What a boring topic. My life is fairly uneventful and I don’t do a great many activities with my time. The way I choose to live suits me well, and too bad if people label me lazy or assume I spend too much time on unrewarding things. I have no real complaints about my life, which is a significant statement given that I live with a mental illness that brings me a considerable amount of grief. My idea of a good day is one with nothing scheduled; I enjoy keeping my life as simple as possible. That simplicity means I opt out of some things that make others happy: marriage, children, crowded social groups, the pressure to buy a new house. I don’t want those things, and I’m content with that choice. Visit my blog on this by clicking here.
I keep odd hours and this can really mess with my head. I’ll usually wake in the early hours of the night and make myself a strong cup of caffeine. I have my laptop at the end of my bed and I’ll spend a little time catching up on the latest news while I play some music. I often then drift off to sleep again and wake once more around 9am–10am. YouTube plays a large part of my life; I have it running all day and night whether I’m awake or asleep. I’m a huge podcast fan and devote myself to watching them every day. I could name a dozen podcasts that I listen to, but the main one is Joe Rogan. He puts out three-hour episodes every day or two, and I’ll watch these regardless of who he’s interviewing. Not too many people have the time to invest in listening to such lengthy podcasts.
I obviously don’t work. I have been on a disability pension for most of my adult life and that has been my reality for many years. I can’t work — I’m too unwell most of the time, and that ongoing poor health makes day-to-day life difficult. I sometimes struggle to leave the house, which makes regular employment tricky and often impossible. I’m on a lot of medication as well; those drugs affect me, make me drowsy at times, and bring a range of side effects that further limit my capacity to hold a job. I’m not entirely sure why I’m sharing this with you — perhaps I’m trying to explain or justify why I have so much time and why I spend it doing the kinds of things I described above.
I try to walk when I can, but for the most part I tend to put it off. I really dislike exercise and find it hard to enjoy. I’ve never understood how others seem to get a dopamine high from pushing their bodies. See my blog for more thoughts on exercise.
I go through spurts where I get a lot of painting done, working intensely for days or weeks at a time. This is an expensive hobby, even when I’m selling pieces, and I need to be firmly in that creative headspace for it to work. This year I’ve sold maybe fifteen to twenty paintings, which should be a good motivator. It’s a substantial undertaking and not something I can sustain around the clock. I burn out when I’m creating twenty-four seven; it starts to feel like a chore, and art should never be that. I have hundreds of dollars’ worth of canvases and paints sitting in the shed — I just need to find the energy and the desire to get back to work.
I don’t know if this really counts as how I spend my time, but I do spend a great deal of it in hospital. I had a stay in the Frankston psychiatric ward a couple of weeks ago, although before that I went for more than a year without an admission. Before that, I was in and out of hospital from when I was a young chap. Some of those stays lasted up to a month. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been stuck in those places. All I know is my health insurance could have bought me a house with the money they’ve forked out over the years — no exaggeration.
I have a couple of good friends that I see every so often. Maintaining those connections takes some effort. I don’t want to let our relationships drift, but it does take a conscious effort to catch up. Even coffee meetups start to bore me these days. I walk my dog now and then. He lives with my ex-girlfriend, so he’s definitely more hers than mine, but I enjoy his company when I get to spend time with him.