Once upon a time there was a young peasant living in a small village. Every day he walked a certain path, sprinkled oats for the ducks, and walked back home. One day as he was walking the path, a small rock lay where he was about to step. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the rock and it caused his ankle to twist making him fall. His oats spilled across the path and he scuffed his hand and knee.

He was immediately irate and slammed his hand on the ground in frustration.

“Why do these things always happen to me?” he thought.

For the rest of the day his mind replayed the event and he became increasingly angry at the unfairness. He began to notice more unfair treatment and used it as fuel for his cyclic thoughts: the baker must have given him the smallest loaf of bread on purpose, his friend didn’t warn him about the horse dung before he stepped in it, etc. He became more and more bitter.

Rewind

Let’s go back to the moment after he scuffed his knee.

He was immediately irate and slammed his hand on the ground in frustration.

“Well that was lousy,” he thought.

For the rest of the day if the event came to mind he rolled his eyes and was grateful it wasn’t worse. He began to notice that other people had inconveniences as well: the baker ran out of flour and needed to send his apprentice to get more, a child stubbed her toe, etc. He became more and more grateful.

Purpose

What is the difference here? Although there are a lot of similarities (i.e. The peasant tripped in both stories, got frustrated, and remembered the bad thing that happened), there was one key difference. His perception and thoughts about the event.

Despite this being an incredibly silly story it illustrates the point I’m trying to make. We all experience hard things and feel difficult emotions. The difference lies in how we perceive and think of the events, or our attitudes towards them.

Choosing resilient and positive thoughts can lead to:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress and pain
• Greater resistance to illnesses
• Improved psychological and physical well-being
• Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

(source) This link also includes ways to recognize your negative thoughts.

I frequently feel unwell, and actually am in a bout of the stomach flu currently. It’s too easy to feel hopeless, search for someone or something to blame, and become depressed and angry. My most common method of dealing with these moments is the powerful tool of DISTRACTION. If I absorb myself in something, I can no longer dwell on how I feel or what I can do.

In the context of our peasant story that could be him distracting himself by cheering up the child who stubbed her toe. The way we perceive an event and our inner dialogue about it has a powerful influence on us. Try re-writing one of the stories you’ve been tell yourself. Let me know how it goes in the comments.

The post The Stories We Tell Ourselves first appeared on MS and Mo.

Let us first decide what counts as a hobby. It seems ridiculous to define something that everyone “knows” the definition of. But for the sake of those people who try to count chores as hobbies, we will define a hobby as follows:

A purposeful activity done regularly that brings one pleasure.

Mental health really does improve when you participate in hobbies, and if you don’t believe it I challenge you to give it a try! Later in this post I’ll give a few ideas of things that you can do but for now let’s dive into the mental health benefits of hobbies.

Benefits of Hobbies

1- Decreased Stress/Improved Physical Health:

Participating regularly in activities you enjoy decreases cortisol, the stress hormone, and improves heart health. More than just reducing the feelings of stress, decreasing cortisol also decreases inflammation which in turn reduces flares of your illness. (https://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-health/health-benefits-of-hobbies )

Depending on the activity of your choice, it could also improve physical fitness, coordination, and innovative thinking. 

2- Enhanced Relationships:

Another benefit of hobbies is that they can increase your ability to talk to others. Having something to discuss other than your health can be just enough of a break to reset your medical tolerance and automatically draws people to you due to your passion. (“The Empowered Woman”). 

An additional way that hobbies enhance relationships takes a little extra effort on your part. Hobbies give you a chance to meet other people with similar interests. There is a strong connection between positive relationships and lower rates of anxiety and depression. (https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/Strong-relationships-strong-health) Giving a nice double whammy to health AND relationships.

3- Increased Life Satisfaction:

When you live with a chronic illness you are unable to wait until you feel better to live your life. On my hardest days I have a hard time focusing on much of anything except how horrible I feel. One thing I’ve found that helps is spending even a short amount of time doing something I enjoy. This makes the nastiest days a little less nasty. With a chronic condition we must learn to live well WITH our illness. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5507015/) When we learn to do this we will truly be able to feel satisfaction about the life we are living.

Making time for hobbies

But I don’t have time for x,y, or z. I’m using what time I have to manage my illness and feel selfish taking more time just to do something fun. I don’t know what to try, it’s been too long since I’ve had a hobby. 

All of these are thoughts that I have regularly and will likely continue having as long as I have a chronic disease and am a mother. A.K.A. forevermore. 

Here are a few ways to prioritize/fit in hobbies:

• 5 minute spurts: a hobby doesn’t need to take hours for it to “count.” Even participating in something for a short amount of time each day has loads of benefits.
• Choose a hobby that has to do with what you already spend time doing. My mom told me that when my siblings and I were growing up she would take us to the library so she could get a book on something like baking bread, and then when we were home she would have the resources to do it. Example: playing with a toddler-hobby could be building cool towers and taking pictures of them. 

Hobby ideas

For those of you who simply cannot come up with something that seems remotely interesting to try, I have compiled a list and hopefully something seems interesting to you on it.

1. Painting
2. Drawing
3. Dancing
4. Singing
5. Playing an instrument
6. Organizing
7. Walking
8. Lifting weights
9. Playing solitaire
10. Writing
11. Reading
12. Playing soccer
13. Yoga
14. DIY crafting
15. Home refurbishing
16. Interior design
17. Photography

I found a blog called localadventurer.com and they have a post compiling 101 different hobbies you can try! Find that article at this link.

In conclusion, hobbies can change your mind! Let me know what you decide to try.

The post How Hobbies Can Change Your Mind first appeared on MS and Mo.