Last week was a busy one for me as I had three consecutive days as a member of various groups. Monday was the garden club, where two of us organise and run the plant sale table. Tuesday was a full day hands-on quilt workshop and Wednesday was my writers’ group. All involved plenty of face-to-face communication. By Wednesday afternoon, I was mentally exhausted.
Most of my days are people-free days. By this, I mean I don’t have any face-to-face conversation with anyone who doesn’t live with me. I like it that way, so I can have head space to process what I’ve learned or observed. I spent the rest of last week letting my mind wander in different directions while I did mindless unpicking of the seams in a quilt top that wasn’t pleasing me. If you haven’t tried unpicking stitches, you can’t appreciate how soothing it can be.
I know plenty of people who pack in much more to their days than I do. I used to do that, during the many years I was in a paid job, but always longed to choose how I filled my days rather than having them filled for me. I’m grateful that now I can choose what to do and when to do it. That includes enjoying my days without external stimuli, whenever I want. Regular people-free days really do help with mental wellbeing.
Singing my song! If I cannot have at least one weekend day people free, I begin to feel really overwhelmed.
Thanks for writing this, Erica.