As I continue to make my way through this difficult time – and deal with super-high anxiety – I’m continuing to sort of cobble together various things that help me (what those things are can change, so it’s an ongoing process). And I continue to do my best to focus on what I call joy connections, proactively and deliberately looking for moments of joy.
Of course, the hubs and this girl are a huge part of my joy.
In my attempts to fill my time with things that distract me from the anxiety and worrisome thoughts/imaginations, I’ve picked up my genealogy research again. Genealogy is something I’ve been involved with off and on since my teens, going in cycles with it and taking (often long) breaks between dives back into exploring the family tree.
I’m writing some, working on my fiction, but things with that are moving along slowly at the moment.
However – I’m reading more fiction again, finally! For several months of this year, I wasn’t able to focus and concentrate enough to read novels. I’m back to reading again, though, and it’s a wonderful way to distract myself from all that’s going on, and escape for a while.
An injury to my toe in late summer meant walking even less than the small amount of walking I was doing. Weeks went by and eventually I was sent for x-rays which showed arthritis but no breaks or fractures. Finally, I was able to venture out on short walks with my husband, and it’s felt so good to be out ‘n about in that way again, even in brief bits of time.
And, as has been the case for the past several years, painting calms me. I still do some paintplay with acrylics on canvas, but my main daily painting lately has been with watercolors – page after page after page of blibs and blobs with watercolors. Just the holding and the moving of the brush, and the paints and the water playing on the page together.
These are some – not all – of the things helping me get through the days right now.
♥
Ginger Simpson White 