I obviously haven't been posting over the past few months. I've found that I've had some difficulty with focus outside of work. I haven't been finishing craft projects during the first part of this year. While stitching used to be my way to unwind at the end of the day, for the last few months I've had trouble even picking up projects, much less setting goals for hobbies and keeping to a time schedule to finish items.
I know it’s stress related, but I have been putting off really looking at how to improve how I’m feeling and instead just tried to push through it, thinking I’d get to the other side of the bulk of the stress and get back to normal. Unfortunately, I’ve realized that getting rid of the primary cause of my anxiety will not be happening right away so I have to find some ways to deal with it and try and get healthy.
In case anyone else is having similar problems, I thought I'd share some articles I've been reading about the physical affects of chronic anxiety, including difficulty concentrating. This article points out that it is not so much that you can’t concentrate; it’s that you concentrate on the wrong things. Your mind is so preoccupied with worry that when you want to pay attention to a task, you can’t bring yourself to focus. it’s not that you can’t concentrate on a craft for instance; you’re just too busy concentrating on your fears.
The article also provides some great ideas for dealing with this level of stress. The tried and true recommendations of journaling and meditation are included in the recommendations, but also some practical ideas such as setting electronics to “do not disturb” so you can't search the web when working, or setting an alarm so you can time block your work.
I also found this great article that reminds us not to make hobbies another thing that stresses us out. And I really love the author's description of just going into her sewing corner, taking it slow, reorganizing fabric, and slowly re-engaging with her hobby. An area I might have also not recognized as a source of anxiety that she points out are all the images on sites like pinterest and instagram that can sometimes make you feel overwhelmed by content and lose your own inspiration.
This last article I found helpful focuses on creating a plan: First, making sure that you are healthy, there are no other reasons like side effects of medications, hormonal imbalance, or vitamin deficiency that are causing the brain fog/anxiety. Once you’ve confirmed you don’t have some other cause, then you can create a plan to improve the brain fog issues. This includes, eating well, exercising, meditating, and getting enough sleep. But also, setting aside 30min – 1hr for self care which can include anything from yoga to hobbies. The final VERY useful point in this article is a reminder to set boundaries and learn to say no so you are not overwhelmed with obligations.
A quick suggestion I also saw in online forums was to sometimes work on hobbies at the beginning of the day, before work, when focus and passion are still there. That's something I've really never done, but I might incorporate into my mornings instead of something that will probably just add to stress like reading email or headlines online.
So I am on this particular journey and starting to get a bit of a spark back. I've got another panel completed on my Mexican Tourist jacket and I'm looking forward to completing the embroidery and start stitching this all together:
I’m always interested to know how other people deal with things like waning interest in hobbies, lack of spark or just being too overwhelmed to do the things you enjoy. Any thoughts or tips?