The Art of Slowing Down: How Mindful Creativity Heals the Soul
What are your hobbies? Well, directly after high school I went to college. In college, I fully immersed myself in being a full time student, a sorority sister, and working as close to full time as I could. This did not leave much room for hobbies, if you count going out to parties as a hobby 🥴, so after graduating college I had more time to choose to waste away or actually find hobbies (they do not have to cost!). It has taken some time, but I finally found ways to slow down and be creative, which has immensely healed my soul in ways I did not know I could!
In the midst of 2020 is when I found something that I had no idea would be so healing for me. With no mat, no props, just youtube, and my free will I began my yoga journey. I am no yogi, but I do love the space that a yoga session can hold for me. I have been practicing yoga off and on and it was not until summer of 2024 that I went to my first yoga class in a studio. I had no idea what to expect and I went in, super nervous. Everyone there was so kind and wanted to know about me?! Whoa. I left class with a high on life and cried on the way home. At the end of 2024, this studio that brought me such peace and happiness for a few months, announced that they must close their doors due to the rising cost of their business. They had to sell all of their business supplies and with that I was able to purchase my first yoga props that I already knew how to use and would bring me a sense of comfort as I continued this practice at home.
For my birthday in November, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with one of my dearest friends. She had the idea for us to do the trend where we buy a painting for cheap and paint our own additions onto it. Off to Goodwill we go in search of the perfect paintings. We wanted older looking, but we would not know what we truly wanted until we found it. I left with a nice bathroom scene and she left with a hazy desert painting. I knew I wanted to add halloween themed items to my painting and she had decided on an alien abduction. I honestly had never been a huge fan of painting until this, but it was so fun to be creative and add little touches here and there and NOT be worried about messing up.
Recently, this friend and I were able to catch up again and she mentioned painting again. I absolutely agreed and off we went in search of a painting. We ended up coming home with two blank canvases because nothing seemed to stand out to us otherwise. I had no idea what I wanted to paint, but it was about to be the love month, so I got onto Pinterest and started searching. My friend already knew she had a picture she wanted to recreate and started mixing and matching paints to get the right colors. I finally picked a Valentine’s Day themed picture to paint. Throughout this painting I had different ideas and it was super cool to switch up what I was originally doing and see the finished product come out better than I even thought it could.
Also in November, a coworker of mine started making monkey fist keychains. The more I watched him create, the easier it started to become to me. He actually took the time to show me how to make my own keychain. It was not perfect, but it was exciting to learn a new skill. Even more exciting, I realized that this is essentially what making macrame is and I loveeee macrame products. I even had the idea that I could make cat toys for my kitties, which also gave me the idea that I could make them to sell. I did end up buying macrame cord to try my hand at macrame, but I never did try making the kitty toys. Let me ask you this, is macrame pretty popular or is it more of a niche idea? For now macrame has been put to the side, while I focus on other endeavors, but I would love to pick it up as a consistent hobby eventually.
I have never liked to write. I am unsure of why, but I always felt so constricted in my English classes while I was writing papers. All of my creative gears seem to shut down when I have a set of parameters to follow. Sometime last year, I got the very slight inkling feeling that I should not write, but type. This could give me the freedom to use my hands and I can type much faster than I can write. I never even liked to journal, though I wish I did. I did not know where to start with my writing journey, so I started here and there with different Word documents. I then had the idea to write letters to my family for their Christmas Gifts. I would type up the letter, so I could perfect it, then I wrote it down on some nice paper and finished it with a little bit of lavender essential oil. Sometime between December and now, I toyed with the idea of a blog… A consistent space for me to write and share my knowledge with you.
Through these avenues, all in the creative space, I have opened my eyes to see how healing it is to be able to pick something up with my hands and simply work on it. No rush. No constraints. No stress. The peace that can come from taking the time to slow down and be creative is very comforting. I cannot wait to expand upon these hobbies and share them with you as we launch into this endeavor together. What hobbies do you have that allow you to pause time and get in touch with yourself?
