curious, treating symptoms by doing less goal-directed activity?

[maryiscontrary]

I would like to ask you good folks a question. do you think one's symptoms could be attenuated by adopting habit of unstructured, zero goal directed activity for certain periods of time?

I ask this because for me, constantly having goal-directed activity I believe it's very toxic and causes fatigue to the executive centers of the frontal lobe. It's like over using a muscle. You can't work out like a madman in the gym every single day and expect to maintain Optimal Health. You have to have rest days where you're not working those muscles.
I'm finding that my super anal retentiveness, forcing myself up at 5:30 every morning to rush and get client taken care of for my under earning business might be shooting myself in the foot. I obsess, worry, and don't get the rest that I need because I'm pushing myself so hard. Then I get exhausted, resentful, and I can't work at all because my executive functioning has gone to s***. This is no laughing matter.
I had an idea earlier this month. Since I work at home, it only takes me about 15 minutes to get ready to go to work in my living room. I have experimented literally for the first time in my 47 years with sleeping in until 7:30 a.m. .
Mind you, I'm so workaholic that I would get up at 5:30 or 6 a.m. 7 days a week in order to not feel like a lazy bum, even though my concentration was so bad, often times I could not get anything constructive done.
I am seeing small improvements with this. However, I find that working four hours solid can be still too much. I really burnt myself out. So this is an experiment that I'm trying in order to rehabilitate myself so I can get off disability. I hate being on disability and I'm desperate to get off of it.
apart from a couple emails from clients, I had an idea to not do a damn thing Wednesday, Thursday and today Friday. this is because I never really take a vacation. I'm always so shamed for not being able to work, that I'm forcing myself to work even when everybody else it's on vacation. It may not be a lot of work, but still it is a nagging goal-directed activity.
For the first time in 10 years, I took about a solid week off last Christmas. I found that not screwing with anything, just letting it go, allowed me to gain stamina for this other dumb business that I started with a dumb partner, and I got tired of. however, I noticed that even though I had to stop operations a few months later, we were making quite a bit of money because I had stamina. I had taken solid block of time out without stressing my frontal lobe.
So I'm experimenting again to see if this short break will give me more stamina to work five or six hours solid a day, using a timer.
Do any of you guys relate to this? no goal-directed activity, no stress on the frontal lobe, the circuits are able to heal and function and not be stressed. What do you think?

And when I mean not doing goal-directed activity, I mean not playing video games, not doing anything where any plans are being made. Just putting blocks of time where one is totally passive in the environment

 

[Kubash16]

I think having free, unstructured time is absolutely necessary. It’s why we have recess in elementary school. Don’t get me started on how screwed up the rest of the education system is.

But just because we aren’t 8 anymore doesn’t mean that we don’t still need that time. Some people read something that isn’t brain consuming, or they do a puzzle, go hiking, play video games. There is nothing wrong with doing nothing to give your brain a break.

 

[maryiscontrary]

I think having free, unstructured time is absolutely necessary. It’s why we have recess in elementary school. Don’t get me started on how screwed up the rest of the education system is.

But just because we aren’t 8 anymore doesn’t mean that we don’t still need that time. Some people read something that isn’t brain consuming, or they do a puzzle, go hiking, play video games. There is nothing wrong with doing nothing to give your brain a break.

Exactly. But I'm wanting to even take this a further step. Playing video games, doing puzzles, taking a planned hike involves planning and goal directions. I'm talking literally doing stuff that does not require planning or executive functioning whatsoever. I'm not saying this other stuff is not very healthy, but in its own space apart from putting further demands on the frontal lobe for strategizing.
so rather than a hike, unless it's right outside your backdoor , I'm talking more like a random walk in your neighborhood, chatting it up randomly with neighbors, having no particular time that you have to get back soon, and stuff like that. Or passively listening to music, maybe friends passively coming over and hanging out, with nothing in store whatsoever.

No thinking ahead whatsoever.

 

[Kubash16]

I think you should definitely carve out time for that.

 

[ladee]

You are talking about being spontaneous!! Go for it.

 

[Friday]

Sounds like you’re talking about meditation. (Or, at least, a specific type of meditation).

No thinking. No doing. Just being.

There’s a few thousand years of solid history to back that up.

It’s not my personal cup of tea (and I grew up in SE Asia, where it’s virtually required), with a very catholic Irish grandmother (where it was actually required)... counting a rosary is every bit as much a kind of meditation as mantras to mandala beads. But it’s the cornerstone of one major religion, an integral part of several others, and the practice of billions over eons. So I might not partake, but I certainly recognize it’s effectiveness.

