SHOWNOTES
A big goal for me in
2022 is to reconnect with and discover hobbies. And while this is
something I really want to do, I'm having trouble making time for
it.
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TRANSCRIPTION
So I, I took a look at
my goals for the year and how I'm doing on them and so far. And one
thing that is standing out to me is that I have been struggling to
make time for the hobbies that I would like to pursue. And I want
to talk about that. Hi everybody. I'm Cindy Guentert-Baldo welcome
back to the uncurated life podcast, where we talk about life, both
on and off of the internet.
And today, whew. I'm
feeling, I'm feeling a little personally called out. I called
myself out here in that I am, I want to reconnect with hobbies, but
I am not making time for it. When I said about life, both on and
off of the internet, part of what I wanted to do was reconnect with
hobbies that I didn't feel the need to share with on the
internet.
And I just can't seem
to break that habit. So why is that? Why am I having trouble making
time for hobbies? Why, why do I want them in the first place? Why
are hobbies important? Let's let's start there. Let's start there.
And I would also add that if you haven't listened to episode 1 52,
which came out two weeks ago on boredom to listen to that one as
well, because I feel like these two are intrinsically connected to
each other.
I want to be bored. I
want more time for hobbies. I feel like these things, if I can
solve one, I might be able to solve the. Anyway, the biggest
reasons hobbies are important. We know a lot of these things,
right? We know that they can help us decompress and help us with
our anxiety. They can stimulate creativity.
They can make time,
help you make time for yourself and spend more time with others.
Meet new people. Non pandemic wise when you're going like to groups
of like knitting circles or whatnot. Anyway, I mean, I've been a
lot of friends through my plan or hobby that's that's one way to
meet new people. So there's an article I read on peace,
innovation.com written by, uh, Deondra garner called working to live the
importance of hobbies.
And I'm going to read
from that article because I think it really nails. Quote, hobbies
are a great way to decompress after a long day at work or on your
day off. When life becomes too overwhelming, your hobbies can help
you relax. Doing something you enjoy outside of work can be
beneficial for your mental health.
Having hobbies can
lower anxiety, lower your stress level and help cope with
depression. Hobbies help you form a life outside of work. You are
just relaxing and doing something you enjoy without any of the
pressures of. Side world. You don't have to do something as
structured as you would at work or school.
You don't have the
added stress of attending on time to participate or working with a
group or completing a task by a specific time. These aspects are
what make hobbies such have such a positive outcome. When you're
stressed, you can go paint, exercise, read, or do a plethora of
other activities to lessen the amount of stress you have.
Hobbies can also
increase your interaction with people and the value you can bring
to each other. Participating in hobbies with others can sometimes
make the hobby more enjoyable because you're doing something you
enjoy with people who have the same love and passion for the
activity that you have.
They get also impact
your interaction with your family. When you find a new hobby, you
can share it with your family. This gives you more time spent with
your family and you're doing something you all enjoy. Another
reason you should get a hobby is to gain knowledge. Hobbies, often
teach you things that can have a positive impact on your
life.
The knowledge you
could gain from a hobby will stay with you for life. Meaning you
could use this knowledge when you're 35 or when you're 85. After
you figure out if you want to get a hobby, the next step is finding
the right hobby for you. And quote. So the funny thing was, as I
was starting to like, look into articles and shit on this.
And I was reading that
and thinking about the hobby, the right hobbies for me, and then
an, an video popped up in my feed from the frugal crafter, which
I'll link below. And it was called, do you even like your hobby
anymore? And the whole point of the video was like, you know, you
might be doing something because you've always done it, but.
Is it actually
bringing you joy anymore? Do you even like it anymore? D are you
buying shit for the sake of buying shit rather than because it's
bringing you joy. And that was something that actually caused me to
think. Because lately, like I said, I've had some aspirations to
reconnect with certain hobbies.
One of the things the
frugal crafter brought up was saying that sometimes we want to
return to a hobby because it's something we used to do, but. We may
not be in a stage in our life that we like it anymore. Part of me
wonders if this is sort of how I'm feeling about acrylic painting,
because I've been trying to work on these paintings for my living
room and I just keep putting it off now.
I don't know if that's
because it's not, I'm not into it anymore. I was never super into
it in the first place. Cause I never really took the time. One of
the reasons I like watercoloring is I can just spritz the pallet
and get going. But with acrylics it takes a lot more cleanup and I
fucking hate cleanup.
So maybe that. I
dunno, I'm not ready to drop it yet, but at the same time it gave
me some food for thought. Another thing that I was thinking about
was the hobbies. I know I enjoy. But sometimes I'm just not in the
mood for them. Examples would be baking. I have not baked for the
most part since I moved to Denver.
