What do you think about when you are alone?

[AmandaYVR]

What type of thoughts most often enter your mind when you are by yourself?

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+1 y

You guys are killing it on these answers. So interesting.

[Kurαȷ]

My thoughts are usually torn between nihilistic despair and childish happy-go-luckiness.

I think about how all our effort is meaningless, about how we are never in control of anything, about how no amount of choices you make will ever actually allow you to have the things you want to have.
And then I start thinking about how I'm going to continue my career, move out of my country, hopefully find someone I care about and be able to fool and distract myself with surface-level satisfaction.

It's a cursed circle of me trying to find reasons to continue living in spite of everything suggesting that it is a meaningless waste of effort.

[HazelEyedMusician]

I had 2 uppies, including you, QA, and you still went with a person who only had 1?

[AmandaYVR]

@HazelEyedMusician You are mistaken about how the MHO system works. It is dealer's choice, not a democracy of counted votes. I upvote quite liberally to say thank you for a contribution, but I don't care how others vote, I have my preferences, as does everyone. You sound incredibly bitter to be questioning this twice now. I don't even see you on this question. Kuraj is my pick. End of story.

[MAINEVENTMAFlA]

Who the fuck bitches over not getting MHO?

[AmandaYVR]

@MAINEVENTMAFlA Ikr? That's a first for me, seeing that. And esp since I've made countless comments, and even written a mytake, about how I don't believe in the automated system. That's not true social media, that's senseless pandering.

[DanOh2018]

I think about optimizing my day, getting shit done, my own comic insignificance, greek yogurt, how cats are cute, the nearly inevitable collapse of human civilization. Wanting to go to the gym then feeling stupid for not going to the gym because of social anxiety. My career and how it's stupid but how changing lanes is expensive and scary, because I'll have to actually live up to my potential LoL

[AmandaYVR]

An interesting, fragmented, creative list. I like it.

[DanOh2018]

Thank you!

[happyhedgehog]

This is what I think about when I'm alone.
If I am at peace I think about books I will write, paintings I'll make, dreams I've had, people I love.
If I am stressed I think about mistakes I've made, things I'm afraid of, things I hate about myself, people who irritate me.
These are the most common, although there are others. There are some random things as well, like refrigerators and parakeets.

[MAINEVENTMAFlA]

We all have those kinds of thoughts.

[el_Te_de_la_Rosa]

What to eat. /Food to cook.
What to draw. /Pics to sell.
What to teach. /English to improve.
What mv to dance along. /Songs to sing.
What else I should do to travel around the world on my own.
How to forget my crush.
What about people who lie.
What to ask on G@g.
What to answer to the questions on G@g.

[dangerDoge]

This is something that started to happen after I became more involved in songwriting: my passive thoughts became about constantly replaying music or creating something new. It simultaneously drives me insane while also helping me write good content. Having songs stuck on one's mind is pretty normal, but as far as I can tell, it happens a bit more significantly to me.

I'll be trying to read a book, for instance, and suddenly my mind started thinking it was a good time to decipher the beginning of Kascade by Animals As Leaders. (It has a 5/8 drum pattern on top of a 4/4 beat at 0:12, making it very difficult.) This happened the other day-- it ruined my reading, since I was just staring at a blank page until I made the effort to figure the song out. Until I figure the song out, the part of it just plays on repeat like a broken record. It took me about 30 minutes of back-and-forth attention before I gave up and just decided to listen to the song. It didn't get rid of the replay though.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lbA3jxab4A0

In the past, I remember the break down to Scream Aim Fire (2:29) by Bullet For My Valentine came to mind. I kept trying to remember it perfectly, and my mind wouldn't let me stop playing it until I got it right. I remember actually doing some weird tweak on my foot because I kept tapping it the entire day.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XjN_p416_nM

Just now, the chorus of the song The Sound of Glaciers Moving by Corelia (2:34) came to mind suddenly. I felt an urge to listen to it. It replays until I go listen to it and thoroughly get tired of it. Sometimes the urges are weaker, and replaying the song makes it go away (like this one), while sometimes the thought is stronger, and the replay will take days to reduce, regardless of listening to the song (like Kascade).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqOKYOhUYx0

There isn't really a good pattern to what songs come up, since they'll be oftentimes songs I haven't listened to in months or years. The only common factor is that they have parts that I found really interesting. This happens if I'm walking around, whether I'm alone or with other people.

