Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 131
- 3
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Which singular social or nature-oriented experiences filled you with the greatest enthusiasm and rejuvenation? I have noticed many people in my life pick “music festival”.
Fishing. I haven't been in years, I desperately yearn for it.
More options
Context Copy link
Social: HEMA events. The rejuvenation lasts until all the novel diseases handed out there catch up with me.
Nature: Being outside on a baking hot summer day when everyone else is hiding indoors, and having the whole world and that giant blue sky to myself.
Novel diseases like contact steel poisoning?
Well, no, more like all the viral infections you can get by spending a day or three training, sparring, grappling and dining together with people from all over the continent.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Go to a park or trail that is a very easy walk and has few people. Turn your phone off. Don't bring anything you have to carry, like a bag or water bottle. Try to notice as much as you can about your surroundings. What color are the leaves? Is the terrain sloping? What's swimming under the surface of that pond? What sounds can you hear? How does the air smell?
I personally prefer walking along ridges or along the edge of some body of water. There are also some small valleys near where I live that feel pleasantly insulated.
When you get to quite, isolated spot, take a short rest and soak it all in. I like to say a few prayers of gratitude at this point.
More options
Context Copy link
Mash both together.
Multi-day arduous hike with friends who you would call closest or just one circle outside of that. I would recommend all the same sex, but I don't think that's a hard and fast rule for everyone. Get fucking broken together (not literally, safety first, I just mean hours of hard hiking). Experience what hours of shared silence is like. Notice how your emotions start influencing one another. You know you're doing well when you start knowing when each other need to eat or shit.
Mentally multiply this by 1000. That's Men in Combat.
More options
Context Copy link
A marathon weekend of love making with an interesting and athletic partner (or partners). Ideally in a small place in a city neither of us live in. The kind of 48 hours where you fuck a dozen times, talk about life and love and politics and books you read, where you spend all day drinking wine or smoking weed, and wander out for food or coffee when we need a break. The kind of weekend where your eyes are closed as often as they're open between sleeping and kissing. I normally walk out of that kind of weekend feeling like nothing can touch me, the normal slings and arrows of quotidian life are met with a shrug and a satisfied smirk. What do I care what this mook thinks of me, he has no idea what I was getting up to.
More options
Context Copy link
Watering my grass seed every day and seeing it germinate. Newly sprouted grass is a particular shade of green (joyful green?) that lifts my spirits.
More options
Context Copy link
I find music festivals to be quite draining. I don’t enjoy the fact that my ears are left feeling numb by the end of the session.
My go to choice would definitely larger events like a ball. Historically those are the times where I can clearly recall enthusiasm, and a sort of mental reset.
The beach is more of as a stress reliever than a rejuvenator.
If your ears feeling numb you should start using ear protection. It will get only worse and eventually it will start quickly hurting. Ask me how I know..
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Music fest is a good choice.
Sand and salt water.
Morning sun on fresh powder.
More options
Context Copy link
A hike that was on the edge of my abilities, needed meticulous planning, and was executed to perfection. (for me : Kathadin Knife's edge, Trans Catalina)
Seamlessly executed potlucks where all your different friends groups come together and mingle. I have almost cried in some of these moments from the feeling of belonging.
More options
Context Copy link
On a warm, sunny day, sitting in the shade by the river at a beer garden in a local park. With friends, enjoying the ready and relaxed conversation and people/dog watching. Or alone, listening to the burble of both water and conversation, reading something light and watching the river roll by. Two liters of fine German helles is good for a few hours of Gemütlichkeit.
More options
Context Copy link
Breaking through enough of a person's emotional knots to break them out of a social local optima.
Getting someone to make up with someone that they falsely thought hated them...
Getting someone to confess their love to someone they thought would reject them but is totally crushing on them...
That sort of thing.
More options
Context Copy link
Nature: long full day hikes ideally with an exposed scramble at the end. I dont mean to get all mystical blah blah "just you and the rock". But it's focusing. You can't think about anything else when your life depends on your not screwing it up, even if it's easy. There's no room for anything else. Type 1 fun and type 2 fun.
More options
Context Copy link
The Total solar eclipse in 2017 was absolutely worth it to me and I have plans for the 2024 one. If you're actually under the center of it you get a sunset effect in every direction, the birds go crazy, and the temperature suddenly drops. The whole thing feels like a rare moment of awe at the natural world that ends quickly enough that you never get a sort of hedonic treadmill effect where you get used to it and it loses its magic. It's not something I'd fly across the country for, but if you're an hour or two from the path of the 2024 total eclipse I highly recommend it.
Yeah not to mention the beauty of the inverted sun, which to me had a kind of deep archetypal quality that I feel like is pretty rare for natural phenomena. Highly recommend.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Other than church, I enjoy solitary walks in nature. I've recently moved to England, so I've started exploring the historical churches, bookshops and museums. There are few things I've enjoyed more than these ambles. But I'm now realizing how nice they would be to share with someone. I've wanted to date before but not quite like this. I'd venture a guess that most holidays are made more pleasurable by having partner beside you. There's a season for perfect solitude, but having a spouse would preserve the pleasures of solitude while adding the joys of friendship. I've decided it's a good thing to want.
More options
Context Copy link
Sitting around in the park with my friends in the summer. My city doesn't get a lot of sun, so when it is nice the whole city comes out and it's easy to find people I know there. I can spend a whole day doing nothing but socialising and it doesn't even feel slightly wasted.
More options
Context Copy link
A vacation in Thailand. Was significantly less depressed and stressed out by the time I was done, though sadly it never lasts.
More options
Context Copy link
That sounds lovely.
More options
Context Copy link
Social: I went to a "Cato University Seminar" in highschool. I didn't really have many libertarians around me at the time. It was like first discovering I had people out there that were like me. The discussions were amazing. There was drinking, but I was fine to control myself. And there was hanging out in the hot tub.
Nature-oriented: Maybe one of my beach trips with family? or the recent mountain biking trip? Maybe a ski trip. Idk I feel like a good nature rejuvenation happens more often, but they aren't as intense.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link