Learning to rest

The work of a programmer is hard mental and creative work. Sure, it’s fun to code, develop, or design some mega-service or startup, but it takes a lot of brain power. 

The athlete works with the body, and the programmer with the head. A whole team is working on an athlete – a trainer, nutritionist, neuropathologist, psychologist, etc. Does such a team work with programmers? If you do not take Google into account, then usually the programmer is presented to himself and he has to work on himself. And this is despite the fact that the brain is busy with the project, new technologies, deadlines, bugs and a bunch of other problems that require immediate solution. In addition, there are problems in your personal life that are not easy to solve.
Any athlete sets the ability to rest as one of the main tasks, especially when there is a match, a game, a fight – to use every opportunity for rest, as few unnecessary movements as possible in order to maintain himself in a combat state. 
The programmer, I think, should treat himself the same way. It would even be wonderful if people could receive qualified advice on rest and daily routine. A poorly developed relaxation skill can lead to a wide variety of problems. Typical complaints:

  • I rest on vacation, but rest is only enough for a month, then again like a robot
  • I am frustrated not on business with relatives and friends. I can’t bring myself to do simple housework – to clean up, wash the dishes.
  • I avoid communication, it does not bring pleasure.
  • I seem to work like an ox, but the results are insignificant.

What to do, how to be? If you have similar problems, then the most correct thing would be to contact a neurologist. He will assess the depth of the problem and prescribe treatment. If everything is running, then you may need a long rest and taking various medications, incl. antidepressants. Excellent assistance in this matter is provided by rest in specialized clinics in the German Alps. Silence, calmness cures many mental illnesses. Many writers and poets liked to rest there. Burnout sufferers – welcome! But I would like to focus on mental health. How to work with your head and always be cheerful, contented and happy! 

My thoughts are my steeds

First of all, you need to pay attention to what is going on in your head. The fact is that the human brain consists of cells that have a charge and which transfer it to each other during mental activity. Many have the devil going on in their heads. Thoughts appear to make noise, they are hammered by others who have appeared, do not understand where. A person constantly thinks about something, analyzes something, reflects on something – and so all day and even in the evening. As a result, the charge of the cells is depleted and a powerful feeling of fatigue rolls over. Sleep is also disturbed. For example, you can’t fall asleep because you keep thinking and thinking about something. You wake up in the middle of the night. Even when you eat, you think about all sorts of garbage, for example, how cool it is to implement 3D in Fallout. This must be fought with two methods.

Rest from thoughts

Those who practice yoga will quickly catch on. Relaxation requires meditation. For those who do not know what meditation is, I will describe a simple exercise.

In a room in which it is calm and quiet and no one will interfere (turn off mobile phones and turn off the computer) we lie down on a comfortable bed. The body is straight, arms at the seams, muscles are relaxed. We try not to think about anything, but to feel calm and serenity. Bams, the first cheeky thought comes up. Imagine in the head of such a powerful stupid guard 2×2, who blocks the thought and broadcasts to her “Goodbye!” and then drives her out of your quiet, serene head. So you need to get rid of all thoughts and soon you will learn to do it with a simple volitional effort, without a guard, thereby plunging into meditation. Concentrate on calmness and serenity in your head.

So then you can meditate even on the bus, but it is best to do it in some beautiful, pleasant place. Find it yourself!

Prevention

Now at work, introduce thought control. Superfluous – away. Doing code – think about the code, not about Masha, friends in ICQ, or a vain roommate. Eating in the dining room – think about food. Less unnecessary, repetitive like a plate, weedy thoughts. This is the same meditation, only on a specific matter. 

Information Society and Plyushkin

Nowadays, you have to process a huge amount of information, which, as you know, is generated by Cthulhu (at 21:00 on the First). Digesting it takes a lot of brain resources, but do you need it? If you have a free minute, you do not need to spend it on reading habr, rubbish, tapes (allocate a special time for this), but rather drink a tea with a cookie. Some come home from work watching TV or surfing the internet – a bad way to relax. You are still loading your brain (more suitable “littering”) with weed load, which leads only to fatigue and does not bring anything useful. Is Wasserman your idol, I want to ask? “I want to know everything” – you don’t need it, I’m sure. 

Physical in the fresh air

Bad news awaits you if you don’t walk at least 30 minutes a day. In general, the first thing to do is solve the problems described above. Because physical activity also strains the brain, and if you have cerebral overexertion, neurasthenia, then physical education will be superfluous, engage in meditation. However, meditation can also be combined with physical exercise if the brain is not too tired . Running, lifting a heavy barbell, cycling through the forest will drive away all extraneous thoughts (three more laps, damn, I won’t run even one, let’s run the body-machine). By the way, you need to burn belly fat only in the fresh air (in the gym it is ineffective).
Exercising in the morning (or riding a bike to the office, as I do) turns a sleepy slug into a vigorous bull. Putin does a half hour daily exercise. All because then you have to sit on a chair for 8 hours, and this is unnatural. By the way, you shouldn’t sit on a chair for more than 40 minutes. You need to get up and walk for 5-10 minutes.
In addition, physical education (you don’t need sports, you like to program) teaches you how to live, develops useful personal qualities, the personality itself, confidence, and has a beneficial effect on the psyche as a whole.
You need to make movement a part of your life so that it is immediately obvious when you see it, and not that you drink a lot of beer on weekends. Health and clean energy will come immediately. 

Diet should not be violated

That’s it! Some mega-mens save on their meals. You’d better sell your organs right away! Seriously, everything should be done gradually. Therefore, in order to achieve high results, do it regularly. Run regularly, go outdoors regularly, eat regularly, sleep regularly. It is advisable to do all this in due time, and not so that today at 12, tomorrow at 14. Remember that everything in this world is subject to RHYTHM. Sleep is very important. No wonder they say – sleep heals. That is, its effect on the body is very extensive and it is not worth saving on it. They say that Artemy Lebedev sleeps 11 hours a day. At the same time, Donald Trump assures that five is enough for him. First of all, you need to determine how much is enough for you and sleep enough. Lack of sleep is a sure path to degradation in physical and mental abilities. Perhaps you can build your regime in such a way that you will need less time to sleep, perhaps with age, people sleep less – this is individually and is established through experimentation. 

be happy

Another and last aspect of a good holiday is pleasant emotions. Nothing stops you from being content and happy right now (I hope). Do nice things for yourself, don’t be too hard on yourself, and don’t expect anything from yourself and others. Accept yourself and others for who they are. Love yourself and women. Don’t try to take out a car loan when you already have one. Materialism – who needs it. Remember that the main thing in life is beauty and desire!

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