How to Stay Happy When You Spend 8 Hours a Day on the Computer
Do you spend a lot of time on the computer? Do you ever feel jealous of people who have physical professions? Do you ever get a craving in the middle of the day to just do something *real*?
If so, I feel you. I’ve been a computer programmer for 10 years, and last year I got burned out and decided I was done and it was time to become a massage therapist. After going through massage school, however, I realized massage therapy didn’t pay as well as computer programming. At the very least, I would need to delay my dream until I could build up more savings. However, when I went back to programming, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I remembered. So, what changed?
One of the major differences between massage therapists, and those in caring professions, and computer programmers, or those in technical professions, is that massage therapists value “self care.” Truthfully, many massage therapists could use a bit more self care, but I’d bet most programmers don’t even know what self care means. Self care is when a person devotes their energy to activities that enhance their own mental or physical wellbeing.
Practice Self Care
Meditation is a form of self care, as is going to get a massage, or stretching, or even taking an afternoon off to do nothing. Exercise can be a potent source of self care, but it can also be a source of self punishment for some people, so we may want to be careful when using exercise as our self care.
You can really use anything for self care, but it should be something that either improves your physical or mental wellbeing, and it should be something that you don’t have to guilt yourself into doing. At the moment, I find things like “surfing the internet” or “looking at facebook” to be ineffective forms of self care because they keep me in front of the computer. However, if I were working as a massage therapist, they could be effective forms of self care since they would allow my body a break after a day of physical work.
If you’re on the computer all day, I think forms of self care that pull you out of your head and into your body are the most effective. So, taking walks, going outside, laying in the grass, stretching, doing yoga, going rock climbing, etc. are all good ideas. In fact, learning to feel your body is so important, it’s going to get a whole separate section.
Learn to Feel Your Body
The year I spent training as a massage therapist completely transformed how I thought about my body. My first class was a simple introductory class and I was partnered up with a young woman who had never massaged anyone before. I lay on the massage table, fully clothed, and she lightly touched my back with a well intentioned but inexperienced hand. As she did, I felt like something melted inside my chest, and this emotion that had been trapped (dare I call it love) radiated out of me. After a decade of living inside my head, ignoring my body, this woman helped me to feel my body again.
I don’t believe it is sitting down all day, or working at the computer, inherently puts you out of touch with your body. In fact, I practice zazen regularly, and many experienced meditators I know use sitting as a way to get back *in touch* with their body. The problem is that all our attention is directed at the computer and days, weeks, months — or in my case, years — can go by without ever turning this attention inward. When I get tired of programming now, I will usually take a moment just to check in with my body. How is it feeling? What parts of it are aching? Is there any physical sensation that is connected to emotion?
If you’re fairly out of touch with your body like I was, I would highly recommend getting a massage (a professional one would be ideal, but you could do a trade with a friend if you were on a budget) or going to yoga. Even if it doesn’t become a regular habit, doing these things just a few times can help you build an awareness of your body you can cultivate even after you stop going. Many types of meditation are also useful for this. If you live in a big city, there may be a local zen center you could stop by that offers free meditation instruction.
Learning to value your body, and how it feels, is part of learning to value your lived in experience.
Value Your Own Experience
Life is made up of experiences. All the objects we buy, all the people we meet, and places we go — these things only matter because of how we feel interacting with them in the moment. Would it be worth it to buy an expensive car if you didn’t like driving it?
When you look at it this way, bearing in mind you probably spend more time at work than anywhere else, your experience at work *matters.* It doesn’t always have to be an enjoyable experience, we don’t all get to be Ben and Jerry’s taste testers, but it is *your* experience. Learn to value it.
I’ve been a programmer at a lot of start ups that have gone under, and I’ve seen a year’s worth of work evaporate in an instant. Sometimes, I have had bitterness about all that work I put in, but it always had meaning. It informed my point of view, and changed how I looked at my life and related to other people. Even if my work was no longer important to anyone else, it was important to me, becuase I had lived it. And, your work is important to you for the same reason.
At the end of the day, I believe finding the meaning in your experience is the key to happiness. There is meaning behind sitting at a computer for 8 hours, but your meaning will be different from my meaning. That’s part of what makes it so valuable, your experience is unique — only you could have it. Find out what it is!
Then, tell me about it if you have a moment.
❤
