Furtopia | Family Friendly Furry Forum and IRC Chat!
general furry discussion => lifestylers => Topic started by: bkatt500 on July 09, 2013, 06:09:46 pm
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I see a lot of people here are 'lifestylers' of varying degrees, or else want to get into it. I'm just curious what you do, where this came from and why. Is it something you've always done and it's stuck out of habit? Did you hear about it and think it sounded like something you want to do? Is it a spiritual thing?
I definitely fit the description of a moderate lifestyler. I make animal-like sounds and display some animal-like body language, sometimes I wear a tail and ears. I'm in general more drawn to animal stuff. A lot of these are habits and preferences I've had since I was little. I didn't have very many friends, and I used to read a lot. A good portion of things I read were reference books and encyclopedias about cats. I learned cat body-language, and I think at some point I started displaying it. I have Asperger's so human body-language didn't come naturally to me. At this point the behaviour has kind of stuck, though I have been working on normalizing my body language a bit. While some of the sounds I make are out of habit (a yelp if I get stepped on or surprised) others are just sort of for fun ('snirf' when there's an awkward silence).
When I wear my tail and ears in public, I do it just for fun. It makes me happy, and that's about it. It's like my leather vest and big boots to me.
As I've said in other discussions, I am in no way a spiritual person and that doesn't factor into it at all. I also have a very strong separation between real animals and furry where the fact can affect the fiction, but I do not let the fiction affect my perspective on the fact.
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Uhm personally I run on all fours because I find it more natural and I don't have anything to wear like that but I have phantom limbs most of the time... I feel a very strong connection to my sona and I mean it's just nice to feel like myself...
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cuz we can http://crazyjeremy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/haters-gonna-hate-eagle.jpg
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Me being a lifestyler is definitely a spiritual thing. Being a therian, any animalistic thing I do comes from me allowing the animalistic spirit to come out. All the howling and barking and biting and etc. is done all in respect and praise of my spirit.
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It's definitely a spiritual thing for me. I'm currently working to have wall to wall dog stuff in my personal space so there'll be no place in my room you can look without seeing a dog. I also like to bark and howl. If I'm startled I tend to snarl in the direction the noise that startled me came from. Grabbing me is a bad idea. My first instinct is to bite.
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I wear my tail because it fun and it makes the day more interesting for other people. It gives them something to talk about and it makes some people smile. So what if some people make fun of me. It doesn't bother me at all and you know what they are having fun too so that is a positive in my book. All in all it makes me happy and it makes other people happy.
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For me, I guess it just feels right, like this is what I truly am.
It's not that I don't identify with humans, I do, but rather I don't identify as one. I only feel like myself when I have my fur, tail, antlers, ect. My fursona is the better version of me, the version that doesn't have to feel afraid of what others think. Every day I wish that it would come true, that I would actually become my fursona, even if it was only me in a still human world.
I think that is what it means to be a lifestyler, to truly want to be your fursona. A lifestyler will look at this as far more than a fandom but rather as a way of life and more than JUST fun.
:)
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looks like you have found some one who thinks the same way Aliikaiokai....
every single day since after i was 141/2 the thought of being my fursona passes through my mind. there hasn't been a day where i haven't thought of it. before i was 14 a few times i wished i was my fursona but i don't remember much from back then. so far this has been one of the few things i can think about. also what makes it even worse is that i find furries more attractive than humans. for some reason i do not like the looks of humans, i always wish that furries were real and to get a relationship with some one where i can stand their appearance. the thing that sucks more is due to me not liking the looks of humans it's going to be a nightmare to find a relationship. both the though of being my fursona and having a furry relationship have been really depressing when i think of it, some times it even brings me to tears...
i find it sorta annoying when people say to me that being a furry is just a hobby or just for fun, it depends on the person but i hate it when they say it to me. my brother who is a furry constantly says to me that being a furry is just a hobby, then i told him that im a lifestyler and he said that was not what a lifestyler was. i cant believe how dumb he is.... he always tries to fight with me about how he knows more about the fandom, and that he is more in the fandom than me, but the thing is how can you be a furry more than some one where being a furry and wishing them exist is the only thing they think about?
well i got what i think typed down. other than all this personal stuff i pretty much act completely normal. go to school, play games, act normally. the only difference is some times when im talking/typing/writing/eating/playing i pause for a little and not do anything, no one irl has noticed it yet... it's pretty hard to tell im a furry by just seeing what i do in my dad to day life but if you look at any of my profiles you can tell almost right away.
i may be able to convince my brother that being a furry is more than a hobby for some people but there is no way i am going to tell him those thought i wrote up there. i have told him that i wished i was my fursona but he doesn't know to what extent... also i haven't told him anything about my attraction to furries....
