sanity exercises for the obsessive mind
take a 6 hour train ride away from your foreign country to an even more foreign country. feel acutely the discomfort; the further disorientation and confusion.
buy yourself frivolous flavors of ice cream and eat it while walking an unfamiliar street in aforementioned foreign city.
choose a cafe with a smiley owner with whom you can only exchange three words. sit outside. accept his offer of cacao and cinnamon for your coffee.
return to the original foreign country — only for it to feel like a gentle, familiar place (familiarity is relative, afterall).
message acquaintances you haven’t spoken to in a year - just to remember that there are other people in the world.
do something very out-of-character, like binge watching a TV show in bed - at least 3 episodes.
organize life and travel logistics — get so wrapped up in it that it feels like an addiction-compulsion greater than any other (if only for a day). feel a sense of great satisfaction when the problem is solved.
lay in bed alone in the early morning and do nothing except stare at the ceiling - only if you are capable of not thinking about anything.
wake up at 4:15 am, when you feel like you’re the only person alive in the world, and enjoy the rare summer darkness. write some half coherent dream vomit.
get yourself invited to a secret milonga on the outskirts of the city, and dance with almost anyone who asks. for good karma.
talk to strangers just so you remember that you know how.
ride a bike home in the rain, after a milonga, after midnight, and feel how this is the mundane and joyous part of living in a new city. this is it.
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ongoing list of exercises. last updated july 1 2021