It's a blessing and curse ultimately. I'll never get too bored, since I have a mInd-Pod more-or-less, but it can be hard to push the thoughts out when I'm wanting to focus. I'll be taking a difficult exam and then suddenly my minds like "Hey, remember that great chorus to You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates? Let's play it now and focus on that!" It's also how I got really good at snapping my fingers. After walking around and playing mental songs, I started snapping to them without really thinking about it. After awhile, I started being able to do double/triple snaps on both fingers.

[AmandaYVR]

"It has a 5/8 drum pattern on top of a 4/4 beat at 0:12, making it very difficult." Ok my brain just melted now. Remember those 'This is your brain on drugs' eggs in the frying pan commercials? Yeah.

Yes isn't it weird how we can read words in a book or wherever, yet simultaneously not be thinking about them, so ine one way you did read them, but it's like having a bunch of random objects, unrelated, next to each other. I do that often. Will re-read a sentence like 10x. It is annoying, but I am also fascinated that it works like that. Attention Economy now, right? Most valuable thing we have left.

"It didn't get rid of the replay though." That's interesting. If it was something trivial, like for me I forget the names of actors I clearly know really well by their filmography, or the name of a restaurant I may have been to more than once, sometimes I lie in bed and though I could look it up, I mess around with trying to remember it because I always wonder if our brains were slightly better before we were relying on all this technology to support us. (However I can't tell if it helps anything. So sometimes I suffer, and eventually remember, or I look it up and feel like, "Ahhhhh" much better.) You are then releasing it from its task. But I can think of another, different scenario, where, say, you spent many hours (or more) working on some project. So much so, that you dream about it, or fixate on it while you're trying to fall asleep. That's all part of the brain's way of filing it, processing it.
cont'd...
I really need a longer character limit...

[AmandaYVR]

Hmm. I've always wondered what's going on in a guy's mind when you see him sitting and his foot is almost violently shaking. Nervous energy? So maybe he's got a frantic song in his head?

Does the urge to listen and replay correlate with either the complexity of the song, or your strong like of it?

"Mind-Pod" heehehee.

During an exam? Whoa. That's weird. That pushes this into a whole other realm.

Remember that teenager on here who was asking 'Can you ever be too creative?' who had thoughts rushing in, associations with all sorts of objects, and finding it hard to slow them down.
Ah ha, found it! Ha, we are still two of only 5 people who answered it. Yep, still interesting.
Is too much creativity a bad thing? ↗

My left hand has never been able to snap. I feel like a lame duck. Ever seen Steve Martin try to snap in The Jerk? Omg so funny. He was learning rhythm (thought he was black, but "born a poor Black child from the South" he felt very deficient.) Clearly that is not you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDgOUoDTsY

[dangerDoge]

The notation if you're curious:

It's basically your left hand and feet going snare, 4 kicks, repeat without any rests. The right hand is going quarter notes.

I suppose it's kind of like the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon like you mentioned. For real complicated beats like Kascade though, it becomes less of remembering it and more so mentally playing it until I know it extremely solidly. Like I'll have the theoretical understanding of it notation-wise, but since I'm not perfect at it, it's not deemed 'good enough' and I'll keep thinking about it.

I think for a lot of guys the leg shaking is a bit of restlessness. I use it as a sort of practice now for leg independence. Like alternating left and right leg, doing paradiddles, etc.. (Lowkey-- I was raised Catholic. On long sermons, I'd be bouncing my legs because I'd be losing focus of the sermon and thinking of music to pass the time.) I suppose for me it's restlessness in the end as well, since it's usually a means when I'm bored lol (i.e. school, long drives-- using my left leg of course, waiting rooms, etc.).

