"I Used to Take Piano Lessons: " Why piano lessons are usually a terribl...

Fun After 60

Stream-of-Consciousness Free Associations on "PLAY"

On a Roller Coaster

7 Keys to Making the Most of Your Recreation

If you're aware of where you’d like to be on seven continua, you may well increase how much you enjoy your recreation. I describe them in my Psychology Today article today.

COVID Recreations: On making the most of walking, reading, cooking, listening to and playing music, tweaking your home, and handwriting letters

My Psychology Today article today offers my thoughts on how to make of these COVID-friendly recreations: walking, reading, cooking, listening to and playing music, tweaking your home, and handwriting letters.

Recreation Ideas for the Super Smart

Of course, even the brainiest person might want recreation to provide a rest from using all that brainpower. I know a high-powered lawyer who, at home sews boxer shorts for her boyfriend while watching cartoons.
But intelligent people may want to think big even in their recreation, to take on a fun project, what I call a projation. I offer examples in my Psychology Today article today.

Choosing a Hobby

Many people are so busy today that the word "hobby" seems almost obsolete.
Yet, most of us should reserve time for something pleasurable that has nothing to do with our career. For many people, that's relationships but a rewarding hobby can also light an otherwise dreary existence and enhance even an otherwise good one.

If you might be interested in a hobby but aren't sure what, as my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer a list of 37 curated from a master list of hundreds.

Bored? 17 Antidotes to Apathy

Are you finding yourself with some extra time in your week? My PsychologyToday.com article offers 17 antidotes to boredom. HERE is the link.

My Simple Pleasures

Most people I know derive most of their pleasure from relationships, travel, sports, TV, clothes, pop culture, yoga, spas, etc.

I'm atypical. I don't know if any of you would find it helpful, but here's what gives me greatest pleasure:

• First and foremost, my work. But of course, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you knew that. The more I contribute, the more worthy I feel, the more I feel like I've earned my spot on the planet.
• The feeling I get after drinking a cup of coffee: smarter, more upbeat. Caffeine is my drug of choice.
• My doggie, Einstein, whether it's watching him sleeping on the dog bed next to my desk, taking our daily hike around the lake, or even fake-yelling at him for jumping onto the kitchen counter. (Click on the photo to get a close-up look at my baby.)
• An Indian buffet
• Being musical performance coach to my wife and to my former career counseling client and now friend, Jeffrie Givens.
• Gardening: seeing that amalgamation of the hybridizer's years of work with nature's miracle of growth. 
• Watching a great movie at home. Video on-demand is wonderful. 
• Googling. The world's information is just a few clicks away. Just 25 years ago, that would have been deemed impossible.
• Playing the piano for clients or friends. 
• Watching C-Span, especially the in-depth, fair-minded interviews of people on both the Left and Right.
• Watching YouTube videos of great performances. Last night, Jeffrie and I watched six world-class performances of Take Me or Leave Me from Rent.

Note that all of those pleasures are low-cost or free.

In Praise of Music

We tend to undervalue what's inexpensive and easily accessible, whether it be aspirin, the Internet, or the topic of this post: music.

For the moment, forget the miracle of being able to listen to and watch on YouTube, with a click of your mouse, for free, the world's greatest performances, from Glenn Gould's Bach Goldberg Variations to the shopping mall flash mob of the Hallelujah Chorus.

I'm talking here just about the benefits of listening. And I'm not claiming, as some people have, that listening to classical music increases cognitive ability. Indeed, the preponderance of the evidence now suggests that's not true. Here are ways I benefit from music. Perhaps you might too:

When I'm feeling blue, pump-it-up music is my antidepressant--and it has no side-effects. Of course, you'll want to identify your own musical pepper-uppers but my sure-fire ones include: Big Phat Band's A Few Good Men: and Watermelon Man:, New Life Choir's Oh How Wondrous, and My New Philosophy from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown: . You can download each for permanent use for 99 cents, less than the cost of one Prozac. (I do consider "file sharing" to be stealing.)

