Hobbies and confidence

Yesterday I had a really long day, I was feeling tired and I couldn't wait to get home. So were my colleagues, all they wanted was to go home and do nothing. But I wanted some hobby time. It is far more relaxing to do something you love than not doing anything.

Having a hobby is very fulfilling, it brings us so many benefits.

When you decide to do something with your free time, you need to learn the basics, it requires effort and can be frustrating but you end up with a new skill and ready for hours of relaxed enjoyment. You also tend to step up and constantly challenge yourself to go further. The benefits are enormous,with the simple fact of having a hobby you:

• learn a new skill
• improve your focus
• develop your creativity
• learn to over come challenges as they come along
• train your patience and perseverance
• strengthens yourself
• gives you a sense of accomplishment

Just try it and see how much more confident and relaxed you become.

Life, Hobbies and stuff

"A hobby is a regular activity done for pleasure - typically during leisure - e.g., collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports. Continual participation in a hobby can provide substantial skill and knowledge about it." This is how Wikipedia describes the term Hobby. This is not how I do it! I see something that I like and decide there and then that I want to do it, it doesn't matter how hard or advanced it is, I am going to learn it and do it. My hobby takes over all of my time! If I can't be doing it I am thinking about it or I am annoyed because I wanted to be doing it!! I learn the basics, I work hard on it, I move from goal to goal until I finally achieve my ultimate goal. For a few days I am happy and with a renewed confidence and then I lose interest!!!
Normally I already have something else lined up for me to try.
I have just started a new hobby, crochet. Sounds a bit boring but you can actually create amazing pieces with it. This time my goal is quite ambitious and I wonder what is going to happen when I get there. For now I am enjoying it, there is a small thrill every time I finish something. There are lots of different stitches to learn, different yarns to try. It is actually very interesting!
When my mother heard that I was doing crochet she was very enthusiastic and proud of it, "my daughter, just like her mum". She is very creative, she does all sorts of different crafts and she does them very well. When she retired from her job she decide to learn crafting and she's been doing it ever since. She never lost interest.
So it got me wondering how much of what I do, of what I am was taught to me by my parents. Sure they taught me basic rules of education, to respect others, but what else?
 I was told to go to college, work hard, buy things and be happy. For many years I thought that these things were connected! I am not a career  woman (my own choice), I don't have many things that I can call mine, (again, my own choice), and yet I feel very fortunate. M and I live together for 20 years, he is everything to me. With him, through life I learned many things, things that I can not teach my daughters, I can only hope that they will learn it as I did.
Life is the master teacher. Parents are examples. With parents you learn by observation.  I have been through one or two difficult situations where I did what I could and kept my "head", and I have seen my mother having melt downs when things got tough.
Parents want their children to be happy, healthy, successful adults, but this can't be taught, So we try to give them directions  with our dos and don'ts and whys and nos. This is especially true in their teen years, when life starts to show them things that we, parents, don't fully understand because our experiences were very different. Then as adults they will question all the nagging. I may sound ungrateful towards my parents but that 's not my intention, I am just trying to find a good excuse to let my daughters be. For the twenty years that I have been  a mother,  I still don't have a clue on how to raise a child! For them I want the best, I am always present but I stopped the dos and don'ts, the arguments, I want my time with them to be peaceful.
I love my parents very much but they were not the ones who shaped me.

And also, M showed me a video of T'ai chi push hands that was amazing, I must check that out. Stay tuned.