[AmandaYVR]

You are challenging yourself to perfect something, so your mind won't let it go, which although annoying like an earworm, shows a lot of determination.
Speaking of complicated beats (and syncopation):
Another fabulous VOX video. I am in awe every time I watch this. I asked a q recently about watching competition shows (which I generally dislike) but as some others said, watching people trying to figure out an intellectual challenge, now that can be interesting, when the work is of a very high level.
www.youtube.com/watch

[ChurchOfSteel]

I mostly think about self-improvement. 18 credit hours leaves me little time to contemplate, alas. I do gratitude meditations, though. Coming from a 17 year old homeless cocaine/morphine addict falling asleep on frozen, icy concrete to an emaciated 24 year old at 5'10, 92 pounds, to a shredded hobbyist 155 pound bodybuilder living in a reasonably priced apartment overlooking a good amount of greenery and nature and animals and people. Also being the first one in my family to graduate with not one, but 2 separate degrees. My gratitude is great.

Mmm. Sometimes I will stop between my studies to lift the window and peer out into the creekbed below, looking down to the crested hill and manmade stone outcroppings surrounding this small pond. There, we've seen a beaver my girlfriend has dubbed boots: Boots The Beaver, we call him. Fishes and turtles and cranes go about their daily lives, in the middle of the big city, no less. I smell the crisp autumn air, thick with the clean smells of the nearby--but still pleasantly far--forest, and life feels better than I ever dreamed it could. All the more if it has rained, and a tor**** of pleasantly flowing water comes barreling and swirling to fill the deep pond. Bliss. In any case, my thoughts tend to drift towards those pleasant ones more often, as I attempt the Tony Robbins means of "working out" a positive mental state, like a muscle. Which is not to say the negative thoughts don't come; they certainly do. But, I try to ruminate on the good as much as I can. A monk I am fond of says it this way, "There is always something to be grateful for. If you can see; if you can smell; if you can think," and training that state of gratitude has helped me a lot with my natural pessimistic default thinking.

[AmandaYVR]

Wow. Take a bow. That was beautiful. 👏

[ChurchOfSteel]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. ^_^

[Bluemax]

My wife.

When I travel alone, and I can tell you I've done more traveling since her death than in the years we were together (she didn't travel well... very prone to motion sickness, boats and airplanes scared her and she didn't even like traveling long distances by car), I think that I am trying to enjoy what I can without her.

Very often I find myself thinking "What is this xenolith? How did it get here? What are these deposits? What tale do they tell? What is that cloud? What does it tell me? Why is this plant like this? What does it tell me? What is that Messier object? How far is it? What does it tell me?" (etc). And sometimes when I think of these things, I remember Apollo 8's Christmas Eve address to the world, where the astronauts read movingly from the book of Genesis. I think how they concluded the broadcast "God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth." I think how can I convey this wonder and beauty to my students. But invariably I find myself somewhere between sighing and sobbing longing to talk to her about what I saw (she was very curious and appreciative when I did). I often find myself talking to her, and for the record I believe in neither an eternal soul nor an afterlife, and saying what I would say to her if I could. At times I find myself very sad she's no longer there, eagerly listening and asking questions, and i try to remind myself at least I got to know her at all (which is more than can be said for some people I know).

[Lliam]

That was beautiful, Bluemax. Your wife sounds like a lovely woman. I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Unit1]

I have plenty to think about

• How can i make more money?
• Should I hire cleaning services?
• Which encryption standard should I implement? And which tool should I use to encrypt my data? And if I ever want to recover it? It must be cross platform supported.
• QubeOS or CentOS 8? Or Just Debian? Or maybe PureOS?
• I haven't had an erotic sex massage for months. But with this pandemic, I don't want to spend money just to find out it's gonna be with masks.
• Realistically speaking how many weapons and ammo can a soldier carry without exhausting so often?
• Bah! I hate gold diggers!
• But some women are gold themselves, that are waiting to be dug out
• Now where can I order some sugar free chocolate? Does sugar free white chocolate exist?
• I could browse for some music, see if I find anything I like to add to my playlist collections.
• Should I play with the Mozambique and the Hammerpoint hop-up (Apex Legends)?
• Where are all the good women hiding?
• "🎵🎶I turn the news on when I smell death in the air🎵🎶"
• Is there anything money can't do? Didn't think so.
• Yeah, some women are crazy. And some women are not crazy.
• I want some drugs but I didn't find a vendor yet.

[AmandaYVR]

And this shall be called 'A Day in the Life of Unit1'
I like it, very entertaining/interesting.