I listen to such a song just a couple of times, and not only do I feel better while listening, afterwards the melody often keeps rolling around in my head--it's a long-acting anti-depressant.

When I'm anxious, music is as calming to me as meditation without having to spend the time. Examples of music that reliably soothe me: Bach's Air on a G String, any Beegie Adair piano music: , Doc Severinsen's Big Band's Siliciano: and the second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.

Music also can be a motivator. My main exercise is a vigorous hike every day with my beloved Einstein. Taking my mp3 player, loaded mainly with pump-it-up music on my hike, motivates me to resist the temptation to skip the day's hike. That music also makes the hike more pleasurable.

Beyond listening, performing music, even if you're a beginner, can be life-enhancing. Whether by ear or with sheet music, trying to recreate great music or create your own is, for many of us, a welcome antidote to the heavily cognitive lives many of us lead. Even though a hand condition has recently reduced me to being a seven-fingered pianist, as you can see on THIS video. I still derive much pleasure from playing, and maybe my playing still can give pleasure to others.

Might you want to try a low-risk experiment? Create a musical tool kit: Whether on mp3, CD, whatever, pick one song you know will pump you up, one that will calm you down, and a third you'll enjoy no matter what your mood. And might you want to play around with a musical instrument, even a drum? Or sing, perhaps in a choir. Or perhaps if you played an instrument eons ago, you might want to pull it out of your closet and see if you can still play the old stuff or, with fresh ears, try new things. Whatever combination of tools, consider trying out your toolkit to see if it improves your life at all.

Recreation for a Hermit

I'd like to tell you my favorite recreation. Even if you're quite social, you might want to add my hermitic pleasure to your recreation repertoire.

It's free, endlessly varied, and fascinating to me. And for you environmentalists, it has a zero carbon footprint.

My favorite recreation is simply to sit in front of my computer and pick one of these:

• Watching YouTube videos. That enables me to see, on command, for example:
  

-- a jaw-dropping version of a magician cutting a man in half
-- a flash mob in a food court singing the Hallelujah Chorus
-- Susan Boyle auditioning for Britain's Got Talent
-- memorable movie clips
-- Bach's Air on a G String while watching beautiful images of deep space
-- Julie Andrews singing "In My Own Little Corner"
-- and, okay, my own crude videos, e.g., this one on how to live the life well-led.

I particularly enjoy listening on my computer since I bought Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 computer speakers. They're $180 new but available in like-new condition for half that on Amazon, and to my ears, they sound as good as a fine home system.

• Googling. I can read world-class articles on virtually whatever I want. Finding one is usually as simple as picking one of the first few Google search results. For example, I recently wanted to learn about the future of electric cars. Here's what I found. Yesterday, I wanted to pick a better hair conditioner. A two-second Google search revealed THIS.

Writing. I love to share what I know. If it can be said in a sentence or two, I write it on my Twitter page. If it requires a few hundred words, I write it on this blog. If it's longer, I post it on my website, www.martynemko.com.

When I want recreation away from my computer, true to my hermitic preferences, except when I'm hanging out with my wife, I usually play the piano or in my garden, and six days a week, take a vigorous hike with my doggie, Einstein.

I recognize that my style of recreation isn't for most people.

How to Do Life: what they didn't teach you in school

I've just written THIS article for Mensa's national magazine, the Mensa Bulletin. It contains some of the best ideas from my recently completed book manuscript, How to Do Life: what they didn't teach you in school.

It offers not-obvious but helpful ideas on career, recreation, money, education, coupling, parenting, spirituality, plus a few all-purpose tips for living the life well-led.

Child's Play

I had coffee with two fellow career counselors. In the course of conversation, I said, "Let's each take one minute to tell each other the things we most enjoyed doing when we were children."

I said:
-- Looking out the window hoping it will continue snowing so school will be closed the next day.
-- Lying on the grass, watching the clouds move.
-- Practicing basketball by myself, learning to dribble as well with my right hand as with my left.

You know, although I haven't done those things in almost 50 years, I think I'd still enjoy doing them. Maybe I'll do them.

What did you most enjoy as a child? Would you like to do them again now?