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.
• DISCLAIMER
Colorful words may be used. don't be alarmed.
• NEWSLETTER
• Etsy Shop is open!
• FIND ME ON ALL THE THINGS
• STUFF I MENTIONED
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.
167 | MID YEAR REFLECTIONS + ANNOUNCEMENT!
166 | THE TALE OF A PAIR OF SHOES
165| THE FOUR TENDENCIES
164 | RAGE
163 | PARENTING TEENAGERS IS COMPLICATED
162 | GOING ON A DATE WITH ME
161 | TYPE ABCD PERSONALITY TEST
160 | I'M A SHITTY BOSS
AN INTERLUDE
159 | PHONE ANXIETY AND ME