[internet cafe] returning to normality

[likesthecoat]

Back to work today. Other injuries are still healing but the head is all right. I think we're all still feeling a bit fragile, and the Captain was hovering like a nursemaid.

As far as team bonding experiences go, I think we should have gone with the laser tag.

Comments

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you're feeling better.

Something like this will probably take some time to get over, though. Maybe some sort of group activity that isn't psychologically and phisiologically hazardous might help...?

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

G. has been pressing going to a rugby game together. I think we may actually do that.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

While I think I would probably find that more traumatizing than anything else, if it's something you and your workmates would enjoy, then it's a very good idea.

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

I like rugby. I played it at university. I worry more about trying to explain it to the Captain--I suspect he'll think it's like American football.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

...Isn't it? Except without quite so much padding...?

Honestly, my knowledge of sports is almost non-existent. The closest thing I've ever come to playing a sport is walking (and I didn't even do much of that until recently). I suppose I live a very sedentary life, really...

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

I've never played American football so I'm not sure of the finer differences. The helmets look absurd, though.

I was something of an athlete growing up, but I don't have time for much now aside from running.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

They do to me, but then, both games strikes me as very strange. And very dangerous. Were you ever injured while playing...?

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course. Blew out a knee, broken fingers and toes, pulled groin, pulled calf muscles, etc., etc. It's not a good game until someone bleeds.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

...So they say. I'm still not sure that's a wise adage to live by, though. Of course, I've never had a proper injury, so I wouldn't know, really.

I imagine running is very calming, though. I think I were going to take up a form of exercise, it would probably be that... I can't imagine I'd be any good, though.

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

Very few teenage boys have wisdom, as I recall. I certainly thought I was indestructible at 15.

Running is marvelous calming. If you do it right it's like meditating.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

Very true. At fifteen I was... Well, by then I'd been disabused of the notion of infallibility, but at thirteen I probably was of the opinion that I was indestructible, too. I never tried to test it, though.

I imagined as much. Have you tried meditation, then...? I've always meant to but never got around to it...

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

Not, you know, actually indestructible. It just felt that way.

I have tried meditation. It helps a bit with stress.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

Of course. I do know what you mean, just... not so much about myself as others.

What kind?

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

What kind of meditation? Sit in a dark room with no noise, focus on your breathing, think about a snowfall kind of meditation. Guided relaxation, that sort of thing.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

Ah, I wondered if you meant something more structured. I do spend a lot of time sitting in quiet, dark rooms, but I always find my mind... wanders when I try to think about nothing.

I might give it another try, though...

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

That's why you choose an image to focus on--it's to keep your mind from wandering. If you think about nothing . . . you start making grocery lists. Or I do, anyway.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the sort of thing that usually happens to me as well...

I'll definitely try it again when we're back in England, though. I imagine I'm going to need some kind of stress management once I start work again.

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I imagine so.

Sometimes when you're starting out it's good to have some kind of object to focus on.

[legofortress.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not accustomed to thinking of nothing...! It feels... unnatural.

Real or imagined?

[morethanteaboy.livejournal.com]

Real, like a photograph or a statue.

I think very few of us think of "nothing" even when we're not thinking. It's a matter of suppressing conscious thought--calming the self and focusing on one thing. At times I've found it best just to think "breathe in, breathe out," if that's what it takes.

But that's why I like running as a kind of meditation, too: I get in the zone, so to speak, and I'm not aware of what I'm thinking.