Mental health seems to be making a little progress as something that is more actively talked about. It has a long way to go. But especially lately, I'm surprised at how much it comes up in conversation, and how many people feel like they're struggling a bit. I am firmly in this camp. Life's obligations and challenges, and sometimes the world, are weighing on me. For context, I haven't really felt like this since probably 2009. That was the year of the recession, the inability to sell houses, oh, and I moved cross-country, started a new job, got married and had a baby on the way.
I don't really want to get deep into it all right now, but I do know that one of the ways to counteract all of that emotional and cognitive load is to balance it out with stuff that appeals to your intrinsic motivation, helps you feel present, and gives you joy. I've had a lot of things over the years that do that for me, but for the last year or so I've noticed that it's been so hard to engage in them. They don't thrill me like they used to. There was a time when I would jump out of bed to do that thing. And of course finishing projects is always hard (rum doc). So these days, I'm looking for that thing, that project, that thing I'm so into that I'll follow it to completion. It's the general malaise that makes it hard to even plug in.
It's a work in progress. I wish there were smaller things that filled the joy need. Sometimes they do surface suddenly though. A week or two ago I thought, I want a better call background. So I blitzed through rebuilding the Lego Eiffel Tower. (Disappointed that no coworker has called it out.) I know that so much of my thing is that I want to do things that potentially benefit others, which is great in principle, but I think I need to do things for me. I give more than I take already.
No comments yet.