Lately I have found myself deeply immersed in some pretty heavy research associated with my PhD thesis. I don’t know about you but I am the kind of person that can and will get lost in something that interests me. I can effectively shut out the entire world when I am “in the zone” (that is if my ADHD isn’t acting up). As I thought about what to post this week I had trouble switching gears from my immersion in nerdy academicaland. The last thing anyone reading this blog wants to hear about is how Philo of Alexandria uses a certain perfect passive participle to indicate a slight variation of Platonic providence theory. In fact, I may have even made that last line up (you’ll just have to buy the book later).
So, other than making up stuff in blogs to sound smart, what else do I do to stay sane during this whole PhD process? I’m glad to assume you asked! Everyone copes with the insanity differently. I have a friend who delves into boring artistic high-brow movies in attempts to feel silly emotions other than the pumped-up adrenaline jacked happiness. Another friend started a really cool beer lovers society and organizes sweet get togethers at various conferences (read more about that in John’s post tomorrow). Yet another friend reads Karl Barth in his spare time! Crazy!!
I end up doing a lot of things with my kids like beating them at football (soccer for you Americans), watching football on tv, watching their football games on weekends, coaching one of their football teams, and playing football on the xbox. Needless to say we have a lot of footy based activities. Melodie and Prince the dog also join in on the football fun!
When I am not doing anything football or family related and it is just down to my own individual sanity a few different activities help maintain my brain. It may sound counter intuitive due to all of the academic reading that is required during the research process but I love to read books in my “spare” time. Mostly the nerdy science fiction stuff. I think it has to do with accessing a different part of my brain, an imaginative part that doesn’t really get free-range while I am parsing a Greek verb or syntactically outlining a sentence. All this reading is great but it does lead to some tired eyes at the end of the day.
I also ride my bike to and from school every day. My friend Mike Laffin was kind enough to give me his bike before he recently left for the US and it has been a huge help! Everyday I speed down a giant hill and coast to my office. Everyday I have to arduously pedal up that same gigantic monstrosity of a hill in order to get home. It’s a good work out and causes my head to clear before I get to the house. Physical activity is great when all you do is sit at a desk all day and think intensely about a topic only you and three other people in the UK care anything about.
What do you do to stay sane in your life?
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