Over the past couple of years, I have noticed a drastic decline in the amount of time that I spend on my hobbies and just general creative outlet. Growing up I always made time and had time for all of my hobbies. I used to be an avid reader, did crochet, hiked, went to concerts and on road trips.
With the world being shut down, going to concerts has been impossible and road trips with a toddler have been at the bottom of my radar. My husband and I had recently purchased tickets to a concert at a local ish casino. That concert was supposed to have been on Friday, and sadly it was canceled on Friday afternoon. Since we already had a baby sitter for the evening, we went to our favorite local Korean BBQ restaurant and it was fantastic.
However, missing out on the concert really bummed us out. I haven’t been to a concert in three years and I miss that. I had been so hyped up about it and felt like it was a step towards getting out of my rut. It was very disappointing to have it get canceled.
Over the last few months, I have realized how important it is for me to have a creative outlet and I have slowly been trying to do more of the things that I once loved. It is so easy to pull your phone out at the end of the day and mindlessly scroll social media. I spend hours each day scrolling Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.
Working on the NaNoWriMo project has really helped with having that creative outlet. I used to write a lot and haven’t done it in so long. Even my journal writing had gotten quite sporadic. Over the last week or so, I have noticed a drastic improvement in my overall mood and feelings of productivity at the end of the day. Although, I wasn’t able to write *quite* as much on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
For me, this creative outlet is necessary. It took me a long time to realize it, but having a project to be working on gives me purpose. I expected to feel overwhelmed as I did make some pretty large goals for my writing for the month of November. However, even though I haven’t stayed quite on track, it has given me a new thing to look forward to each day. It has been so beneficial to me to have that outlet for my thoughts and feelings and also feeling productive instead of just scrolling social media.
While it is my goal to eventually do some projects that involve getting published, I am very pleased with the progress I have made on my personal writing projects. I hope to keep these goals going forward and to continue making progress.
Tiffanie Talks 