I find waiting for things physically exhausting. Waiting in lines, waiting sitting in a room, waiting on friends to decide what they want to eat, walking really slowly with an elderly relative: I find it all physically exhausting even though very little physical energy is required.
Only if I have something else I need to do and/or someone rushing me. Otherwise I just chill out and observe things.
If I’m where I need to be to wait, and I’ve done everything I can do, waiting is calm. I do nothing now but wait and read my phone or a magazine. I have done all things I an meant to do, nothing is required of me but for someone else to do their job.
I do get annoyed if it’s an hour plus wait and well after the time my appointment is meant to be, but not really physically upset. Mentally annoyed.
Oh yeah for me it’s like I’ve allocated this much time and resource to something and having those estimations extend indefinitely everytime my estimation’s wrong. Like even if I know it’s a 30 minute wait, my brain only allocates 30 minutes of waiting, if that gets extended I already went through with what I’m willing to allocate :P
Keeping a few basic time wasting games on my phone takes care of it for me.
I used to, but I learned to close my eyes and either meditate on my breath, or repeat a mantra in my head.
Now, waiting is an opportunity to calm my mind and quiet my brain.
I don’t find it physically exhausting but definitely mentally and spiritually draining. (“Hurry up and wait” in particular is a rage-triggering thing for me.) I learned to adapt by always carrying a book with me that I can pull out and start reading while others around me dither and force waiting periods.
Yes, but it’s likely due to how we use our bodies in a manner that we don’t really like, partially because we’re on the alert for the waiting to end. Doing something you’ve chosen to do feels better.
Also, the environment plays a role. It feels more shit to pay a lot of attention to a shitty environment. Same thing as how walkable neighborhoods are usually interesting, while us-style car-brained areas feel like shit to walk or even just exist in, because you’re not actually meant to stay there long enough to notice anything.
So, for me, by default: yes. It’s because my brain and body like to be going going going non-stop all the time.
However, I’ve noticed that i feel significantly better when waiting if i stop, recognize there’s nothing i can do, and actively decide to accept it and slow down.
It’s like i have to create mental separation between ‘states’ so that i can make the shift between them.You might give that a try?
I’ll give that a try next time! I’ve sort of made progress on a similar technique for social anxiety (stop, breathe, tell myself no one is spending serious thought on judging me).
Yes, exactly! That’s where i got that thinking from. lol
Not at all, I’m always jumping from thing to thing, and to have space for some time to think and reflect is calming
Yeah that was me until I got ADHD meds.
Not saying anything is wrong with you or the world these days isn’t a fucking time vampire but it helped me cope by chilling out and learning to be productive through all the loading screens. I also listen to music while outside so I don’t get hit with the repetitiveness of the daily walk to go to the store or chores (also just loading screens really).
No idea how normies don’t feel their life slipping away from them and start riots at some of that shit, hell they sit through ads! There’s never enough hours in the day and years in life as-is.
Almost more importantly as an adult I’ve learned to just say no. Friend wants to visit trendy restaurant in the big city but it’s got a queue? No thanks. Go to the cinema for £20 to sit through ads in a shit hole with expensive snacks where I can’t openly vape? Nope. Been there done that, at 25 I just have way way better things to do.
That said though a 2h daily commute is the kind of wait no meds can fix, it’s pure shit life syndrome unless you WFH so if that’s what you’re getting at then you need to improve your material circumstances.
I have definitely improved on the ‘saying no’ tactic you mentioned or the similar ‘remove yourself from the scenario’ one. Luckily my workplace gives me relatively broad control over my time as long as I’m meeting deadlines and such so it’s more a problem I run into with family or friends. I prefer to run errands and even go on day trips alone and have to fight my preferences to lead a normal social life/be a reasonably active member of my community (which I do value, at least theoretically).
Idk, I don’t know what people mean by community, if it exists - I never found it and to me it might as well be a shadowy organization out of a conspiracy theory, traces supposedly everywhere according to the internet but no sign in real life of any such thing.
I’ll spend time with friends and my S.O. but we’ll find different activities that don’t require long waits.
For me it isn’t the waiting, it’s the “being around people” part that is physically draining.
I am happy to wait in a Zoom waiting room for example, because I can do it at home all alone.
Have you ever tried meditation? Great for waiting.
I did regular meditation for a year and a half or so (now more intermittent) but never mastered the kind you can do with your eyes open. I do enjoy a walking meditation though.
Yeah, but I tend to do that leg bouncing thing when waiting (or otherwise bored out of my head) so that might explain some of the physical exhaustion.
waiting inline to buy food was a regime talking point against communism
i can’t go to any where any more without there being a line with worst offenders being grocery and believe it or not… fast food.
on topic of fasfood, when did it stop actually being fast… jfc, i can get faster service from a local deli.
It might be where you live. When I visited So Cal for example, I was amazed to see Starbucks and McDonald’s and gas stations with super long lines… doesn’t happen at all in other places I have lived. Maybe short lines at a coffee shop at very busy times of day.
Another aspect is that businesses, for capitalism reasons, have majorly skimped on employees in the last few years. They’re trying to get away with the least staff possible purely for profitability. It’s pretty vile… customers get worse service, employees get burnt out, and execs and owners just don’t care because they feel like people don’t have a choice. McDonald’s, for instance, operates with far fewer staff at once than they did 20-30 years ago.
tbf those lines are because the bottleneck point is the number of cashiers and/or the process of preparing the food, as opposed to the supply of food itself
i am aware… but how is that anymore excusable?
we also have food and housing technically too but we have one of the worst food access issues within OECD and if you count people living in cars, the highest homeless rate.
You’re asking how it’s more excusable to have an ample supply of food with slight waits for purchasing/preparation than not having enough food for everyone?
I am mocking the regime and their propaganda that has no logical consistency.
Used to be, but not since smartphones were invented.
