First Church of Terry

I live a busy life. I have noticed in the past that over the course of weeks, without my noticing, I will become depressed. Burnout? Getting off track? Seasonal? I do not know the reasons. They are different every time. But the common theme is that I lose motivation and I only really realize that I am depressed once I am deep in it. It takes about a week to get out of the slump.

The following is a simple Metaprogram I execute as needed and also every Sunday. It helps me catch myself when I am falling into a slump.

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Metaprogram: Self Wellness Check
Questions:
1. Am I feeling well today?
2. Am I able to get done the things I want to get done?
3. What about during the previous couple of days?
4. If not, why?
5. Is it Treatable? Mitigable?

Treatments:
- Take a day off and do activities that are known to reliably bring happiness: \
[Just listen to good Music, Read a pleasurable fiction Book, Go on a Hike, Make some Origami]
- Dopamine Detox: No screens. Spend a full day or two in the woods.

Mitigations:
- Spend available time at the Library instead of at home.
- Reprioritize my goals towards fulfilling my regular routine and responsibilities over projects.
- Alott a block of time to game with a friend
# This requires coordination but a 4 hour session after work full of banter does wonders
- Alott a block of time to share an activity with a friend
# This can just be hanging out after work. Time inperson is better than internet when possible.

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Many of these things I think are kind of obvious but having it as an explicit program is very helpful as when I am depressed it is like I have no idea what I can do to help myself. It feels that I can do nothing to help myself. But when I have a list of things that has been written while sober in mind that I know help it is easier to pick one from the list than it is to think of one while depressed.

I hope someone reading finds this interesting or valuable.

Nice post, ill share one of mine sometime soon. Just a note Programs and Metaprograms are different, both the biocomputer can run, but metaprograms are ones that reprogram themselves as they run. Most metaprograms that Lily described relate with the use of acid, a program that when ran rewires the brain, reprogramming the program. Such as a way of looking at yourself that changes the way you look at yourself.

Thats just semantics though, maybe to quickly distinguish a "program" running on a biocomputer as compared to programs on regular computers we can prefix? "bioprogram"? "mindprogram"? or just leave as "program", since the post is in the Metaprogramming subforum that should be enough context.

masayuki wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 10:26 am Nice post, ill share one of mine sometime soon. Just a note Programs and Metaprograms are different, both the biocomputer can run, but metaprograms are ones that reprogram themselves as they run. Most metaprograms that Lily described relate with the use of acid, a program that when ran rewires the brain, reprogramming the program. Such as a way of looking at yourself that changes the way you look at yourself.

Thats just semantics though, maybe to quickly distinguish a "program" running on a biocomputer as compared to programs on regular computers we can prefix? "bioprogram"? "mindprogram"? or just leave as "program", since the post is in the Metaprogramming subforum that should be enough context.

I think Metaprogram is good. It sounds better. It has more meaning and describes itself better than just "program". Most "bio programs" as you suggest are just programs. The program that changes itself is a rare case and I think we should use the better term for the common case. If I do mean a program that changes itself then I think it best to prefix SMC for Self Modifying Code for the few programs that do.

We may disagree there but I will maintain that my program is a metaprogram even by your definition. It is a program that is checking on the health of the host hardware, is that not "meta"?