describe your favorite Highly Specific Sensation

[doubleincision]

the state of the world has me stressed and depressed right now, friends. so i'm trying to stay positive by thinking about things that make me happy to be alive. luckily i am a simple beast, and it doesn't take much to make me appreciate life. for example...

my bed has a lot of blankets. the layers go like this, from top to bottom:

• small fleece throw blanket
• BIG fleece throw blanket
• duvet
• heated blanket
• sheet
• me!

and when i get in bed at night, i love to turn my heated blanket up to maximum, but before getting underneath the covers i lay on top of the blanket-pile in my underwear for at least an hour until i get very cold. like, uncomfortably cold, almost until i'm shivering (my bedroom is on the bottom floor and has no heat so it gets very chilly in here) and then i get under the covers and it makes the heat 1000 times more satisfying. i feel like a little piece of frozen chicken being tossed into a hot frying pan

it's one of my favorite physical sensations. others i can think of are a scalp massage with lots of scratchy fingernail action, and scratching an itch inside my ear. i must have been a bear in a past life because my favorite sensations seem to be based around Scratchin' and Sleepin'.

sometimes you just gotta pause and appreciate this kind of stuff, i think, and that's what i made this thread for. just a little reflection on simple things that keep us grounded and appreciative of the tiny pleasures in life...i have a bad habit of thinking about bad news and world events until i feel my heart start to race in my chest and my jaw gets so tight it aches. but at least i can always burrow under my heated blanket and feel much more relaxed!!

[NacreousDreams]

I have a particularly bizarre sensation I like. When I was a kid, I would do slight head rotations to create a sense of momentum that was hypnotic and oddly satisfying. Something about the motion was easy to get lost in. Other motions included shaking my head like I'm saying "No", spinning around in my chair or while standing up, or other repetitive motions.

I kinda forget about it in the modern day, but I remember going on an amusement park ride that had us spinning around real fast and it recreated that sensation. Really liked that ride, honestly! Wish my wallet didn't get snatched so I could've ridden it again on the wait out. 

[Cobra!]

A big thing I noticed actually while playing Resident Evil Remake on PC was when I collected the MO Disks to save your partner, I got excited at that. I love old and weird formats. When I actually got to use them, hearing the sound effects and whatnot, I felt at peace. It felt like ASMR to me.

Which reminded me of a Minidisc ASMR video I saw, and found it so relaxing to hear.

There's another one that I enjoy of someone putting tapes into various VCRs

I guess this is why I love old formats like I do and don't want to see them go away. I feel they give my life meaning.

I also love being in environments where there are loads of that kind of tech around me. I volunteer for a small broadcasting service and they have all sorts of different tech lying around! It feels great being there!

I'm also very interested in repairing such tech, I go a charity to get things repaired and try to help out myself. Even if something can't be repaired, I love looking inside it and seeing what could be wrong.
That said, fuck those channels that destroy things to fake repair videos for clout! Scum of the earth!

Other than that, I guess I enjoy putting a Twitch stream of a speedrunner playing a game I love, especially Tony Hawk's, onto my second monitor and just have it play as I work on stuff.

I also love the feeling of reading or listening to something in a language you're learning (or a similar one!) and being able to get the information you need from it and translate for other people. I especially love when you learn a language that's similar to others, and you find that at a certain point, you can understand the sister languages and navigate through websites and gemini capsules in them. I found I can actually understand good bits of French and Spanish because I'm fluent in Italian!

[appleAlc]

grapefruit + mountain dew, I will not clarify.

[Commodorn]

I enjoy taking a hot shower and then immediately turning the water to cold at the end more than a sane person likely should.

[Memory]

@doubleincision: Sounds like a tough winter, but it looks like you prepared well. Having 37 degrees body temperature makes the bed warm in no time. Long blankets are powerful, as they should cover feet by 120% and can be pulled over the shoulders. Then only the head needs some cold protection. Even long hair wasn't enough. I pick the "Russians" cap, a fur cap covering the whole head and the ears.

Speaking of blankets, the feeling of a blanket dropping slowly onto my body is for whatever reason fascinating to me. Using my arms and legs to spread the blanket above me, then releasing it quickly. If it's a light blanket, it will slowly glide down.

