I’ve started carrying “loop” brand plugs for daily wear and the in-ear construction-y ones and I’m a big fan. One of my favorite ways to think is just staring off at nature, no active thoughts, just background processes chugging away while I feel the world around

silence is not the absence of all noise.

I live on the side of a mountain and the silence here is amazing. I usually write or read because it's so jarring to break the silence with a game or show. Town is only twenty minutes away and the town is right on the shore so I can head to the beach whenever I want to come into town. There's a little estuary with a creek running out into the ocean that has little foot traffic and is fairly quiet for being in town at least. I've noticed since where I live is so quiet that the noise of traffic in town really effects me. Nearby the highway my ears will actually ring. I tend to try to avoid downtown proper and look for all the tucked away quiet spots.

I remember a map I saw one time that had all the quietest spots in the US ranked by their lack of air traffic and other noise. I always thought it would be cool to roadtrip to one of those places.

you've invented mindfulness or meditation or whatever you wanna call it, it's nice

Noise bad. Noise stressful. Can you tell me more about these custom earplugs that are good enough to protect you from long power tool use? I have to use foam earplugs for the range plus heavy earmuffs to get things quiet enough for me sometimes, really sensitive to noises

i love silence. i recently realized i hated auditory talking and preferred writing things down. it's so much nicer and quieter.

Sounds like meditation in a way, no? I just disassociate mostly, zone out and doomscroll or distract myself with video games or comic books. Manchild shit I suppose but it's how I cope.

i do this when i go hiking it's basically meditation but timed to motion/activity

I used to do something similar when I lived near the coast. I would drive out to the beach at night by myself and just sit on the sand in the dark and listen to the waves.

I like living in the city but miss nature shit so much. I gotta find the furthest bus route out of town and find a big spot of woods no one is using. Relaxing in nature is the most relaxing way to relax.

Also I just fucking LOVE exploring forests. Lived out in the sticks on a kilometer sized farm for a while and beyond the fields which kinda went up a hill was a lightly wooded peak that became denser on the other side and I built little bases by fixing up deer blinds people had left in trees or just by hauling wood up and building a shed or two to keep tools in, the deer blinds were for snack and booze storage. Had a few pop tents I got for cheap that I stashed in different sheds so I could just spend days living in the woods with what id already set up and a cooler that I'd attached to a wagon with bike wheels on it that the huskies could haul like a sled. Id sit in it and they'd run me up the hill to the woods. Fucking sucks the human situation was a nightmare cause having miles of woods to explore fucking ruled.

I purposefully live in a place that is largely isolated from everyone else. I've done the city thing, and i work with nonstop smells, noise, and activity. It rattles my head, and by the time my run ends, i'm basically ready to quit society. I'm much more comfortable with sitting on the moss by a babbling brook, just hearing the goings on around me. I guess that's why any time off that i have, i go hiking with my wife. Just the two of us, wandering down paths ancient and isolated, occasionally saying hi to a passing fellow traveler.

I felt this way today, didn't get the chance to sit in s quite space until everyone was sleeping. It's just nice to experience the stillness. I love the night. I think if I could, I'd stay up till 3am just to sit in that stillness for longer. It's like by brain craves it.

I can hardly do that while in the city if my smartphone is anywhere within reaching distance. I often throw it somewhere away from me and keep it out of sight just so I can be able to dissociate for a bit. It's so much easier to do when I'm on vacation away from everything, but I guess in the city the everyday stress is so much that my body asks for the phone to be able to cope.

I used to just sit in an empty public park after midnight and just stare into space every night. Its just too noisy all day even at home so it was nice but a few times I fell asleep on the park bench while sitting still and got late for work. One time I got lucky because someone checked up on me to see if I was okay.