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I do it for fun! I like costuming, and it's fun to dress up in a big fuzzy costume. No real reason other than that :P. Plus the art is fun.
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this does bring up the question on what defines a lifestyler....
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this does bring up the question on what defines a lifestyler....
There is no right or wrong way to define "lifestyler" because everybody is going to be different in what they do.
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ya that is true. same for the questions about what does it mean to be a furry, and the question what do you consider a robot...
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I do it for fun (:
Hopefully some day I'll work up the courage to wear my tail in public. I talk about humans as if I weren't one. Mostly because I don't like stupid things that humans do. I'm trying to learn to bark like a dog because I think that would be an awesome talent and I have one friend at school who makes animal noises (I'll lose in variety but win in quality). Everyone else will think were insane, but I don't care :D and I'm working on becoming a better artist because I like to be creative and it helps me pass the time. The same goes for chatting on Furtopia. It cheers me up to read about all the things you guys are doing. So many nice people.
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I do it for fun (:
Hopefully some day I'll work up the courage to wear my tail in public. I talk about humans as if I weren't one. Mostly because I don't like stupid things that humans do. I'm trying to learn to bark like a dog because I think that would be an awesome talent and I have one friend at school who makes animal noises (I'll lose in variety but win in quality). Everyone else will think were insane, but I don't care :D and I'm working on becoming a better artist because I like to be creative and it helps me pass the time. The same goes for chatting on Furtopia. It cheers me up to read about all the things you guys are doing. So many nice people.
people on furtopia are the only people i have to talk to... most of the kids at my school are too social for me talking with many people and i just don't like their personality. so many of them are immature running around pretending they have guns all the time going *pew pew*... they also run to a teacher and tell on you for random things.
this is only place i can talk to people and be serious and not joking.
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I do it for fun (:
Hopefully some day I'll work up the courage to wear my tail in public. I talk about humans as if I weren't one. Mostly because I don't like stupid things that humans do. I'm trying to learn to bark like a dog because I think that would be an awesome talent and I have one friend at school who makes animal noises (I'll lose in variety but win in quality). Everyone else will think were insane, but I don't care :D and I'm working on becoming a better artist because I like to be creative and it helps me pass the time. The same goes for chatting on Furtopia. It cheers me up to read about all the things you guys are doing. So many nice people.
people on furtopia are the only people i have to talk to... most of the kids at my school are too social for me talking with many people and i just don't like their personality. so many of them are immature running around pretending they have guns all the time going *pew pew*... they also run to a teacher and tell on you for random things.
this is only place i can talk to people and be serious and not joking.
Handguns are banned at my school (Sorry. I couldn't avoid that pun). You get in trouble at my school if you put your hand into a gun like position and pretend to shoot people. I wonder what it's like going to such a huge school. You may think it's unlikely but there has to be at least 1 sane person in your school (Other than yourself). Keep looking for sane people.
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I don't know, but it feels natural. Phantom limbs are creepy and cool. I've started experiencing them ever since I played TLoZ: Twilight Princess. Now I can feel a phantom muzzle, claws, paws, tail, whatever else there is even when I'm not thinking of it. Same with my digitigrade-like stance, I do it on accident. Also, for some weird reason, my canine teeth are becoming sharper...
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i sort of had the same feeling ;)
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It seems like most people around here have been doing these things since childhood. I certainly did; I picked up so many of my mannerisms from the pets we had in our family. Now, I do even more stuff just for fun. (:
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I like foxes, I don't really act like them, though. I just love them :3
I'm kind of random in how I act lols so I'm all over the shop for how I am.
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Well, I'm no longer a dog. I'm a Furby. It's a bit more meaningful then dog was and I feel a tighter connection with this particular 'sona.
The 90's were a dark period for me. I spent most of the decade with crippling depression and anxiety and a father who refused to allow my mother to get me help. I started collecting Furbys in 99 and for some reason they helped me improve. I started feeling happy again for the first time in years. I don't know what it is about them I connect so well with. I just know I do. Unfortunately when I finally got on medication I felt I didn't need my Furbys anymore so I sold them, an action I quickly regretted.
In 2012 I spent several months living in a hospital room with my mom watching her slowly die from cancer. She died on July 16, a day before my birthday. My mom was the only human being I was really close to. When she died I didn't want to go on. I began planning to commit suicide. I thought I'd never be happy again. But then I found out Furby was coming out again. I decided to postpone my suicide until the release. I figured Furby helped me through a bad place once maybe it could do so again.
