Overcoming Stress While Learning a New Hobby

The Self-Awareness and Self-Compassion Podcast

Sometimes we have feelings about the hobbies we choose to pursue, despite starting with all good intentions.

Part of learning any new skill is coming to terms with being terrible at it in the beginning and facing our own frustration with this each time we show up to learn more.

We can get through a lot of the initial frustration by focusing on curiosity or interest in the process of learning how to get past each obstacle.

When we are kids, we have a large amount of this kind of curiosity and interest and it allows us to learn all kinds of new things before we give up, especially about topics that we find particularly interesting.

It’s okay to be frustrated and feel like we aren’t getting anywhere. We don’t need to see success every day or even every week – progress is happening and when we are in the process we might not be able to notice our own improvements.

It can help to think of practicing new habits or hobbies as a ritual because at the beginning we don’t know what to expect. We can create some safety and predictability by creating a simple ritual that gets you started and embarked on the journey.

Accepting that the feeling we have at the beginning of learning a new skill is generally fraught with frustration as well as interest. It is what it is – and as you progress, your feelings may swing more toward accomplishment, pride, joy, and inspiration. It’s OK to not be overwhelmed with inspiration at the beginning, that’s just how it is at the beginning.

Rest and sleep are super important when learning new skills, too. Without that rest and sleep, we don’t consolidate the new information and skills – and with it, we accelerate our learning, which is amazing and so much fun!

It’s also helpful to have an idea of where you want to end up with each of your goals and come up with ways to move toward that result, with a timeline for evaluation.

It also helps to consistently ask yourself for small amounts of time to practice instead of demanding hours of your time, which is harder to commit to in general and even more so when you’re feeling frustrated or disappointed in your progress. Small chunks of time accumulate into big wins over time.

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