what do you guys do when....

I'm thinking he'd make more (At least around here) with a YouTube of him doing the Charleston.

I'm thinking it might not be easy to tell the difference.

PJ, where did you read about that coffee thing? Pretty interesting actually.
As an engineering student in a finnish university, life without coffee is not an option

And I've been dragged to dancing lessons by my wife too
Not salsa, but anyway.

Things that work for me:

*work less (somtimes I just take shorter days - i dont need all the money)
*sleep more
*minimize responsibilities / dont plan ahead or promise anything to anyone
*healthy amount of free time every day
*sunshine (not much of that here though but it really helps)
*laziness (dont do anything today that you can do tomorrow)

I drink coffee too but quit sugar just milk now. Really wakes you up on the morning. I used to smoke too but I quit and now just a thought of it makes me sick.

Zakhary said:

PJ, where did you read about that coffee thing? Pretty interesting actually.

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It's been all over the news lately; IIRC I read about it first on BBC. Wikipedia has a pretty good run-down of it, though: [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_and_health ].

There are so many studies on coffee and caffeine... some positive, some negative (see below). It really boils down to "too much of anything can be bad for you".

I have not had any caffeine (maybe VERY small trace amounts) in over 20 years and I am always very alert when I'm awake, so it really just depends on the person as well... and what you determine works best for you.

Quoted from Wikipedia with source at bottom:

Researchers have found that long-term consumption of low dose caffeine (0.3 g/L) slowed hippocampus-dependent learning and impaired long-term memory. Caffeine consumption for 4 weeks also significantly reduced hippocampal neurogenesis compared to controls during the experiment. The conclusion was that long-term consumption of caffeine could inhibit hippocampus-dependent learning and memory partially through inhibition of hippocampal neurogenesis.

SOURCE: ^ Han, ME; Park, KH & Baek, SY et al. (2007-03-26), "Inhibitory effects of caffeine on hippocampal neurogenesis and function.", Biochem Biophys Res Commun. (Korea: Epub) 18 (4): 976-80, ISSN 0343-6993

Thanx for all awesome suggestions. I think I will take you guys words for it and do more exercise and work less. My bf started to get pissed off because I don't spend enough time with him. I'm getting sick (physically) as well.

I might go back to dancing. I used to learn to dance with my bf on every friday night which was fun but I've been putting that off as well.

akarthis said:

Try to make that little free time you have as memorable you can.

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That is exactly my thought - we're still in transition, and the amount of crap between a house full of boxes, kids just starting school, wife learning the area, and my job hitting full stride, compounded with a needed trip back to the home area (details here) ... it just tires me right out.

But - my wife loves the area, we have a gorgeous new house almost twice the size of the old one, my kids are loving school (my younger son has three girls who want him to 'ask them out' - this is fourth grade style), and I absolutely love my job and the people I am interacting with. So I have *loads* to look forward to through all of the exhaustion.

On a serious side: This thread has become very practical for me, since I'm feeling "bluessy" (blue) or melancholic these days. I think it began yesterday.

Well, now I have been all of the day at a point where I just couldn't do anything ... "The thrill is gone" ...

Well, but tomorrow I'll visit a tiny P&P role playing convention in my town, hope it will be some kind of fun.

We all get stressed, down, and used up at times. The bad part about such conditions is it often drains us of our desire to do the very things that will make us feel better. Not to mention draining us of the mental energy to make a decision about doing something. It seems if we let that rut get just that one inch too deep it takes twice the energy to climb out. But once out you see it was only an inch high.

Cm said:

We all get stressed, down, and used up at times. The bad part about such conditions is it often drains us of our desire to do the very things that will make us feel better. Not to mention draining us of the mental energy to make a decision about doing something. It seems if we let that rut get just that one inch too deep it takes twice the energy to climb out. But once out you see it was only an inch high.

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What coordinates let me jump on the y - this was not the...press 1 of 4....i press 2 of 4

Cm said:

We all get stressed, down, and used up at times. The bad part about such conditions is it often drains us of our desire to do the very things that will make us feel better. Not to mention draining us of the mental energy to make a decision about doing something. It seems if we let that rut get just that one inch too deep it takes twice the energy to climb out. But once out you see it was only an inch high.

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That's words of wisdom right there if I ever saw them. With me, if I overwork, the first thing that happens is that I drop everything that matters other than (a) work and (b) some mindless brain-numbing entertainment.

This works. For a while. If I finish whatever it is I was overworking on, I unwind, do some fun stuff, and get back to normal.

But if I *don't* unwind, my productivity starts to go down, which means I focus more on work and even less on de-stressing, which tires me out even more, which makes me focus even more. Eventually I (a) finish, or (b) the men in white coats show up and put me in a shirt with really long sleeves. (OK, thus far only figuratively speaking.)

The real problem is that the first warning sign of this vicious cycle is that I stop looking out for warning signs of the vicious cycle, and aggressively reject anything that might break the cycle. 'Cuz, y'know, what I'm working on is... important and stuff.

It's a bit like getting drunk, actually -- just at the point where you should be asking yourself whether you really need another beer, you stop asking yourself stupid questions like that. (I've learned to avoid that one pretty well, though.)

If I didn't have my wife around to slap some sense into me, I'd probably have burned myself out by now.

Edit: for some reason, this seemed strangely appropriate:

purpleblob said:

what do you guys do when you are just dead tired, whatever you do it's not fun?? I'm still not used to amount of working being given to me, I'm always tired both metally and physically, whatever I do it just isn't fun at all! All I do is waking up at 6am, get to uni by 8.15am then slave away till 5pm, get home at 7pm, eat dinner, shower then bed to wake up at 6am again the next day.
I know I have to get used to this since that's all adults do for rest of their life but I don't have motivation to do anything. Any advice to spice up life a bit more in this situation? Or do I have to wait until my body slowly adjust itself to this hectic schedule?

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More exercise. Improving your physical stamina prevents you from getting tired easily. With a good stamina you will discover that you always have energy and can thus do more tasks per day and still feel good. It will also improve your sleep so you feel more relaxed and more rejuvenated with less rest.

Also eat healthy food. Avoid fatty food and too many calories, such food gets you a quick boost but make you tired afterwards. Also do not eat more than you need.

You will discover that you do not only feel better physically but since you will be more energized and less tired you will also stay sharp throughout the day.

Exhaustion is also related to depression, so is a chemical imbalance such as abusing drugs like caffeine, alcohol and sugar. Avoiding exhaustion naturally improves your enthusiasm and motivation and your life will become more "fun".

The problem of "burning out" is more dangerous for highly sensitive people (HSPs). They need much more time to recover, and "burn out" more easily.

People who simply don't know that they are highly sensitive, or who are even "high sensation seekers" (HSS) might not know that they need more time for themselves.

So they are in danger of not behaving properly to their constitution ... They might stress themselves too much without knowing it.

The most radical approach an HSP I know has is to stare at a blank (white) wall. The result is that she receives an absolute minimum of "sensory input" with this, which lets her "relax" and recover much better - even better than sleeping, because lively dreams can also mean stress for the brain.

I think, personally, that in this society, wherein "lazyness" is considered omething bad, we need a new culture of recovering ourselves, a new culture of looking after our health.

This could - for example - mean not to go out to concerts or other (stressing) events, but instead to stay home, or go out for a walk in a park, and sometimes just sitting there, staring at the meadow, into the sky, or read a good, nice book.

Or - in a capsule - to just do nothing.