I know that I’m not the only person that has felt unmotivated lately. Staying at home all day, wearing pajamas, and overeating out of boredom are all particularly unmotivating habits that have characterized 2020 and 2021 so far. Personally, my daily routine has consisted of: work-school-TV-sleep. While it was nice to have a break from pre-pandemic socialization and responsibilities, my new free time made me realize that I no longer enjoyed anything about the hobbies that I once loved.
I used to love to write, read, and get almost embarrassingly involved in class discussions. Yet my classes no longer excited me, I hadn’t been able to bring myself to pick up a book in almost a year and a half, and writing now felt like a chore. I took the time the pandemic had granted to me to reflect, and realized that it wasn’t the pandemic that was making me feel like this. I had been creatively barren for years now, and it had taken a worldwide shut-down to make me realize this.
The onset of the spring semester came with a new determination to spend my free time more creatively and mindfully. Spring has always been a special season for me. I find the thaw and fresh greenery to be intrinsically healing. I used the motivation of the new life around me to create a better one for myself. I began taking walks with my sister. Moving, taking in the fresh air, and smiling and waving to neighbors made a noticeable difference in my mood. I also used the time to bond and talk with my sister. I cannot emphasize enough how much better it feels to only spend time on relationships with people that I truly care about.
Apart from bonding with my sister and enjoying nature, I also began to try reading again. I made the leap from watching trashy rom-coms every night, to trying out a trashy romantic novel. I fell in love with reading all over again, and from there I’ve moved into other genres. I’ve become more open with my interests than I ever was before my slump.
In regards to classes, I’ve decided that I don’t need to love every one, and that I don’t really need to give all of my effort to each one of them. I’ve realized that putting maximum effort into classes that I wasn’t really interested in lead to burnout. Moreover, I no longer feel like I need to be the best to feel my best, and I may be more invested in some classes than others. Allowing myself to let go of overwhelming expectations for myself in my classes made me overall more at peace. I was able to enjoy what I wanted, and give minimal effort into what I didn’t, which freed up so much space in my mind for productive and healthy behavior.
Through changing my mindset and letting go of damaging habits, I’ve finally been able to make the mental space for myself to get back into writing. Although I don’t write as often as I used to, the platform that Her Campus has given me allows me to not only write my own content, but also to read and enjoy an entire community of other people’s as well.
In returning to my creative hobbies, I’ve been able to finally understand the meaning of mindfulness. My creativity slump taught me how to pay attention to what made me truly happy, what caused me mental burnout, and helped me better understand myself as a whole.