Entertainment, leisure and pleasure in the life of self-actualizers

[museumoftrees]

Hello. I find it very difficult to cut down on all distractions (social media, video games, youtube, Netflix, etc). I find that my creativity and happiness goes down when I partake in none of these things. But I get addicted so easily. And then I become lazy and feel worse and I can't advance my life. I've done huge bouts of time where I don't go on social media, don't play video games or don't go on youtube but I always end up craving these things. I've went like a month and a half without social media, no alcohol, no video games, no Netflix, meditating, reading everyday but that made me intensely bored.

I am wondering if they are truly people out there that live a modern life but never consume any form of entertainment. I am wondering if some of these people are here on the forum.

I'm going to try a dopamine detox and only allow myself to read books and see friends for leisure and see what that does for me.

[Terell Kirby]

43 minutes ago, museumoftrees said:

I am wondering if they are truly people out there that live a modern life but never consume any form of entertainment.

I doubt it.

The key is striving for balance. You are going to have moments where you want to be a lazy, self indulgent bum. Just make sure the time spent on working towards your highest vision doubles, or even triples the amount of time spent slacking off.

The worst thing you can do is make yourself feel bad during backsliding episodes.

[WonderSeeker]

@museumoftrees Cutting away excessive screen-time is a mid- to long-term process. It's not going to happen overnight. Perhaps keep a personal log of how many hours per day you consume media. After a week or two you will discover an average. Slowly bring that average time down day-by-day until you reach a level that's healthy. 

But hey, if you are truly into entertainment in a way that is related to a potential life-purpose, then find a way to use what you are consuming rather than watching passively or in a neurotic way. Another piece of advice is to sit down and contemplate why you want to:

43 minutes ago, museumoftrees said:

"cut down on all distractions" (social media, video games, youtube, Netflix, etc)."

Oh and of course, change is difficult and painful. This surface unhappiness you are experiencing is actually a sign that you're doing the right thing. If you feel at a deep level in your intuition that removing distractions is right for you but it stings on the outside, is is still the overall right thing to do. Don't let surface reactions fool you! Cheers~

1 minute ago, Terell Kirby said:

The key is striving for balance.

^ This too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0B_StY__Bg&t=772s

[something_else]

Depending on what media you consume, it's not all bad. For example if you watch a whole bunch of YouTube or social media you can end up being exposed to a lot of new ideas

Although this is less the case now because these algorithms are designed to feed you more and more of the same

They also help you keep up to date with current trends

Back when I was 15-16 (6-7 years ago) YT + video games ended up being the motivation for me to learn programming and now I work as a software engineer. Between aged 15-18 almost all the code I wrote was mods for video games that me and my virtual friends played.

Frankly these were some of the best years of my life thus far and I gained many invaluable lessons from these years, yet they felt like pure fun

Having said that, such a path at my current age would likely just be time wasted. It's tricky to balance

[museumoftrees]

@WonderSeeker @something_else @Terell Kirby Thanks to you guys for all the replies

[BlueOak]

I remember when I used to listen to tony robbins as a kid, someone who dedicated his entire life to financial success. He would say even he wanted 10% escapism time, and that's someone who for me is focused too much in the direction of materialism. Nothing wrong with that, just from my perspective.