I guess not necessarily an ND thing, but I was wondering how many of you guys have things that you find relaxing that others probably can't understand.
One thing I find relaxing almost without exception is watching the first two ALIEN movies. Yes, nothing like a SciFi Space Opera Horror to calm me down lol!
It started when I was about 11 and I had just started what we call Secondary School here in the UK and despite only being there a short while it had been rather brutal for me. Everything that possibly could go wrong went wrong and my quirkiness only made that worse.
Each weekend my mother would insist we visit her relatives in another town. She'd promise that we would return in the evening giving me the opportunity to finish my homework that I usually would be very stressed about. But it always ended up we had to stay the night. I would have nothing to do and I'd be bored to the point I was climbing the walls. On one such weekend, my mother decided we wouldn't just stay the Saturday, we'd stay the Sunday too and head back home at 5am.
I got really upset and my response to this was to be very distressed. Not only was I likely to be late for school, I wouldn't have done my homework. My mother's response was her usual aggressive, dismissive nastiness and she instructed me to "disappear" before she lost her temper.
So I hid in the living room while she drank wine in the kitchen and gossiped. I just tried to watch TV, but there wasn't anything on, we only had 4 channels in those days. But at around 9pm the TV announcer said that they were about to show their evening movie "ALIENS". I'd heard about it, but never watched it and thought it might be "too grown up" for me but I decided to watch it anyway, there was no one to stop me lol!
There was something about it that I found so relaxing as odd as it sounds. It was quite a quiet movie and quite sparse. It felt quite lazy and I liked the bleeps and bloops from the computers and the gentle rumble of the spaceship I guess. Even the scary parts were quite quiet and muted. I like the cinematography. It wasn't frantic like similarly themed movies. It just captivated me. I went from feeling very upset and worried about school to feeling calm and relaxed and I just enjoyed the story unfolding in the film (and thought Ripley was super cool!).
Over the years I noticed that each time I watched it (and the sequel) I felt in that same relaxed state. I often watch it when I can't sleep or I'm feeling anxious. My girlfriend knows this about me and finds it so weird that I watch a movie like that to calm down and relax. It almost always works. The sequel works too, but I don't enjoy the sounds of the pulse rifles, those are the only things that annoy me though!
So what counter intuitive things help you relax or calm down? Anyone else find ALIENS relaxing?
One thing I find relaxing almost without exception is watching the first two ALIEN movies. Yes, nothing like a SciFi Space Opera Horror to calm me down lol!
It started when I was about 11 and I had just started what we call Secondary School here in the UK and despite only being there a short while it had been rather brutal for me. Everything that possibly could go wrong went wrong and my quirkiness only made that worse.
Each weekend my mother would insist we visit her relatives in another town. She'd promise that we would return in the evening giving me the opportunity to finish my homework that I usually would be very stressed about. But it always ended up we had to stay the night. I would have nothing to do and I'd be bored to the point I was climbing the walls. On one such weekend, my mother decided we wouldn't just stay the Saturday, we'd stay the Sunday too and head back home at 5am.
I got really upset and my response to this was to be very distressed. Not only was I likely to be late for school, I wouldn't have done my homework. My mother's response was her usual aggressive, dismissive nastiness and she instructed me to "disappear" before she lost her temper.
So I hid in the living room while she drank wine in the kitchen and gossiped. I just tried to watch TV, but there wasn't anything on, we only had 4 channels in those days. But at around 9pm the TV announcer said that they were about to show their evening movie "ALIENS". I'd heard about it, but never watched it and thought it might be "too grown up" for me but I decided to watch it anyway, there was no one to stop me lol!
There was something about it that I found so relaxing as odd as it sounds. It was quite a quiet movie and quite sparse. It felt quite lazy and I liked the bleeps and bloops from the computers and the gentle rumble of the spaceship I guess. Even the scary parts were quite quiet and muted. I like the cinematography. It wasn't frantic like similarly themed movies. It just captivated me. I went from feeling very upset and worried about school to feeling calm and relaxed and I just enjoyed the story unfolding in the film (and thought Ripley was super cool!).
Over the years I noticed that each time I watched it (and the sequel) I felt in that same relaxed state. I often watch it when I can't sleep or I'm feeling anxious. My girlfriend knows this about me and finds it so weird that I watch a movie like that to calm down and relax. It almost always works. The sequel works too, but I don't enjoy the sounds of the pulse rifles, those are the only things that annoy me though!
So what counter intuitive things help you relax or calm down? Anyone else find ALIENS relaxing?