It’s what I do, mainly. I’m an indoor person, definitely with the winter weather here in the Netherlands.
I feel very privileged to have this possibility of not having to wear clothes when I’m at home. I live high up, people can’t see me from the street – even when I’m on the balcony.
Many people are into social naturism. I sometimes try to do that too, but life has taught me that I’m not a many-people person. Do you count yourself a social one, who can’t get enough people around? (Which in the past weeks and months and… has been quite difficult!)
I don’t know why I am this way.
My parents were very social and outgoing. My sister is like that as well. I am not and I never was. The odd thing is that, when I do go to some social event, it usually feels like something that was worth the effort. (Because really, getting up and going there is an emotional effort, even if it’s just a 20 minute bike ride to get to the local nude beach.)
It’s weird. I know the people there are nice and friendly, and most of the time, if you keep to yourself, they will leave you in peace, but that odd feeling remains. On the off chance that you, reading this, are like me, how do you handle things like that? Do you stay at home and indoors as much as well, or do you go out and face the ‘social demon’? (That concept just popped into my head, ha ha!)
And oh wow, as I was looking for a picture to go with social demons, I stumbled over this. It’s actually a thing. Not sure if this is something I am going to take on yet, but if you’re interested, you can find the book here.
Until I figure this out (and that might take a while) I’ll stick to the anti social social club and be who I am.
(It gives me a lot of time to focus on the stories!)
I make sure my phone is fully charged so I can hide in a corner and play on it if things get stressful. I’ll also leave a party and go for a walk. I can’t just go home because it is usually my wife that drags me out to those things.
I’m glad you have a few ways to deflect the outside world when it gets too bad, Fred.
i have like an internal reservoir that needs to be filled with people and togetherness and stuff and once its filled then i am fine being on my own or with one other person for long periods of time. Thats probably going to change soon but i think deep down we all need human connection, we’re a tribal species and everyone alive today is descended from people who worked together for the sake of their tribe or clan.
I like how you put that, feeling like having an internal reservoir.
I hope you can fill up soon!
I think I’m a ‘reservoir’ person like Elise. Pre-Covid, most of my social life was scattered (solely by luck) along my daily commute to work. So being alone in my apartment was always my normal. However , my ‘reservoir’ is nearing empty. So now I’m trying to wrap up administrative loose ends so I’ll actually have time to go socialize once the warmer weather comes. I’ve several health problems whose main symptom/consequence is fatigue so the aforementioned ‘wrapping up’ is a bit bigger undertaking than for most people.
I find many social engagements to be very draining, physically. I find it very exhausting to mentally screen out all the individual voices I hear around me and focus on the person(s) I’m speaking with*. Yet, I’m another one who almost always looks back on the event and decides it was well worth the effort.
*If I had money to burn I’d get myself a pair of low powered hearing aids with directional microphones aimed straight ahead and tune them to dampen sounds outside the word recognition range. However, I have normal hearing so my insurance will not cover them.
@Anton
They’ve just begun a new trial at our local supermarket of something i forgot the name of but at certain days of the week and between certain hours, they lower the brightness of the lights and turn down that awful in-store music and also i guess they do not use the intercom system during that time. Seems to be something most people respond positively to.
With the amount of stimulae we all get every day its no wonder some of us just feel more than a bit overwhelmed.
@Paul
Happily filled up plenty over the past few days! No room for even one more cup of life 😀
I once read that we, today, get more stimuli and impressions in one day than a medieval farmer had in a whole year.
That’s something, isn’t it?
totally!
not saying going back to that agrarian super simple (and often super dangerous) way of existence would be a blessing though but yeah, i would like to see a doctor about getting my phone un-surgically attached from me heh