What low energy hobbies do people do?

[keepswimming]

I'm interested. What hobbies do people have that don't take up much energy? Something that relieves the boredom a little without being exhausting. I would like to do a simple craft of some sort but I've no idea where to start or what to try...

 

[PatJ]

I have a forum post about Artist Trading Cards which are a low-energy activity that even be done by someone who is bedbound if their blood pressure isn't too low to keep their forearms raised.

It's an artistic activity that allows for connections with others and can be done at a variable pace when the person feels up to it.

Supplies can be minimal or elaborate. More details are provided in the post I linked.

 

[keepswimming]

I have a forum post about Artist Trading Cards which are a low-energy activity that even be done by someone who is bedbound if their blood pressure isn't too low to keep their forearms raised.

It's an artistic activity that allows for connections with others and can be done at a variable pace when the person feels up to it.

Supplies can be minimal or elaborate. More details are provided in the post I linked.

I really like this idea! I had never heard of ATCs before reading your post. Thank you. I think this may be something I could enjoy doing.

 

[vision blue]

xx

 

[southwestforests]

With all the hobbies I do one would think an easy and quick answer would spring forth.
And you know how us guys when offered an opportunity to suggest how to fix things ...
Nope, not today.
What first comes to mind is the surprising amount of mental energy these hobbies can eat up.
The amount of focusing required.

My hobbies generally are variations on the categories of drawing, writing, model building.

Also fly kites but that's one which falls outside the boundaries of this question.
Standing around holding strings doesn't require all that much energy, it's the getting to and from a place to do so, which eats up energy.

Oh, and you know how stepping on little LEGO pieces is, well, building LEGO in bed and rolling over on to the corner of a piece is rather less bad than what stepping on one feels like, because there is less force applied to the small area when you are lying/sitting in bed and the mattress has more give than the floor does.

Oh, and if you have the right PC or laptop, there are things like Trainz Railroad Simulator where it offers both ready made landscapes and the full ability to create your own landscapes from the provided textures and components.
Sometimes I do that more than driving the trains.

 

[southwestforests]

Am unsure what to say about where this would fall on the energy use spectrum, but these craft projects from what might be called found objects are definitely something to see!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCApxAqNgZf4u0e0g4IIfaUg/about

Description Hi, my name is Diana and I enjoy crafting, creating fairy houses, mushroom houses, miniature charms, sculpting and painting. I use recycled or dirt cheap materials and try my best to make something amazing. So this channel is about all the sweet stuff a crafty mother can create for her children, if she gets the time So you'll probably see here a bunch of tutorials about making fairy houses, mushroom houses, smurf houses, mushroom gnomes, fairy gardens, Christmas decorations, Easter decorations and some plastic bottle crafts, cardboard crafts, and other tutorials about recycling in a creative way. Enjoy it!

 

[keepswimming]

I like phone apps like Plants vs. Zombies, and Scrabble, the latter of which you can play a real game with others too (when my bp is not too high). I can't overuse my fingers though (or any joint), so crafts are difficult for me. e.g. I'd love to hand stitch a quilt from favorite fabrics, but my hands can't tolerate it; ditto other things i'd like to make whilst lying down like lamps and fountains, a pair of moccasins. Since my main pursuit is intellectual puzzle solving, i pretty much just do that- all in my head - and don't really divide my time as to hobbies vs "day job".

Some versions of Kindle are awesome and mean can read more than i was able to before kindle and Libby is a phone app that lets you borrow free books from your local library and then read them on your kindle! way cool. you can also send pdfs of any journal article or whatever to the kindle.

Aslo love the amazon echo becasue from bed i can have it do whatever I want . besides turning lights and fans and toaster ovens on and off, i can play games (try Word Chain, The Magic Door, and Animal letters) and there's a Chat-bot thing (too much to type to explain) and often more imporantly, you can lay in bed and say "Wikipedia The tv show Emergence" or any topic whatsoever that suits your fancy at the moment. Get loads of info.

I used to think i'd just resume chess as such an acitivity- but really there's so much one can do from bed i haven't done so

oh and you can dictate lying down too, so you can write stuff if you want to create and not just take in info. so if you become a poet let us all know.

will be very intersted to see what people say in reply.

what do you love? if you tell us, then maybe jsut hearing it you can brainstorm into how to convert that to doing from bed or chairs with minimal energy expenditures.