 

[grit]

When I lived alone and single, I had weekends where I did absolutely nothing... I mean nada! Even before internet. I would cry from deep emptiness that I did not recognize cause I was gym rat and workaholic. Then I would go through moment of adjustment and then euphoria... But not in that order. At the time I did this I did just to regain some brain power for the coming week... I even remember some friends going silent retreat few yrs ago, and I thought just turn TV and phone off and be alone... And free in my house was the trick. I feel for me I was made into a busy baby for a depressed mother. I was preoccupied to survive for so long that I never was just happy baby or child just living... And this was my way of relearning it as an adult. It really saved me mentally cause I could see clearly where my cracks were but I had no words to describe until I went to therapy. Now I would do anything to get me time and be boring and find my creative side. It works... Do it. Start small amount time that you can stay concious.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I make lists to get things done. This is very structured. I take breaks but have a variety of things to choose from that are constructive.
I might draw, do poetry, read a book, watch a show, sit outside and watch the herons or ride the tractor and cut grass (I just love this!)
I'd suggest having a handful of fun, constructive things to do rather than nothing might be healthier. If I don't give myself a choice and I just sit....I can lose a lot of time and get lost in doing nothing. I'd be in bed napping, in bed depressed, in bed watching TV and spending too much time in bed isn't mentally healthy. So I guess it really depends on what positive behaviors you'd be doing during that down time. I suppose the concept of "balance" might be a healthy concept, here.

 

[maryiscontrary]

I make lists to get things done. This is very structured. I take breaks but have a variety of things to choose from that are constructive.
I might draw, do poetry, read a book, watch a show, sit outside and watch the herons or ride the tractor and cut grass (I just love this!)
I'd suggest having a handful of fun, constructive things to do rather than nothing might be healthier. If I don't give myself a choice and I just sit....I can lose a lot of time and get lost in doing nothing. I'd be in bed napping, in bed depressed, in bed watching TV and spending too much time in bed isn't mentally healthy. So I guess it really depends on what positive behaviors you'd be doing during that down time. I suppose the concept of "balance" might be a healthy concept, here.

thank you so much for your input. Absolutely I have structured lists, in fact, in my 12-step group, we track our time aggressively with a timing app.

Maybe I need to clarify myself. I got myself in this jacked up quandary by overworking myself 7 days a week for many years. and I recently had to curtail a little business on the side because I was getting up at 4 and 5 in the morning to get everything ready for my partners, and they were batshit crazy, so it didn't work out anyway.
so obviously my ego is a control freak, and I've burnt myself out terribly by constantly engaging in incessant goal-directed executive functioning activities, which I believe put massive stress on my frontal lobe, thus worsening all my screwed up mental illness.
I agree that it's extremely important to have structured activities, but I believe I am fighting a very serious compulsive addiction that is destroying my brain through overuse, much like an overused muscle or other organ

I invite you to follow this far out and groovy new thread, please add your input. You can find it here

trauma programs more trauma, and resolving it with ego dissolution

 

[The Albatross]

Had to dig around to find this... 7 tips.
I call unfocused/unplanned time socialization, play, leisure or recreation.

 

[maryiscontrary]

Wow! Thank you so very much!

 

[Sideways]

So, um, I think a lot of people would divide this into Recreation (which isn’t necessarily goal-directed, it’s enjoyment-driven) and Relaxation. 2 seperate things.

One of my first CBT courses we covered dividing up your time so that there was a healthy balance between the different areas of your life (can’t remember them all but like: work, family, recreation, relaxation, etc). Some of those areas are going to overlap (eg, you might find a yoga session both fun and relaxing), and the time isn’t necessary an equal split minute for minute between sections. And everyone is going to have differences in their ideal healthy balance.

Other people refer to body, mind & spirit fulfilment (and there are therapy models that follow that).

ACT talks a lot about doing less goal-oriented stuff in favour of more value driven stuff (eg. You’re going to run into issues feeling content, fulfilled, or like you have a meaningful life if you think your job is a complete waste of time.

So, instead of going from one extreme to another, most therapy modalities seem to recommend “balance” in one way or another.

Staring at a wall to combat your burnout from overwork? I think therapists call that ‘decompensating’, and the consensus from the different therapy modalities seems to be that there are more effective ways of treating, and then managing (long-term) the consequences of professional burnout.

There’s a whole heap of middle ground between manic work habits and doing absolutely zip. One extreme to the other sounds more like a mental breakdown than a coping strategy.