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PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   3040 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 14, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What kind of activity or day truly relaxes you?

For me it's sitting down with a good old entertaining fantasy novel. Taking lots of hot baths helps too.

Not even seeing, let alone interacting with, a single other human.

At the risk of playing up to “touch grass” memes, I’m only ever truly relaxed when I get earthed. This can happen in several ways, but a few: disconnecting from tech, hiking/walking/wandering, cooking/eating/drinking beer outdoors, breathing fresh air, reading a paper book, digging a hole and planting a tree, trimming hedges, cutting grass, chopping/hauling/burning wood. Basically any day when my information diet is mostly non-human and mostly full of soil nutrients relaxes and invigorates me for all the necessary days of working with people.

Hiking in the woods. Drinking beer outside.

My type of day!

Knitting with an audiobook or podcast on.

Going for a run of at least 5km, strength training in the gym.

Cycling easy (running easy never really relaxes me), walking in a forest, reading a good fantasy novel.

Type II fun. Burning through 30 hard bouldering problems, rolling hard in BJJ against a slightly better opponent, going for a brisk walk for 26.2 miles, rowing a hard 5k.

It's after times like that I am truly relaxed.

Do all that the same day?

In addition to what you said I find monotonous physical activities relaxing, like hand-mowing the lawn or chopping wood. The activity itself makes me mentally unwind and the physical excertion makes be relax physically afterwards.

Also Sauna.

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