Getting laid off back in July was more a gift than a curse. Some consider it a curse (including my mom) in the way that I had to return to a vicious and mostly illogical job market (that said I started a new job this month and I love it so far). But it was a gift for many reasons, some of them being that you have the time to do everything and it opens a sea of opportunities.
Time is not something we have in abundance in our lives, even if our microcosm tries to convinces otherwise. Having three months "off" the rush and the digital world, gives you a whole perspective in life. I got the time to work on myself and my (useful and useless) skills and I didn't want to spend another minute rotting my brain with consuming content and becoming stupid. The first couple of days that I didn't had to work, I had this unsettling feeling that I needed to act now and find a job instantly, but I also noticed that I had a constant brain fog and endless headaches.
It took me some time accepting it as an opportunity, rather than something bad happened to me. I wanted to try new things and rediscover hobbies (which you probably notice I have a lot). So these are all of the things that I have experimented or rediscovered to gain clarity, enjoy myself and not lose my cognitive abilities:
Dancing
I have already dancing (salsa) in the context of structured classes the last 3,5-4 years. Dance humbled me, because it was something that i wasn't particularly good at: It is not part of my culture and it took me years to just be mediocre at. But it has a lot of benefits: It is an intense physical exercise, which is great because I don't enjoy going to the gym and i haven't reached yet the midlife crisis to start running. The thing that surprised me is how social of a hobby it is. People literally gather twice (or more) per week for chatting and dance. As an introvert myself, this was quite challenging at first but i think i have made some progress in being more extroverted.
Dancing has benefits both to physical and cognitive health, improves memory through learning physical patterns and the music is rather enjoyable.
Artistic endeavors of any form
The last year I felt I had lost my sparkle, and for me that means that I wasn't as creative as I would like to be. I made some effort last year to learn how to print and paint 3d statues so i wanted to continue this hobby. Additionally I started exploring many art mediums:
- Photography is something I already do, but I have mostly associate it with being on vacation. This time I had fun getting lost in Amsterdam and discover bits and bobs of the city. I also got one of my photographs displayed in an art gallery and featured in a book this year, which I am very proud of.
- Digital posters, I started learning how to design posters and other digital assets. I struggle to get the colors right and I make a ton of iterations of the same thing, mostly inspired of my life. I really believe that in an other life if i hadn't chosen to study CS, I would be a graphic designer.
- Painting, diamond painting, sketching, tried everything in that short. I am not really good at sketching from memory, so it is very hard for me, but it is a skill and only with practice i can become slightly better. I try to sketch already existing things either from pinterest or from books. For painting things, I enjoy paint by numbers, which is a nice way to unwind the mind.
- Lino-cutting, this is my latest obsession, i recently followed a workshop to make lino prints. If you don't know what this is you curve a design in a very soft material and then you use paint to print your images in paper.
Reading books
That's an obvious way to un-rot your brain and maintain your cognitive health. I didn't notice how much living and working in the digital world, declined my ability to read. At the first week, of returning into reading, I struggled finishing a single paragraph without being distracted. I decided to park more eloquent reading and started with something light to put me in the rhythm, as of now i finished the 8 volumes of the Apothecary diaries and the last month I incorporated non-fiction in my daily commute (currently reading: Amusing ourselves to death) instead of doom scrolling.
Plants
I took quite literally the phrase "touch grass" back in 2020 and I have a big collection of houseplants already. For me, this is another way to stay offline and do a physical labor activity with my own hands. I really enjoy the silence and the mind-free process and the plants are beautiful!
Learning new things
I missed learning new things. My old job was literally making me dumb and I had a huge responsibility in that letting that happen. Lately, I learnt so many things both in and out of CS. I learned how to connect electronics and make simple programs that run in the hardware world. And I re-discovered Angular in this world obsessed with React. I learnt how to dance a new style and how to make prints. Not all the new things I learnt is useful for my job, but I really enjoyed them and that is what matters. The next things I want to learn is how to make latte art and possible some kind of pottery.
Physical media
In these months, I was thinking a lot on what I spend my money on and removed 90% of my subscriptions. I decided that I wanted to own the movies and series I like (and watch them ad-free). I make a day in a month to explore the local thrift store for titles. I discovered old favourites (like Charmed) that it is impossible to find any of the streaming services and now I can watch them on demand in my house without the rush and anxiety that a provider can remove them from their service. The only subscription I kept was lightroom which it seems to have no value, as open source alternatives are emerging (but adobe is charging you to cancel their subscription which is insane, so i kept it for a little more)
Board games
I used to love playing board games back in Greece, but moving abroad took a toll in my friendships and it was hard to play them. I really like the social and thinking aspect of them and the imagination put on of these board games is insane. I lately have purchased some one player board games (which can also be played with multiple people) and also there are some online platforms like board game arena that you can play a game online with strangers. My favourites so far have been: Cascadia, Tranquility and Azul. I also played with my friends "Wingspan" which is featuring beautiful artwork from birds and unique concept of making your own bird ecosystem.
Journaling & writing (here!)
This is also something that it doesn't come naturally to me. I am considering myself a bit better on writing technical concepts as they are already written (duh!) and my job there would be to make them more digestible to people that getting introduced in tech. Journaling is also hard as it comes with reflecting your day or your month and put your thoughts in line.
It was a busy few months for me. I noticed that avoiding social media is hard. I still need to constantly remind me that i don't need to scroll, sometimes even aloud. I want my attention and creativity back and not getting lost behind a screen. If you reached this point of this text, thank you and it would be great to continue the conversation in the comments on how you un-rot your brains, did you start something new or inspired to do so?
This post is written by a human that is non native in english, so excuse my grammar.
