Here’s a project asking people to list five things they do to stay sane. I’m going to arbitrage and ask only for one thing you do to stay sane. Please leave your answer in the comments.
I try to listen to beautiful music at least once a day, I don’t check my portfolio even in the best of times, I hug a loved one at least one more time than was expected (with adaptive expectations this is hard to sustain over time but I have my tricks), and also I avoid television advertisements as much as possible. That’s four, you need only offer one.
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Playing immersive video games and perhaps eating good quality dark chocolate.
I take care of patients at the psychiatric hospital.
I read G.K. Chesterton.
Poetry and IPA. A little bit of both, and everything seems a
bit more tolerable.
Pet a purring cat; go for a run; strength training.
Meditate.
Avoid listening to politicians speak at all cost, and if forced to hear them speak play a drinking game.
I turn my computer and TV off any time I am with my son.
Read Karma Yoga chapter from Vivekanand Volume 1 and read a page from Meditations by Markus Aurelius. These days look at the face my newly born.
take a walk. play the piano. read enduring works written before i was born. don’t set the alarm on weekends. interact with non-human animals.
go to the movies by myself.
I think about the fact that, even though I fear death, there was a whole eternity of non-me, BEFORE I got here, and I don’t have the least anxiety about it.
run a marathon once a year
Drugs. The fellow above that drinks is on the same system, as are those who ride bikes and run etc. I do hard physical labor (I have no choice actually) which makes my body secrete pleasure chemicals. I have no objective reason for the feeling of well being that results, and I know it, but I feel good anyway. Sex works too. On a smaller scale, the smiles of babies and big eyed women trigger the release of such chemicals too. Make a baby, or a babe, smile and you’ll be a tiny bit saner.
I tell myself and everyone else that DOW 6,000 is possible and a good thing because I hope to one day live off dividends. Also I held a lot of cash because I thought that stocks were expensive (I have still lost a lot) so I buy more stocks averaging down each down day. I have pumped myself for DOW 6,000. It was worse watching all my family and friends making a killing in real-estate while my dream house got more and more expensive.
Snuggling.
Guitar.
Daily Show.
Tasty food.
Breathing easily.
I like to balance the mental and manmade with the physical and natural. The primitive versus the modern. To do that, I like to be outdoors in a natural environment, doing something physical that engages the mind in more primitive competitive pursuits. I play football with my boys, ski (downhill and cross country), hike, wrestle my boys, play basketball, exercise, etc.
play tennis
Before I go to sleep, I read fiction. I also love to read out loud to my wife – currently Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid is our reading-out-loud favourite.
I volunteer to feed the hungry and/or homeless about once a month. I also talk to my “customers”—but only if they want to—about where they’ve been and what their hopes are.
I stopped watching and reading all news (especially cable news), stopped watching all commercials, and stopped reading strictly political blogs and switched all my news/current events consumption to econ related blogs/publications. It has done wonders for my sanity/frustration level.
you think I’m sane?!
I started playing the piano a couple of years ago. While other things such as cooking, exercising, working, and being with friends certainly contribute to my sanity, practicing piano is about the only thing that makes it impossible for me to worry about other things. I’ve been practicing a lot lately.
I create some peace and quiet to leisurely read the FT weekend.
Keep busy most of the time, but every couple of weeks unwind with a terrible cheap novel on a Saturday.
I sleep. Nothing fixes the days problems like taking a nap or going to bed early. though I know I’m lucky in that I can fall asleep in short order at pretty much any time of the day.
Play Bach, and jazz standards, at the piano. Compose a little, too.
Walk.
Every night with my kids, we say three thankfuls (things we’re thankful for), and say a prayer for someone who might need a little extra help. My 7-year old has recently been praying for “the people on Wall Street.”
I don’t know if we took it from Oprah Winfrey or Eastern philosophy, but it works.
Radio and TV ads are psychically taxing, and I avoid them. I don’t notice that I’m a worse shopper for it, but maybe I’m free riding on the consumer knowledge of others.
I always get my caffeine and chocolate fix. Since weather has cooled, I’ve been drinking a rich combination of hot milk (four parts) to melted Lindt’s dark chili chocolate (one part) morning and night.
No newspapers. And I resist the urge to read wingers that make me angry. “I do not want to wage war against what is ugly… Looking away shall be my only negation.”
Exercise, constant healthy snacking, and snuggling.
Smoke pot and watch a movie/TV show.
This is kind of obvious, but:
exercise.
I go home to my family every night.
Swim. Run. Blog. Read a novel. Cuddle a cat. Take medication when necessary!
The knowledge that as unhappy as I might be for any reason, there are many people in the world who would love to have my life.
Hearing running water gurgle (even in the shower or sink)
Exercise, watch little or no TV (especially political commentary), draw/paint, and try to learn something new every day.
1) running
2) sex or pornography
3) scotch or pilsner
4) at least once a month going somewhere I’ve never been before
5) at least once a year reread “Leisure, The Basis of Culture” by Josef Pieper
Put cheesy indie pop (Vampire Weekend or The Format) on the stereo, turn the volume up really loud, and dance with my daughter.
Throw a frisbee around. There is something really artistic about being able to control the flight exactly the way you want over 75 yards.
If I am indoors, watching soccer is fantastic. American Football and baseball arent horrible either, especially football with the sound turned down.
I go to a restaurant by myself and read.
Avoiding all TV/radio advertisements.
Playing video games I really love, on stormy evenings, with a great beer.
Remember to be grateful, every day. Compared to all lives past and present, mine and my children’s lives are extraordinary outliers in terms of health and comfort. This puts all other problems into perspective.
Go outside with my dog. Dogs are optimists and forever cheerful.
read MR every day.
Give thanks and praise to God
It seems us MR readers are either fitter than average, or wishful thinkers, but I like many others, exercise and do it outside unless it’s miserably cold or rainy.
Under all circumstances, reading.
To maintain over long periods, periodic vacations to real wilderness (e.g. Southwest deserts, Yucatan jungle).
I spend at least an hour, every day, in or within sight of deep woods, as far away from pavement as possible.
Golf on weekends – walking, of course! Basketball with much younger guys during weekday lunches. Not very good at either. At 57, though, the goal starts to get simple: wake up the next day.
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