Thank you so much for sharing this! There are lots of things I hadn't even thought of so that's brilliant!

At the moment, I play scrabble on my phone with a few friends, and I like reading. I especially like audio books because I can listen to them with my eyes shut! I have a library app to get free books and magazines which is good.

Interests? I like reading as mentioned. I'm not a big TV watcher unless it's something I'm particularly interested in! I'm a foodie, before getting poorly I loved cooking and I still enjoy some cooking shows and learning about food/nutrition.

When I was younger I was really into creative writing but it years since I've done that, and I feel it might take too much energy as I'm a bit of a perfectionist with it.

I'm a giver and I have a good network of friends so if there's something I could do/make that I could use as small gifts or bring a bit of joy into their lives that is something I would enjoy, which is one of the reasons I liked the idea of the ATCs suggested by Pat.

I like doing creative things but only if they're fairly simple, I get frustrated (and tired!) if things are too complicated. For that reason I haven't done many crafts, perhaps I just haven't found the right one! Having said that I quite like intricate things, I used to do nail art years ago and enjoyed it.

Thank you for asking, I look forward to hearing what others enjoy doing and any ideas you have 🙂

 

[CFSGangster]

Not sure if you'd consider it low energy since it requires a lot of brain power... But my personal favorite hobby is playing piano (classical piano at that), and I learned how to play when I first became house bound.

it can be mentally fatiguing though...

Maybe listening to and learning to appreciate classical music is a fun low energy challenge.

 

[southwestforests]

Oh, and on writing, if creating from scratch is too much mental energy, there are places and people who offer writing prompts to get past that hurdle and start ideas flowing.
For example, this from an internet friend in India,
https://manicsylph.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/writing-prompt-31/

Do the words or the picture, or both, get your creative juices flowing?
Follow your senses, let the ink run on and create your masterpiece.

This is not a timed exercise and there are no rules. Just let your muse take over and create what you wish.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Oh, and on writing, if creating from scratch is too much mental energy, there are places and people who offer writing prompts to get past that hurdle and start ideas flowing.

I "used to"....read a new yorker story...like one by David Sedaris..(funny ones, about how absurd our lives are..that make you laugh and let you tell amusements).... so then I"d take the first sentence or title or something from one of his, and then I'd tell my story- using tweeks and modifications from his story. I found that rather fun.

But the shiney paper and tiny font: well its hard to read New Yorkers currently. Two paragraphs is rather my current reading limit.

sigh.

 

[MariaMagdalena]

I have several at home hobbies that I rotate into and out of my day depending on whether I'm having a bad or a good brain day.

I do cross stitch, but it is too cognitively and physically fatiguing to do on bad days. Even on good days I have to set a timer to no more than 1 hr.

I love to read and rely on novels a lot. I am a huge epic fantasy fan.

I also play video games on the PC. I started playing point and click adventure games when Myst came out in the 90s. I now play a variety of kinds, but have to save the cognitively challenging ones for good days, again 1 hr limits.

But the video games that have helped me the most since I've been more severely ill the last 10 years or so are Hidden Object Games (HOG for short). These are perfect for people like us because they can be played casually. The art is usually amazing. They have relaxing ambient music. The activities in the game switch between finding items around to unlock doors, statues, boxes etc, to scenes where you have to find objects on a list (some of these get very creative), and then puzzles of various levels of complexity along with a storyline.

The really good thing about the puzzles is that if you have it set on a more casual difficulty level you can just skip the puzzle if it is too hard for you. This prevents me from over-fatiguing my brain. These games have saved my sanity at times when I am homebound. I often use them to pace myself through household tasks, like cooking or cleaning.