[Unit1]

You are welcome, Ms. Amanda 🤗

[CaptainOverthink]

Different states of mind creates different thought-patterns.

Negative:
When in a steep downward-spiral my thoughts are of selfpity, bitter sweetness and fighting the inner demons of anxiety.
Messy thoughts about death, suicide, old heartbreakes, my faults, the future "me" looking back in regret. It's mostly turmoil.
I try to keep out from being there at any cost.

Neutral mindset:
Neutral is when I don't even notice I actually have a mood. I am not so selfconcious as to observe my own thought-process and judge it.
I could be thinking about a podcast, a game, school, friends, future events and workouts. It's the mediocre, fleeting everyday life.
I like those days in a way but I also know they build up guilt for being to lazy.

Active mindset:
Days when I get things done. I work, study, workout, clean and cook.
I feel good about myself, I feel worthy of my present life because you get what you work for and that day I worked so I felt deserving.
I feel a bit grand and visionary. Think and fantasize about the future and I reassure myself that I am aligned with my motives and find my struggles importand and I feel like a student under pressure. Strong and capable thoughts. Like being okay with where I am even if I can see room for impeovement.

Positive states:
I don't have all that many of these in all honesty. It's rather smaller moments that last an hour at a maximum. Im usually just romantisizing about the things I am positive about at that time and being silly to myself, dancing around. I value these times a lot in a way becuse they show me I could be happier with just slight improvement. But they also provides stark contrast to the lower dips in mood and they are rarely based in reality but more about the potential outcomes ahead. Dreamlike conditions.

[mk200195]

Most of the times I think about human behaviours, about questions like why people do what they do? Why I am doing things that bothers me but still I am doing those? What are the activities I can do regularly which will benefit me in future? How can I control my thoughts? Why I don’t like everyone even if I try to? How can I travel around the globe? When will I get started with something i want to do? Why i distract myself from the things I must do? What can I do to focus and cut that distraction? How can I improve my conversation skills? What are the ways to know whether someone mean what they say? Is it their nature which attracts me towards them or the looks or both? Is it really important to think what I am thinking writing right now? What more can we do with our ability of thoughts? Are these limitless? What If my mind can control the thoughts of others?


These are the few of my random thoughts. As our brain is mistery and is very powerful, If it is used at right time and in right direction one can do miracles.


Other than this I listen to music.

[Don-_-Don]

Things that I think about when I'm alone:

Debating should I still be alive or not.
Evaluating my value in the world.
Missing my carefree days before I was a legal adult.
Is life worth it or not.
What's the point in dating
Self Hatred
My lack of ability to forgive myself for my weaknesses/flaws
Death and life
How stoicism is the only thing I can resort to if I want to keep this life of mine going
Suicide
How money is causing the majority of my problems and it's crazy how these problems would go away if I had the money of a celebrity. Really makes you wonder wtf is your worth in the world.
What exactly should I live for
When will I die
About how is there actually some- I'm going to stop here.
I don't want to go into talking about things that are too sensitive.
That's generally what I think about, but what I think about really has a lot more detail.
What I think about can changes overtime.
All I've named here is about 65% of what I have been thinking about lately.
The remaining 35 percent are things I don't want to share at this time.

[Marco10]

I think about many things when I’m alone:
- My grandpa. I always wonder what he’s doing up their and if we’re going to reunite one day. We used to be best buddies and I owe a lot to him God bless his soul.
- My friends. Who’s real, and who’s not. Who’s just using me, and who truly cares about my and have my best interest at heart.
- Life in general. I always think about what I did in any given day. What I got right. What I did wrong. How I can improve tomorrow. Sounds cliche but I do that almost everyday.
- Soccer. I think a lot about soccer, my favorite players. The games that are coming up, etc.
That’s pretty much it. Can’t think of anything specific that I normally think of regularly.

[Marco10]

Up there * ugh damn typos

[AmandaYVR]

A very fine list 👍

[kinetic198336]

It all depends on the mood I'm in. If I'm happy then my imagination goes wild and everything is great and funny and life is good with endless possibilities. But if I'm depressed or having anxiety it's like a dark well and I keep sinking towards the bottom which is endless. I then dwell on my so called failures and mistakes and how I wish things were different. But I am a major introvert and after learning about myself and personalities (i am a INFJ personality type on the meters Briggs) I understood myself more and how to pull myself back up and stay happy.

