The Pit, the Cabin, and the Dance Floor (2020)(jamie-wong.com)
jamie-wong.com
The Pit, the Cabin, and the Dance Floor (2020)
http://jamie-wong.com/post/the-pit/
7 comments
I think many of us relate to this. I know I do. I recently read the psychological condition of “hypomania” (simply put, a more rational and less harmful version of a manic episode) and got me thinking - am I intentionally trying to induce a hypomanic state; the proverbial “dance floor”?
If you do experience reoccurring hypomanic states, coupled with reoccurring depression the author describes as “the pit”, then you might be clinically type 2 bipolar!
This describes my life perfectly. I’ve been operating under the assumption this is a common part of the human experience that I just struggle with?
Yeah I think it's pretty common, certainly feels familiar to me.
Here's some tricks that I find help me get out of the pit:
1)you can lower activation energy of some tasks by telling yourself that you're just going to do x minutes of it now, where x is an amount of time that feels ok to suffer through. Depending on where you're at, x might be like 2 minutes, or 5 or 10 or whatever. Then you set a timer and try to do at least the amount you told yourself you would. Often I find I'm at a point of energy where I can cope with finishing the task, or doing a chunk of time more - at the very least the task will be a bit smaller than it was, reducing the activation energy a little.
2)Music can really help uplift me. I have my best speakers set up in my kitchen, such that the sweet spot for the stereo effect is right in front of my kitchen sink. My kitchen lacks a dishwasher, and I'm not fond of washing up, so the washing up is one task that I often want to put off for future me. The music makes it much more inviting and cozy, lowering the activation point each day and contributing to the coping with finishing effect in tip 1.
3) I can also use music to help me get out of my bedroom, and even help me start each day off to a good, happy, start. This requires having speakers that you can activate from a distance, or set on a timer/alarm function. I set some music to play in another room, such that I can kinda hear it from my bedroom, but I'm only really getting the bass and louder notes, and I naturally want to move nearer to the source of the sound to hear my favourite songs properly. I don't treat the alarm function on my speaker like a traditional alarm clock to be turned off as soon as I'm awake - I treat it as way of automatically having interesting and uplifting sonic stimulation that helps me be more awake than I would be. I leave it on while I'm getting my breakfast etc until I either need some quiet to focus on work, or I head out my home.
4)Know your low energy points of the day if you have them, and target those times. After identifying that at 11:30am I'm often unproductive and feeling a slump, I set up a couple of alarms on my phone, spread out by a minute or two that just gives me a quote that resonates with me. The quote I use, comes from an animated comedy on Netflix that I really like. First message is: "Every day it gets a little easier", second message is "But you gotta do it every day". I could do a third message with the rest of the quote, but that feels overkill and actually I enjoy finishing off the quote in my head.
1)you can lower activation energy of some tasks by telling yourself that you're just going to do x minutes of it now, where x is an amount of time that feels ok to suffer through. Depending on where you're at, x might be like 2 minutes, or 5 or 10 or whatever. Then you set a timer and try to do at least the amount you told yourself you would. Often I find I'm at a point of energy where I can cope with finishing the task, or doing a chunk of time more - at the very least the task will be a bit smaller than it was, reducing the activation energy a little.
2)Music can really help uplift me. I have my best speakers set up in my kitchen, such that the sweet spot for the stereo effect is right in front of my kitchen sink. My kitchen lacks a dishwasher, and I'm not fond of washing up, so the washing up is one task that I often want to put off for future me. The music makes it much more inviting and cozy, lowering the activation point each day and contributing to the coping with finishing effect in tip 1.
3) I can also use music to help me get out of my bedroom, and even help me start each day off to a good, happy, start. This requires having speakers that you can activate from a distance, or set on a timer/alarm function. I set some music to play in another room, such that I can kinda hear it from my bedroom, but I'm only really getting the bass and louder notes, and I naturally want to move nearer to the source of the sound to hear my favourite songs properly. I don't treat the alarm function on my speaker like a traditional alarm clock to be turned off as soon as I'm awake - I treat it as way of automatically having interesting and uplifting sonic stimulation that helps me be more awake than I would be. I leave it on while I'm getting my breakfast etc until I either need some quiet to focus on work, or I head out my home.
4)Know your low energy points of the day if you have them, and target those times. After identifying that at 11:30am I'm often unproductive and feeling a slump, I set up a couple of alarms on my phone, spread out by a minute or two that just gives me a quote that resonates with me. The quote I use, comes from an animated comedy on Netflix that I really like. First message is: "Every day it gets a little easier", second message is "But you gotta do it every day". I could do a third message with the rest of the quote, but that feels overkill and actually I enjoy finishing off the quote in my head.
Good read! And relatable, in a sense. Now I wish the author had an easily discoverable RSS icon for his feed.
Hi! Author here. Agree it could be more discoverable. The feed is here: https://jamie-wong.com/atom.xml
I found it in the source code. And now subscribed. Thanks!