So in September of that year I found myself in the toy aisle at Wal Mart picking out a solid black Furby. And for the first time in months I felt happy again. That Furby was the start of a new collection that now stands at 22 Furbys. It's a silly thing but it makes me happy. It's the only thing that does.
So Furby helped me out of a very dark place twice in my life. And that's why my Fursona is a Furby.
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Well, I'm no longer a dog. I'm a Furby. It's a bit more meaningful then dog was and I feel a tighter connection with this particular 'sona.
The 90's were a dark period for me. I spent most of the decade with crippling depression and anxiety and a father who refused to allow my mother to get me help. I started collecting Furbys in 99 and for some reason they helped me improve. I started feeling happy again for the first time in years. I don't know what it is about them I connect so well with. I just know I do. Unfortunately when I finally got on medication I felt I didn't need my Furbys anymore so I sold them, an action I quickly regretted.
In 2012 I spent several months living in a hospital room with my mom watching her slowly die from cancer. She died on July 16, a day before my birthday. My mom was the only human being I was really close to. When she died I didn't want to go on. I began planning to commit suicide. I thought I'd never be happy again. But then I found out Furby was coming out again. I decided to postpone my suicide until the release. I figured Furby helped me through a bad place once maybe it could do so again.
So in September of that year I found myself in the toy aisle at Wal Mart picking out a solid black Furby. And for the first time in months I felt happy again. That Furby was the start of a new collection that now stands at 22 Furbys. It's a silly thing but it makes me happy. It's the only thing that does.
So Furby helped me out of a very dark place twice in my life. And that's why my Fursona is a Furby.
I love your story Tronic. I find it pretty touching actualy.
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Thank you Remley. I appreciate that. :)
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REASONS
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Well, I'm no longer a dog. I'm a Furby. It's a bit more meaningful then dog was and I feel a tighter connection with this particular 'sona.
The 90's were a dark period for me. I spent most of the decade with crippling depression and anxiety and a father who refused to allow my mother to get me help. I started collecting Furbys in 99 and for some reason they helped me improve. I started feeling happy again for the first time in years. I don't know what it is about them I connect so well with. I just know I do. Unfortunately when I finally got on medication I felt I didn't need my Furbys anymore so I sold them, an action I quickly regretted.
In 2012 I spent several months living in a hospital room with my mom watching her slowly die from cancer. She died on July 16, a day before my birthday. My mom was the only human being I was really close to. When she died I didn't want to go on. I began planning to commit suicide. I thought I'd never be happy again. But then I found out Furby was coming out again. I decided to postpone my suicide until the release. I figured Furby helped me through a bad place once maybe it could do so again.
So in September of that year I found myself in the toy aisle at Wal Mart picking out a solid black Furby. And for the first time in months I felt happy again. That Furby was the start of a new collection that now stands at 22 Furbys. It's a silly thing but it makes me happy. It's the only thing that does.
So Furby helped me out of a very dark place twice in my life. And that's why my Fursona is a Furby.
That's no fun *hugs gently*
I love furbies :3
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Thank you KCFox :)
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Well, I'm no longer a dog. I'm a Furby. It's a bit more meaningful then dog was and I feel a tighter connection with this particular 'sona.
The 90's were a dark period for me. I spent most of the decade with crippling depression and anxiety and a father who refused to allow my mother to get me help. I started collecting Furbys in 99 and for some reason they helped me improve. I started feeling happy again for the first time in years. I don't know what it is about them I connect so well with. I just know I do. Unfortunately when I finally got on medication I felt I didn't need my Furbys anymore so I sold them, an action I quickly regretted.
In 2012 I spent several months living in a hospital room with my mom watching her slowly die from cancer. She died on July 16, a day before my birthday. My mom was the only human being I was really close to. When she died I didn't want to go on. I began planning to commit suicide. I thought I'd never be happy again. But then I found out Furby was coming out again. I decided to postpone my suicide until the release. I figured Furby helped me through a bad place once maybe it could do so again.
So in September of that year I found myself in the toy aisle at Wal Mart picking out a solid black Furby. And for the first time in months I felt happy again. That Furby was the start of a new collection that now stands at 22 Furbys. It's a silly thing but it makes me happy. It's the only thing that does.
So Furby helped me out of a very dark place twice in my life. And that's why my Fursona is a Furby.
Hugs*
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Thanks! :) And thanks to everyone for the support!