to feel safe and secure. Evolutionarily he might be very correct. But if we couldn't hear, would we be more afraid? Birds in particular for his example are nice because they use hearing as a primary sense.
But is that the reason that so many people are uncomfortable with silence?
I think it's only part of the story. I think people are uncomfortable with being by themselves and this to some extent leads them to want noise as a distraction from having to confront that.
Which brings me to the next point. Quiet in groups.
People should be quiet in groups more often. They should try to stare into someone else's eyes while not saying any words. They should try to communicate without using grand gestures. When you practice doing this it becomes quite interesting, you start to realize that emotions are very easy to communicate, but objects and verbs are very difficult. Being quiet in a group, and practicing it actively helps (at least me) be more empathetic.
When mk was talking about the vast middle of America and how quiet it could be all I could think about was my time in Alaska. There are places there and times where of course there would be sound, but it was ambient and slow and always in the background. It was wonderful some nights to go outside the village and look at the northern lights and reflect upon the moments that lead one to look at those lights. Now that I am back in a larger civilization, it's very jarring sometimes to even go to dinner and have a bunch of television sets and music at volumes exceeding those that we'd be able to have a conversation at. I would rather not go out if it means that I am going to be subjected to so much non-interactive stimuli.
Anyway, I have typed this entirely in a room with no lights on and put my ear plugs back in but I wanted to just throw in a bit of a different perspective of someone who actively seeks out silence and quiet. I hope it adds something to someone somewhere :D.
Try this
Results may vary/I am not a doctor/see username
Yes really, I have everything in silence (computer, phone) and I love this moment of the night when I can't hear a single sound.
Edit: I'm not as weird as you think, I like to listen to music sometimes but I don't do it very often (maybe less than 5 times per month).
per your edit: I don't think it's weird at all to appreciate and crave quiet. Quiet means there is a lack of noise, but silence means there IS NO noise. We all crave quiet from time to time. Some more than others, but there is definitely nothing "weird" about that. Check out the video, it's one I'm proud of. I think it turned out well and you in particular are the ideal audience for it.
I wish I could understand spoken English better, I still can't watch videos in English and understand them.
Ah, but you can hear things still. As kleinbl00 mentions in that podcast, your body puts off about 15 DB's of sound, just due to breathing/heart pumping etc. We are never in true silence. If we were, it wouldn't be comforting, it would be startling. I have never experienced an anechoic chamber, but I would like to just so I can appreciate sound more for it's orienting nature.
I would like experience an anechoic chamber too, I know I'm never in complete silence but I like that almost silence that I can experience at night.
Most people don't do very well,mentally, for long in there. Once you can hear the blood pumping through your veins I guess shit gets weird.
I know they don't, I would like to discover how much time I can be there without going crazy.
I "Music" as well. lil tells a great story about a student of hers that she saw beating his own car, with his fists, in anger in the parking lot. She asked him, "what is wrong?" He said that he hadn't been the same since he stopped playing hockey and he asked her for her advice. She said, "well… I think you should play hockey."
Music is my hockey. -if any of you ever see me write "lil -I played hockey tonight." Under a song I post on Hubski, you'll know why now.
In case anyone wanders by, here's the original post:
http://lilblume.blogspot.ca/2011/10/is-hockey-necessary.html
Exercise. Especially challenging hikes in wilderness areas. This is easy because we live in a forest. It's like a meditation.
Face to face interaction with people. Because we choose to live in solitude the impact of interacting with others when the opportunity arises is striking.
Time with my dogs. When I question my sanity or wonder about the future of humanity, I play with my dogs.
I've had to give alcohol and most all of caffeine a miss for many years. They're no longer compatible with my health. I sort of miss them sometimes. I do partake of some decaf green tea for the theanine, which has a noticeable effect on mood and improves my quality of sleep. Proper sleep has a huge impact on mood and outlook.
Music/literature that moves me.
Endurance Biking
Mountain Biking
Hiking/being nature
Green tea
Nasal snuff (probably a bad habit, but it does help get thing done)
Pipe Tobacco (again, not my best habit, but once every two weeks won't have much of an effect)
Occasionally stronger drugs
Reading
Writing
Jung's Active Imagination
Sensory deprivation (use to do this more)
Sleep deprivation
Listening to music
Making music
Failure
I've always enjoyed pushing the limits of what my body and mind can do. Coming out on the other side is what really counts. Short and long term, some of these aren't the healthiest decisions, but I've found that their consequences so far have been worth their risk. I'm careful. Exploration of the mind and alterted states is the best way I know to learn about ourselves, our principles and our values. Stress and failure are huge in developing who I am, and have lead me to my most lucid moments.
What do you mean, "king of your castle"? - I ask because I often use the phrase "my fortress of solitude" to describe my living situation and how I generally like to keep it private; I prefer usually to go to a public place or hang at a friend's rather than have people over, though I do like to throw an occasional party. But my theory on preferring to go to people rather than having them come to me is then I can leave whenever I want to, as opposed to politely hinting (or bluntly announcing) to friends that I should like them to leave now.
Meditation and exercise are my preferred methods to achieve a better mental state of being.
I took a lot of hallucinogens and drugs from 17 to 20. I was one of the unlucky ones and I have been having an altered state of being since then. Hallucinogen Persistent Perception Disorder. This event made me think about what I was doing with my life and now I'm in a lifelong journey of abstinence.
I'm 21 so I can't speak from a detached perspective, I'm still having persistent visuals and I'm only 1 month and a half sober. In any case, all of this was a very humbling experience. From overachiever to underachiever. Depression, brain fog, depersonalization, anxiety.. These symptoms did disappear, the visual distortions are still here.
It has served me well as a experience in life and a way to understand mental illness in first hand. Maybe it was good after all. Time will tell.
It seems like music is a pretty popular choice, which doesn't surprise me. I especially like to use the Hospital Records podcast for stress relief.
I've been drinking tea lately after getting out of the habit for a little while. There's kind of a ritual to making it that I find really relaxing.
I'm also lucky enough to live near some good spots for walking and hiking. It's nice getting out there with a little digital point-and-shoot camera. Photography is another thing I've been getting back into.
theadvancedapes has shared some experiences in this vein before... perhaps a little callout will encourage him to do so again.
Good night's sleep, no terrible food, and no overeating. Going to bed at 10:00 instead of 11:00 has really helped.
Then exercise and coffee. I've been cutting down on coffee, mostly for the better. I just like coffee.