When we were planning this website, my brother Dave showed me a phone game called Dots. I've been playing it ever since.
When our family had finished watching the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix, I started watching Criminal Minds from the beginning...by myself...It is too dark for Russ, and we won't let the girls watch it.
During downtime I play Dots or watch Criminal Minds, sometimes almost obsessively.
Dots is super light. Criminal Minds is very dark.
I figured out why they both help me decompress.
Decisions are made, and they have no consequences.
I love that so much.
In the Dots game, you connect dots to clear a board. No matter what move you make, the worst that can happen is losing that round. Against yourself. You don't even lose a quarter.
In Criminal Minds, I can explore the decisions the characters make (the good guys you guys, I'm not a psycho...) and how they deal with the fall out. The results are incredibly rewarding (the bad guys get caught and no one else gets hurt) or heartbreaking (the bad guys get away, loved ones or main characters are harmed or killed.) It is intriguing to watch the main characters deal with and overcome burn out in a career that is so much more stressful than my own. Even so, Criminal Minds, with all its drama and violence and sadness is all make believe.
So is Dots.
I need time in between Real Life events where every decision I make, every decision I see made, blows things up or doesn't or makes or breaks everything that is at stake...but is so inconsequential that it has no bearing on Real Life.
I love Real Life, but sometimes I need to step back. We all do.
What is your decompression strategy?
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Post from one year ago today...
January 9, 2016