Find a Hobby and Love Yourself While Caregiving
Is caregiving making you tired, burned out, and cranky? Don’t allow yourself to reach this point. How? By finding a hobby! You might say, "Nah, I'd rather sleep!" But hold that thought, and consider this: although having a good night's rest is necessary and can seem like a huge privilege that rarely happens, not all the stresses of caregiving can be solved by sleep.
Caregivers must have time to do the things they love when they are awake, however cliché that may sound. Let's find out why.
Doing something that excites you, in the form of hobbies, puts you in a better place emotionally and mentally. Your frame of mind shifts from the challenges of caring for your patients to the positive feeling of doing something that interests and inspires you.
Hobbies allow you to stay in the present, feel good about yourself, and reset your state of mind. They calm nerves and fight stress. They also create a balance between work and personal life and give you a renewed sense of purpose—caring for oneself and not just for others.
If you don’t yet have a hobby, here are some tips to get started:
1. Set and make time.
Caregivers tend to say, "Yeah, I guess I can start a hobby, when I have time!" If you’ve told yourself that, chances are the moment will never come unless you firmly set aside time to make it work. Stick to your plan like a strict diet program and you’ll reap good results in the future.
2. Ask yourself what you love doing the most and make a list of your favorites.
Would you rather have peace and quiet, or to socialize instead? Would you prefer to enjoy it with company or alone? What time of day or night is a hobby possible for you? How many minutes a day, or how frequently in a week, can you spend doing your hobby? How long before you finish a project? How much money do you need to support your hobby?
3. Plan and act on it.
Keeping the idea in the back of your mind is useless if you do not make the effort to begin somewhere. As with any attempt, it is the start that seems to be the most challenging, but once you are into it, giving it a rest is the next big challenge.
4. Once that you have finished a project, share, donate, or sell it to fund your next venture.
Don’t just keep your hobby to yourself, share it with others to spread the positive effects and help motivate you to complete the next project.
If you are open to having a unique and interesting hobby, here's a short list that might interest you.
1. Care for a bonsai tree
Bonsai is the Japanese method for growing miniature trees, scaled to its original shape and size as a full-grown tree. Choose fruit-bearing ones like orange or lemon so you can reward yourself with a harvest in the future. You need a lot of patience and dedication for this hobby, because the waiting time for results can take years.
2. Photography
No expertise needed as long as the moments you capture speak to you, although photography clubs and classes can be a great way to stick to your hobby. Create memes and quotes with the photos to level up on your experience and share it with your friends and family.
3. DIY (do-it-yourself) project
Perhaps you saw on social media a video of a real DIY life hack that interested you. Choose your favorite and start creating something practical or artistic.
4. Bring to life old or broken things
If you are into fixing and tinkering, try getting an old vacuum to work, restoring a wooden chair, or making a music box sound again.
5. Make the most of a dollar
“How far will my one dollar go?” Challenge yourself using coupons and deals from the Internet and newspapers. This can be a recurring challenge with great results.
So, there you have it. Go ahead and start a hobby! Love yourself!