And I know for a fact
that part of the reason I haven't been doing that is because I am
scared as fuck about adjusting recipes for the altitude. And then
there is. Reading, which is something I don't seem to have time for
during the day. And then in the evening, when I normally would
read, I have been so brain dead from the day that I just don't feel
like reading more and I would just rather get on my phone and play
candy crush.
And that's, we're
going to, we're going to head into candy crush land for a second
because currently candy crush is my hobby and it's not like I. It's
not like I love it. It just, it gives me that short-term little
dopamine kit. I can recognize that. I recognize that it's just
something to do when I'm starting to feel bored back to the episode
about wanting to feel more bored and bringing the candy crush
out.
And then if there's no
lives left, I get frustrated because I'm like, but I want to play
it right. I'm thinking I might need to just delete the apps off my
phone and I might, I may wind up just doing that, but it seems to
be the go-to for me right now when I am bored and needing something
to do. And instead of going and finding my book or doing something
else, I just grabbed my phone.
Scroll, Instagram,
play candy crush. It's not a great cycle for me. I'm not like if
that was, if you love candy crush or some other game on your phone
and that's the hobby you enjoy. Like enjoy partaking in then
fucking more power to you. But I can tell when I'm doing it, that
this is not something that is great for me either mentally or in
any other way.
This is just, it's not
my, my ideal thing, but it's the easy thing. And that's the thing
that I'm just diving into right now, because I'm just so tired all
the time from feeling so crappy because that's a big part of it is
the exhaustion and the crappiness of how I'm feeling like I'm so
tired and I'm dealing with.
Pain and misery in my
body from being in kidney failure, that the thought of expending
more energy on hobbies, is it just, it feels overwhelming and
frankly, a little like annoying, like why would I fucking. But I
recognize why I need to do that. It it's, there's so much there
that would help me. My word of the year is replenish and it will
help replenish my thought process.
I actually got through
both January and February is one little word projects recently
because I was waiting for all the shit to come in. It was shipping
delays and I can't start something unless I have the right things.
Cause that's just how neurotic I am. Did it was so proud of myself
and so excited.
I shared it with my
Patriots and then I shared it with my kids and I was like, look at
this thing, blah, blah, blah, did not post it on the internet
except to my patrons. So there's that, but it brought me, it
brought me so much joy and it wasn't a big. A big deal. It didn't
take a lot of time for me to work on it.
I worked on it and I
put the time into it that I felt like putting into it and I enjoyed
it and I was proud of it and it made me happy. And I realized, this
is the thing these hobbies can do for me, if I can manage to make
the time for them. So. I think maybe one step to making time might
be the whole boredom thing, trying to make boredom a habit to then
have room for hobbies, and then maybe deleting some of the things
off my phone that are distracting me from it.
But the other hobby
I'd kind of like to pick up, which is not in my goals, but I kind
of want to go back to animal crossing. It's been over a year since
I played animal crossing. And I'm worried that if I get back into.
Suck my life away, the way that it did when I, when I was playing
it, when the pandemic started, but to be fair, I'm in kidney
failure and I was having a really hard time.
And so it made sense.
I don't know if it makes sense anymore, but cat's gotten back into
it and I've been watching what they're doing and I'm like, oh fuck.
I kind of want to do that too. I don't know. I think I need to,
re-examine the hobbies I'm trying to pick up. And decide if maybe
it's enjoyment that I don't, I'm not anticipating getting, or maybe
it's too hard and uncomfortable to get into.
Am I expecting too
much? Am I expecting to get too much, get too much pleasure out of
my hobbies right up front. Do I need to put the little work in the
houseplant thing is going okay. I'm not as on top of it as I should
be, but I am working on it.
I'd love to hear from
you, how you make time for your hobbies. This kind of is not a very
long episode, but honestly I just sort of needed to get off my
chest that I am. I am. I have all the intentions in the world of
making time for hobbies for my own. But I'm not following through
on it. I would love your tips.
I would love your help
and your experiences. Let me know, tag me at @llamaletters on
Instagram and your stories. And let me know. I'd love to hear it.
In the meantime, I'm going to keep working on it. I'm going to try
and schedule time to be bored. I'm a delete some shit off my phone.
And my next episode is going to be about some books that I've read
in books.
I want to read because
reading is one of the hobbies I've had throughout my life. And it's
one that I have still continued to do, even if I haven't always
been great at making time for, and so I want to make sure to keep
it first and foremost in my mind. So let me know on Instagram,
don't forget to check out my Patreon
www.patreon.com/cindyguentertbaldo.
They are the sponsors
of my podcasts and they're fucking awesome until next time, make
some time for yourself and your hobbies. This. And I'll talk to you
later. Peace out.