[AmandaYVR]

Bingo. That's the key. When you learn about yourself (and the Myers-Briggs is a fantastic venue to do that), you feel less random, like there is more structure behind, or within you. You and I are at the veeery bottom of that list of 16. 1.5% of the population. I am not surprised you have felt listless. Comes with our type, the rarity. It can feel lonely, separate, at times. But not always, and not forever.

[Boppy]

It depends on how I happen to be that day. Sometimes it'll just be whatever song's stuck in my head (It comes automatically, usually matching the rhythm of my footsteps, can be frustrating).

If I'm alone and wandering but not lost and I feel safe, I'll start to daydream, for lack of a better word. My mind will wander far and wide and I find it useful for figuring out all that has happened to me since my I last walked. It's wonderful, though I've been told I get a really unhappy expression when I'm lost in thought.

[sadMeester]

I think about the person I care most about. I've moved on from existential questions, those haven't concerned me since my early teens.

Usually I either think about finances in different circumstances or how I would explain modern technology to settlers prior to the American revolution. It's a good way to test how much you know about how things work.

[AmandaYVR]

"how I would explain modern technology to settlers prior to the American revolution. It's a good way to test how much you know about how things work."
Clever!!

[Sensmind]

Hard to quantify - I would classify as an internal dialogue - Obviously if things are on my mind, I would mull over them but the less cluttered my head is, I tend to go off on a philosophical/spiritual self awareness/exploration about myself and my place in the world/ maybe what that world is like?

[AmandaYVR]

Well said.

[1stPlace]

Plenty of things:

-My past

-What it'd have been like living during a certain times in history (including what it'd be like to living with dinosaurs)

-human behavior

-what form of life is out in the universe

-the broken legal system

Etc, etc, etc.

[AmandaYVR]

A lot of good stuff there...

[October808]

Songs in my head, what should I cook for dinner, hey who's that pretty girl standing over there. Nice I don't see a ring on her finger. Is it going to rain? It's raining... again. Oh my gosh Young the Giant are coming back in January! Finally a concert I want to see!
Wait how did I get here, I don't remember walking this way...

[AmandaYVR]

So good...

[talloak]

I took a long break from this site precisely because I didn’t want to discuss what I was thinking. It has pained me deeply to watch America descend into an abyss. I no longer could bear to argue with those who dragged her down.

[AmandaYVR]

Very poignant. Thank you, talloak.

[talloak]

I did miss your positivity, imagination and gorgeous images, Amanda! A good reason to stick around

[AmandaYVR]

Oh thank you, talloak. That's so sweet of you.

[Jjpayne]

Wanting to be close with a woman but knowing at this point in my life no woman would want someone in my finanical position. Also thinking about my faith and how that relates to what I feel. It's hard to know where to take my life... I'm not quite sure what the next step will look like but I have hopes that I'm not too late for life and love at this stage of life

[ItsTheNephilim]

Last thing I want is to be left alone with my philosophical thoughts. Ngl, they tend to be really cynical and full of selfishness. I sometimes get there but I generally tend to divert my mind doing some physics and mathematics stuff and think about matter related to the subjects.

[bimmy5000]

I'm alone, and there's no one to talk to. Sure I can try some apps but they never say more than hi. My heart is giving out from the alcohol, but I keep putting off calling the doctor. I should really really call that therapist.

[AmandaYVR]

Dude, that's deep.
Pm sometime if you like. I'll talk about anything.

[KingdomForAKiss]

I either stress excessively or I think about my blessings (my daughter). I like to study and learn more about things I'm interested in.
I like to study educational standards as well. (LOL)

I like to daydream a bit as well. Sometimes I'm entirely unfocused.

[hellionthesagereborn]

Ideas. Its hard to say, debates and arguments of various topics, political, historical, all the way to the scientific. Story ideas, science fiction etc. Its all over the place honestly.

[AmandaYVR]

Yes I bet it is. Your mind is a fountain.

[hellionthesagereborn]

A fountain but one that is constantly overflowing, makes it hard to dedicate my mind to one particular task at any given time so perhaps useful but not efficient.