Since completing my education, I’ve noticed a decrease in mentally stimulating activities in my daily life. For this reason I’ve been experiencing a sense of cognitive decline, feeling like my mind isn’t being challenged or engaged as much as it used to be. I’m looking for ways to stimulate my brain back. I’m interested in exploring activities that can help, such as reading, puzzles, games, and other intellectually stimulating stuff. Could you recommend some engaging and challenging options to help me get started? Thanks a lot
I got into doing nature photography over the pandemic as a way to get out of the house, and it’s been amazing for my mental health. It forced me to get out and just live in the moment really paying attention to the environment around me. I’ve realized how little we notice of the world around us normally. I’ve also found martial arts are a similar experience in a sense that you’re really just focused on the moment and forget about everything else you’ve been thinking about.
I’ve been dabbling a bit, but I never thought to go out and intentionally do it, it’s always been incidental on my walks around where I live. I should try and expand it!
That’s how I started originally. I’d just walk around and if I saw something that looked neat, I’d snap a pic with my phone. And then I figured getting an actual camera might be a good pretext to get out of the house. The lockdowns kind of sealed the deal since I started getting cabin fever with nowhere to go. :)
Yea, all my pictures look a bit fuzzy due to being on my phone, a dedicated camera sounds great. I’m tight on cash now, though, so that’ll take a while.
Yeah, for a decent entry level camera it’s around a thousand bucks, and lenses tend to go for close to that as well. If you do decide to go for it at some point, something like Sony A6100, is a good starter. I started on the older A6000 model, and it served me pretty well.
Gotcha, I’ll keep those in mind, thanks!
I’d really love to get into that, especially bird photography as it’s been fun to try to learn bird calls and try to spot them. Nature really recharges the brain in a way nothing else can. Esp for those of us who are goal oriented or always feeling the need to be accomplishing something, being out in nature helps us drop all the expectations and distractions.
It’s definitely a fun hobby, although a bit pricey in terms of gear. And I very much agree, just being around nature makes you feel better and allows you to think clearly. I was between jobs for a couple of months a few years ago, and I spent the whole summer going to the park. I’d get up around 6 in the morning, leave my phone at home, and go spend the whole day at the park. It was the happiest I can recall being in my adult life. Completely disconnected from everything, and just vibing.
You find a particular part of nature you enjoy photographing? I’m a botany nerd myself so I love to photograph macro flowers. But I’ve got some friends into birding too, much more difficult.
I started with plants, but moved on to birds and occasional critters like chipmunks. Birds definitely take a bit of patience to get nice shots I find. I post some of my stuff on here https://pixelfed.social/Yogthos
Nice, those are some good bird pics. I like the coloration and little red flourishes on the woodpeckers.
Around me we get a lot of nut hatches, and titmouses which are my fav. They have little mohawks, and are quirky, but brave, as I’ve seen them do david and goliath standoffs with much bigger birds like crows. Not my pic but here’s one
Thanks, I find processing the photos tends to be half the fun. There are a lot of blackbirds around here, and they’re very feisty. Sometimes they’ll even attack hawks, and dive bomb people if they pass to close. But they’ll also eat seeds right out of your hand. And titmouses definitely look neat. I like the color scheme, and the mohawk is very cool. Apparently they do come to Ontario, but I’ve yet to see one myself.