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I was going to say being involved in low level politics or community activism but that probably just counts as meeting friends. So one thing that makes gordimhor happy is nothing. I can do it for days at a time given the chance.
Listening to music, pastel and pyrography art, singing in a local community choir, winter climbing and walking (although not out much these days).
Getting a KOM on strava obviously, is there any other happiness in life?
More seriously, sunlight, not so much sun bathing as the texture of light over landscape in the morning and evening. Don't have any religious tendencies but if I did I'd be a sun worshiper. Should have been an artist!
Occasionally I also like bludgeoning cold blooded species to death and eating them (a.k.a fishing), but that is as mush immersing myself in the landscape as the actual act of fishing itself. Same goes for surfing.
Occasionally I also like bludgeoning cold blooded species to death and eating them
But when you do that to Tories they call it "cannibalism" - there's no justice in the world.
Life in general makes me happy, I'm easily pleased, I have a great life with enough money to buy bikes,cars, holidays,guitars and other stuff when I want. I enjoy my job and and have a beautiful & healthy wife and daughter.
I'm sure I could find things in life to p*ss me of and focus on them but life is really just to short for that rubbish (took me 45 years to realise that)
The warmth & presence of the morning sun as it removes the nights chill.
Smoking pipes ... having stopped smoking roll ups. 😛
In no particular order,playing with Li'l J,a couple of good pints,listening to music,good food ,especially Thai.
Pottering in the garden,bits of diy,Netflix,the I player and stw.
Not enough hours in the day for much else.....
I read this earlier and it struck a chord.
http://semi-rad.com/2016/01/love-what-you-do-even-if-you-dont-do-what-you-love/
And this
And the real truth is that you already enjoy something. You already enjoy many things. You’re just choosing to ignore them.
Nothing any more. I always thought mtb-ing would save me but although I still enjoy it, it isn't what it was. I'm possibly in a slightly different position to most people on this thread, no kids, no partner, no career to speak of. It just all feels a bit nothing. I've struggled with depression most of my life but don't seem to have the will to fight it any more.
I agree many of the suggestions on here help though, especially dog owning, sunshine and making things.
Pilot, those of us with no missus, kids or 'career' have a [b]lot[/b]; it's just not tangible/measurable in the way us knuckle-draggers tend to do.
Depression, I've not got much advice to offer, but don't feel that enjoying life means measuring yourself against conventions (I'd bet there are many more folks reading Stw now, with kids/careers/partners that would swap their life for yours in a flash - obviously they wouldn't publicly admit it 🙂 )
You cannot and should not measure yourself against others.
Maybe the wife is cheating, the kids are unruly, massive debts paying for the big house and car. The perfect job could be really stressful causing mental health issues.
Ive learned that you cannot buy happiness, dont go looking for it, just go back and do the simple things in life and limit internet time!!!
We should all ditch the job, stick it to the man, and start a commune.
We are overdue a digger movement, the last one in the UK was in the seventeenth century.
Whose bringing the mushrooms?
I've come to the conclusion that all I do is work, look after the family and watch a bit of telly, no hobbies to speak off.
That's fine.
I suppose I don't do anything really.
This is wrong. (as you said yourself)
The problem is you're looking for happiness in something else. Happy people are happy doing the things you mentioned...just living life.
There's no magic 'hobby' that makes you happy.
I went to a lecture by the Dalai Lama some years back in Delhi. 3 hr talk on practice that was pretty intense ended with Q&A, an earnest lady asked "what makes you happy?" Without skipping a beat he replied "good food and sleep" laughed and left the stage.
Baking bread and riding bikes works for me.
A few themes keep repeating here and make sense:
Creativity, expression, slowing down, appreciating what you have.
Trouble is to make the effort to change!
Cooking meat really really slowly.
Driving with the windows down
Hip Hop from the 00s
Seeing the car you love out the window of th shop
What's app groups
Bikes. Obv.
Simple stuff, as stated above, life is mostly an endless churn of people/family needing me to do stuff for them.
Loud Rock/Metal/Punk Music
Lifting heavy objects
Small amounts of really good Alcoholic beverages.
Playing with my kids
Netflix and chill with the Wife.
Late 30's, no wife or kids, gave up my nursing career a couple of years ago as I acquired enough interests in property and other ventures not to need to. I didn't have things mapped out this way, but I'm enjoying it. I'm not creative, artistic, political or generally driven in any particular direction; so really just consider my life is just pottering about. I spend more time riding than any formal working activities most weeks. I have some fun as a partner in a micro brewery that's going pretty well. I'm an active uncle to some cracking niece's, which takes up more time since my brother was widowed. But outside of this, I just tend to combine my love of all things social with female company, and this fills quite a chunk of time. I'm sure at some point things will settle into a more normal pattern, but I'm good for now.
Reading ( currently a big cofee table book on the making of th orginal Star Wars)
Sitting in a hide photographing/ filming wildlife
Playing computer games that take ages to play currently Combat Mission Black Sea
Sitting in a nice country pub eating and drinking with female company 🙂
Walking the dog on a crisp and sunny morning.
Doing weighted pull ups in the gym.
Going shirtless in the summer.
Having no debts and cash in the bank.
I seem to collect hobbies.
I've done, well, most things really, but lack the conviction / attention span to stick with anything for very long. These days my main hobby seems to be the Xbox and (sitting on here), I really need to start rock-climbing or running or something again before my body atrophies completely.
The psychologist Eric Fromm diagnosed the citizens of western capitalist societies as suffering from profound levels of alienation.
He also wrote extensively about productive living, productive working, productive love, as opposed to what he saw everyday in his clinics - depressed people who find no meaning in their lives, no matter how hard they search.
Viktor Frankl also wrote about the importance of meaning.
I think a lot of what we do in the West outside of work is pure distraction. Get drunk, have easy sex, watch tv, do anything to get us away from ourselves. Frankl coined the term "Sunday neurosis", and I think this is how you tell whether people are happy or not, how they spend their leisure time, whether doing something meaningful or something distracting.
A foot+ of untracked powder
For me it is getting out and doing stuff in the outdoors.
In no particular order,
The dog, and all things related to him.
Making a fool of myself at the skatepark scootering.
Cooking/good food
Reading
Tattoos
The wife
Riding my bike
Just thinking about the small pleasures of life:
A deep bubble bath which is only just cold enough to get in.
Dancing with friends to cheesy pop that i didnt particularly like in my youth but will happily dance to now (i suspect as my dancing opportunities are few and far between now).
Singing loudly along to the radio in the car.
The quiet you get in the outdoors when you are far from civilisation.
Good chat with friends.
A hot shower when you are cold and muddy.
Lying in bed when you are very physically tired from a big day and you feel like you are sinking into the mattress.
A good hug.