Going sideways with the scrappiest bicycle possible with a perfect counter-steer, well, probably everyone who likes going fast likes these moments of "skill" saving the day. Has a lot to do with "feeling" the surface and how the machine behaves.

[doubleincision]

A big thing I noticed actually while playing Resident Evil Remake on PC was when I collected the MO Disks to save your partner, I got excited at that. I love old and weird formats. When I actually got to use them, hearing the sound effects and whatnot, I felt at peace. It felt like ASMR to me.

Which reminded me of a Minidisc ASMR video I saw, and found it so relaxing to hear.

There's another one that I enjoy of someone putting tapes into various VCRs

I guess this is why I love old formats like I do and don't want to see them go away. I feel they give my life meaning.

I also love being in environments where there are loads of that kind of tech around me. I volunteer for a small broadcasting service and they have all sorts of different tech lying around! It feels great being there!

I'm also very interested in repairing such tech, I go a charity to get things repaired and try to help out myself. Even if something can't be repaired, I love looking inside it and seeing what could be wrong.
That said, fuck those channels that destroy things to fake repair videos for clout! Scum of the earth!

Other than that, I guess I enjoy putting a Twitch stream of a speedrunner playing a game I love, especially Tony Hawk's, onto my second monitor and just have it play as I work on stuff.

I also love the feeling of reading or listening to something in a language you're learning (or a similar one!) and being able to get the information you need from it and translate for other people. I especially love when you learn a language that's similar to others, and you find that at a certain point, you can understand the sister languages and navigate through websites and gemini capsules in them. I found I can actually understand good bits of French and Spanish because I'm fluent in Italian!

i LOVE the sound of VHS tapes! that delicious clacking sound they make is so pleasing to my ears. i had a very large collection of VHS tapes as a kid, because i didn't watch much TV and preferred animated movies, and whenever i was about to stick a new tape in i would always rattle it around for a few minutes before actually inserting it into the machine. the saddest thing about technology moving toward "everything is a flat touchscreen slab" is the loss of distinct sounds and sensations associated with particular devices, imo 

i also agree with what you said about languages— Spanish was a mandatory class for me from 5th grade through the end of high school, so i can read and write it pretty well. a few years ago i started learning Italian and Portuguese, and because of the Spanish, i got the hang of them pretty quickly too. i wish speaking came easier to me, but being able to read stuff without the help of a translator is such a cool feeling  

grapefruit + mountain dew, I will not clarify.

hmmm now i'm not a grapefruit enjoyer but i think you may be onto something with the flavor profile, here...

I have a particularly bizarre sensation I like. When I was a kid, I would do slight head rotations to create a sense of momentum that was hypnotic and oddly satisfying. Something about the motion was easy to get lost in. Other motions included shaking my head like I'm saying "No", spinning around in my chair or while standing up, or other repetitive motions.

I kinda forget about it in the modern day, but I remember going on an amusement park ride that had us spinning around real fast and it recreated that sensation. Really liked that ride, honestly! Wish my wallet didn't get snatched so I could've ridden it again on the wait out. 

i was a big chair spinner as a child! i would spin until it felt like the chair was gonna break. i learned recently that a love of spinning is associated with autism, which makes sense for me   i always went ham on the teacups ride at Disney World, too, seeing how fast i could spin them i'm too old for it now; i get dizzy way too fast.  :TnT:

@doubleincision: Sounds like a tough winter, but it looks like you prepared well. Having 37 degrees body temperature makes the bed warm in no time. Long blankets are powerful, as they should cover feet by 120% and can be pulled over the shoulders. Then only the head needs some cold protection. Even long hair wasn't enough. I pick the "Russians" cap, a fur cap covering the whole head and the ears.

Speaking of blankets, the feeling of a blanket dropping slowly onto my body is for whatever reason fascinating to me. Using my arms and legs to spread the blanket above me, then releasing it quickly. If it's a light blanket, it will slowly glide down.

Going sideways with the scrappiest bicycle possible with a perfect counter-steer, well, probably everyone who likes going fast likes these moments of "skill" saving the day. Has a lot to do with "feeling" the surface and how the machine behaves.

you've got coziness down to a science, fantastic i love doing that with a light blanket in the summertime, when you let it flutter down onto you in a way that creates a nice little draft.

