I’ve had a lot of questions and comments over the past week that have related to the idea of absorbing activities. This is one of the things I am working on including in my day as it has a positive effect of my overall wellness.
An absorbing activity is exactly as it sounds, an activitiy that absorbs you to the point where you are focused on that and nothing else. Its one of the things I’ve taken away from the therapy work I did 18 months ago. When you have a mind like mine that never seems to stop, having an absorbing activity is a moment to just let it rest a bit.
Absorbing activities are different for different people and in a way it also relates to mindfulness. When we were discussing it in our group, we created a long list of the different things that it could include based on what worked for each of us. Here are just some of the ideas:
- Colouring
- yoga
- games – board games, mini games, consoles
- baking
- sewing – embroidery, cross stitch, quilting
- running
- walking
- playing with pets
- crochet and knitting
- dancing to loud music
- driving with loud music
Its an incredibly personal thing to you so you make the activities what you want them to be.
Its something that I have found challenging at times over the past year with the way our lives have changed. But there are been lots of different things I have been able to do which I have discovered are absorbing activities.
We spent a good chunk of spare time decorating the house and working on home improvements. That was a brilliant way of distracting my head from its thoughts. There were so many different steps that needed to be done, it was just a case of keep following that list. No we’ve hit the colder months though and with another lockdown, thats all been put on hold.
My go to activity though is sticker therapy. Sticker therapy is a thing (you can even buy stickers for it to add to you planner!). The process of putting stickers in my planners is completly absorbing for me and that is one of the main reasons I have heavy sticker spreads. That and the fact I like colour and it encourages me to look at it!
For me I feel like I have found a balance in my daily planning where I have a pretty yet functional set up. I have spreads that I want to look at, I have a mix of wellness and health tracking alongside the tasks and more mundane things and I have the space to put down stickers! I envy some of the more minimal spreads I see in planners sometimes but I know it wouldn’t work for me in the same way.
Sometimes though, the needs to put stickers down goes beyond the daily planning routine. For this reason, in my current planner line up, I have a sticker therapy planner! I literally have it for the purpose of putting down stickers. I do try out different things in the process to see if they work for me and if its something that I might like to try in my main planner. But this is a sole outlet for just absorbing myself in a task.
As well as putting stickers down, I do add in writing to my planner. Its one of the most mindful and reflective things that I do. In that moment, I can look at things objectively without any judgement and it turns into a sort of memory planner by the time its finished. At the moment this is a Small Passion Planner. So if you see my Small Passion Planner posted anywhere on social media, know that’s my sticker therapy planner.
My Life Planned Out 