Nourishing and depleting activities

This is something my therapist was talking to me about. We were talking about routine, and working out a schedule for me. She said that every time I do a depleting activity, I should follow it with a nourishing activity. For instance, a depleting activity could be a day at work. Then you might come home and watch a movie, which would be your nourishing activity.

 While talking about this with her, I realised I couldn't call to mind many nourishing activities. However, my therapist had a list! The list included journalling, taking pictures, going on walks...Stuff like that.

Journalling was one of the activities that caught my eye. I did used to do journalling, and I really enjoyed it. I know I've got this blog, but for me journalling is a bit different. It's much free-form. When I blog I feel like I have to think about being cohesive and having a beginning, a middle, and an end. When I'm simply putting pen to paper I can write and write till my hand cramps up! Then I give my hand a quick shake and continue writing! You just can't beat it! So I did want to get back into it but I was slightly stuck on what to write. I've got plenty of notebooks but didn't know what to write in one of my many notebooks. Then last week someone on my Facebook newsfeed had posted some creative therapy journalling topics. I wrote nearly all the topics down in a notebook and I plan on working through them (I think the idea is to share them in a community type way but, I'd rather just take this as an exercise for myself. If you are interested by the way, here is the link: https://junquemail.wordpress.com/journal-prompts-creative-therapy/ )

 Another thing I would like to try doing is colouring or doodling. Neither of those two things were on the list, but I've heard a lot of talk about it being a good way to de-stress. You can even get doodling and colouring books geared towards adults, but I really don't mind getting one which is for children. Colouring is colouring, and doodling is doodling, right? It'll have the same affect no matter what it is!

I know that I talk about starting new things and new hobbies a lot. Or I've set goals and haven't followed them through, but I think these new things are doable! Apparently I would like to de-stress, whilst keeping my mind engaged and expressing creativity, and also giving myself a cramp in my hand!

 Next time I see my therapist, we're going to discuss pacing. I have struggled with getting the balance between taking part in activities and getting some rest. I'm getting better at it, but it used to be that I would either not do things through fear that it would wear me out, or I would really go for it and wear myself out! So it'll be good for somebody to show me how to pace myself and get the balance.

I would just like to feel some sense of purpose and usefulness, but do it without wearing myself out.