I enjoy taking a hot shower and then immediately turning the water to cold at the end more than a sane person likely should.

this is MADNESS to me but going from hot water to cold water is supposedly good for your health! that's why some day spas have a hot pool and a cold pool that you're supposed to quickly switch between. that's a pass from me, though, i would die on impact with the cold water

[Commodorn]

i was a big chair spinner as a child! i would spin until it felt like the chair was gonna break. i learned recently that a love of spinning is associated with autism, which makes sense for me   i always went ham on the teacups ride at Disney World, too, seeing how fast i could spin them i'm too old for it now; i get dizzy way too fast.  :TnT:

I did the exact same thing when I went to Disney World as a kid! My dad wasn't very pleased with having to go with me..

I'm too old to do that or spin in chairs without paying a price now, but I do catch myself walking in a circle over and over again while leaning slightly towards the middle. For.. at least half an hour at a time. I wouldn't tell anyone I do that, of course...   why would I?

[doubleincision]

I did the exact same thing when I went to Disney World as a kid! My dad wasn't very pleased with having to go with me..

I'm too old to do that or spin in chairs without paying a price now, but I do catch myself walking in a circle over and over again while leaning slightly towards the middle. For.. at least half an hour at a time. I wouldn't tell anyone I do that, of course...   why would I?

the human urge to

Go In A Circle

sometimes i do a similar thing to walking in a circle but i do it while, like, jogging in place? we have a big circular rug in our living room and i'll stand in the center and jog in place while rotating. it's slower than spinning so i don't get as dizzy. and then my husband will come into the room like "...are ya having fun in here?"

[TheFrugalGamer]

I don't do this much anymore because I can't be bothered, but I used to keep my hair up in a bun all the time, and the feeling of letting it down at the end of the day was looooovely and so relaxing.

Also taking my socks off at the end of the day and rubbing them over the covers in bed is my favorite.

[levya]

when I was a kid I used to slather glue on my hand and let it dry because I loooooved how it felt to slowly peel the dried glue off.

[debleb]

a fellow cold cold room immediately into toasty bed enjoyer  relatedly i like shoving my cold foot into the crevice of my knee

i also like the feeling of polished glass or gemstone, or illustrated plates in a book, or glossy plastic. where it's smooth but if you press down there's a bit of drag. and also the pages of my copy of the books of earthsea. they just have an ideal paper texture!

[doubleincision]

when I was a kid I used to slather glue on my hand and let it dry because I loooooved how it felt to slowly peel the dried glue off.

glue peelies are up there in the all time best sensory experiences imo! peely anything, honestly...i think glue peelies are second only to screen protector peelies

I don't do this much anymore because I can't be bothered, but I used to keep my hair up in a bun all the time, and the feeling of letting it down at the end of the day was looooovely and so relaxing.

ooogh yes i used to have long hair (not anymore because i'm balding ) and the feeling of tension release when you let your hair out of a tight style is SO nice. if you can get someone to massage your head afterword, too? god-tier sensation because it kind of hurts just a little bit, it's so relaxing

a fellow cold cold room immediately into toasty bed enjoyer  relatedly i like shoving my cold foot into the crevice of my knee

i also like the feeling of polished glass or gemstone, or illustrated plates in a book, or glossy plastic. where it's smooth but if you press down there's a bit of drag. and also the pages of my copy of the books of earthsea. they just have an ideal paper texture!

a smooth glossy surface is excellent. whenever i draw on paper i like for it to be super smooth, thick paper, like bristol board, and i rub my fingers all over it before i actually draw. i also love when smooth plastic has that kind of sticky static electricity feeling to it...fond memories of the McDonald's ball pit making your hair stand up

[Rol]

i learned recently that a love of spinning is associated with autism

REALLY?????
I've been obsessed with spinning around and getting really really dizzy for as long as I can remember, and I knew I had autism, but I never knew they were connected. 

[doubleincision]

REALLY?????
I've been obsessed with spinning around and getting really really dizzy for as long as I can remember, and I knew I had autism, but I never knew they were connected. 

yep, it's apparently a super common stim for autistic people! we gotta rotate