In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard Feynman recounts a similar "drifting" of the location of the ego while in a sensory deprivation tank:
"I tried and after a while I got my ego to go down through my neck into the middle of my chest. When a drop of water came down and hit me on the shoulder, I felt it "up there," above where "I" was. Every time a drop came I was startled a little bit, and my ego would jump back up through the neck to the usual place."
There are commercial versions of these around in various places; we have one here in Portland, Oregon. I haven't tried it yet but it seems like a very interesting experience.
The Mote in God's Eye (sci-fi, first contact story) helped me accept sudden and drastic changes in my life and the impermanence of the world around me.
I've worked from home since 2009. Here's what has worked for me:
- Have a dedicated work space that can be closed off from the rest of the family / roommates / distractions. Bedrooms / kitchens can only work for so long. A dedicated office at home works best.
- Headphones can act like a chain (in a good way) and keep you productive at your desk.
- Keep strict work hours, 8-5 or whatever. No work communications outside of those times.
- Do not set up your work email or messaging on your phone to further enforce strict work hours and differentiate "work" from "life".
- I found no good way of keeping the casual / social in-person environment alive. The reality is that working from home is often lonely and you lose the casual office chit chat. I have filled that newfound spare time with side projects.
If you're wondering what people (teen girls) used to put in their away messages, I've been running a site since 2003 that has acted as a database of these "witty profiles".
Ah memories. Twenty years ago I worked a few cubicles away from the guy who runs this site. He had a handmade Rube Goldberg machine made from cardboard perched on the edge of his cube wall that accepted coins as payment for candy he kept in a dish.