You can download them either from here (for those of us with extra money)
or
Here (for us poor folk)

Here is a cool wallpaper from one of the games:

 

[overtheedge]

Been playing nintendo switch lately using a projector aimed at the ceiling above my bed as the screen. the thing that makes it really usable is disconnecting the two controllers, one in each hand, and just lying in bed normally, usually with a controller you have to hold it on your stomach or pelvis with your arms propped up to make contact with it which doesn't feel comfortable but the switch controllers are great when separated and are lightweight. playing a bit of legend of zelda: breath of the wild, which spaces the puzzles out enough for them to not be overwhelming, and thinking about getting rocket league on it. Have rocket league on my xbox but it's so much less energy to lie down and play games


used to play lots of puzzle games but with my fatigue getting worse my brain power has been low and ive tried to ration it to only use for finding a way to get out of being chronically ill, anyone into puzzle games i would recommend:


Legend of Zelda console games, N64 and newer ones, can’t comment on any before that or on the handhelds except for spirit tracks which is worth checking out. On the other hand A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS isn’t worth checking out as it is weak on puzzles.

Machinarium

Portal 1 and 2 as well as portal still alive which is the xbox version of portal 1 which contains an additional 14 level campaign, I’ve read that the Still Alive mod can be downloaded on PC. Portal 2 has a long cooperative campaign that is all original content, requires two people to play.

Metroid Prime 1 & 2 are borderline puzzle games

Battleblock theater (most fun when played in local or online co-op mode)

FEZ(note: don’t go into the door requiring 32 cubes to open without making a copy of your game right before hand, this door ends the game, endings are different based on whether or not you have all 64 cubes as well as whether or not you have solved the heart cubes secret, the game is near impossible to fully beat without looking for answers on the internet as the stuff is ridiculous and tricky, expecting knowledge of binary and decryption techniques)

The Turing Test (2016) at the start it’s a too easy puzzle game but some of the puzzles towards the end are challenging and interesting, as well, the optional puzzles halfway through each chapter are complex and worth solving

Death Squared (try the coop mode with a friend, couch coop only, not online enabled)

Framed 1 and Framed 2 are good(on steam it is called Framed Collection and includes both)

Gorogoa

Opus Magnum



Puzzle games by Jonathan Blow:

Braid

The Witness



Puzzle games by Playdead Studios:

Limbo

Inside


Check them out on youtube for an idea of what they're like

I've also got a long list of puzzle games which i haven't played but which are renowned which ive been meaning to play once things are better. Spent many hours looking through lists and vids of puzzle games to narrow it down to them. if anyone wants me to post that list just post here asking and ill be happy to oblige.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Here is a cool wallpaper from one of the games:

That is cool imagery and hopefully means artists are able to get work doing that!

 

[PatJ]

But the shiney paper and tiny font: well its hard to read New Yorkers currently.

Have you tried the New Yorker web site?

 

[PatJ]

Zentangle is another creative activity that can be done from bed (I do them lying on my back). All you need a pen and paper, and a optionally a pencil for shading. Tanglepatterns is a collection of many interesting tangles. They also have an introduction to Zentangle.

 

[PatJ]

Here is an old thread that lists many low energy activities.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Have you tried the New Yorker web site?

Yes: I am aware of that...So actually, its BOTH the challenge of reading the magazine physically..but its also that I've lost alot of my ability to have interests in these externalities. Cognitively.

Best to not analyze it.

 

[keepswimming]

Thanks so much for all your responses and suggestions (and I'm open to more! ). You've given me some really good ideas I hadn't thought of, I will definitely be looking into them, and taking some of them up. It will be nice to have a few different low energy activities I can choose from depending on the day.

 

[Judee]

I know brain fog gets in the way of learning for many of us but I really like youtube for learning new things. There are even some immersion language coarses on there like French in Action and El Destinos put out by the Annenburg CPB project. Of course you have to find one by a user that posts all the lessons. I think they are about 52 weeks worth.

Also my library has online courses (called Gale courses) in everything from writing to computer coding or learning Office for Windows. Just a thought for anyone not as affected by brain fog. (Here's the list on my closest library's site:

• Accounting and Finance
• Business
• Computer Applications
• Design and Composition
• Healthcare and Medical
• Language and Arts
• Law and Legal
• Personal Development
• Teaching and Education
• Technology
• Writing and Publishing)

You can check with your local libraries to see if they have something similar. I think they do require that you have a library card to sign up though.

Alas, even though I want to learn a new language and/or some of those things on the list, the brain fog does get in the way so I stick to easy things to learn.

 

[Abrin]

Low-energy hobbies have been on my mind a lot lately.

I've started doing some papier mache lately as a low-energy hobby and figure I'd try looking around on the forums for some other ideas.