Healing Through Creativity: Why Crochet is More Than a Hobby with Amanda Woodbury

Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as The Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're gonna be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, and I'm also known as The Geeky Girl. I'm excited to be here. I'm bringing you Amanda. Of course, Amanda's been here before. You missed her before. You can zip back into our episode. She was here before, but I'm really excited to have Amanda back. Certainly, It's been interesting for me in my concussion healing journey to have crochet on my side. So it's been cool to do that. And of course, when I, I think about crocheting, I think of Amanda. So we're going to chat here a little bit today. And I want to let you know that Amanda Woodbury is the founder of The Mindful Hook and CEO of the Yarnpreneur Academy. It's a bit of a tongue teaser for me, but it's all good. She's a crochet instructor, pattern author, which I think is rather amazing, and a mentor for makers. She empowers women to use yarn as both a calming creative ritual and a path to build sustainable handmade business. So like I said, for me, it's been very good for my relaxation and my peace throughout the healing journey of my concussion. So welcome to the show, Amanda.

Hey, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be back, and this, this is just super fun. So thank you for having me.

It's awesome. And I think about like when I was a kid, my grandmother crocheted a lot. Like I was the one who was in charge of— I had to take the skeins of yarn and turn them into the— like I had to hold them, she's turning into balls, right? That kind of thing. I remember sitting at her feet while she was making blanket after blanket. Great memories, right? And then when I met you, you introduced this other side of crocheting and being more mindful. And when— and at the time I wasn't kind of into it in terms of like the mindfulness of it. I just wanted to get back into crocheting to connect me with, you know, what I had grown up with. But having you fed me that information previously and then bringing— being able to bring it into this now healing portion of my life, it's full circle and it's lovely that you're here.

I love that. Like, I've been watching your journey since the concussion and bringing crochet back into it, and I'm just absolutely loving it. And that just leads to like a whole new other conversation, right? How Not only is it healing for your mindset, but it gives you time to rest and slow down while you physically heal on something as well, which is amazing.

Well, the key element for me is once my brain started to heal to the point where I could think again, because in the beginning that was all jumbled, but then my mind was like, oh, let's create, let's do things, let's do, let's do. But my body was like, oh girlfriend, no, if you stand up right now, you're just gonna have to have a nap. And so I needed to create Something. Um, and some of the other things that I like to do were more physical and I couldn't do, like, you know, like pottery on the spinning wheels. Like, that's— I still can't do that. It's still too physical for me. There was one night I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep, which is one of these things that happens with concussions. And I was sitting there and I went, I don't want to turn on the TV because I don't want to wake up the family, right? Even though I probably wouldn't have, I just didn't want that kind of thing. It's like, I'm not going to sit and read in the dark right now. Like, I'm kind of over it because I've done a lot of that. And I thought, I've got some yarn and some hooks. I mean, I'll just start crocheting. And it wasn't even a thought of like— I was like, I don't even care what I'm making. I'm just going to make a chain and just start putting stitches together. And so that was the start of my journey in terms of coming back around. And it's so amazing that I can create something. I can do something that is productive but is easy on me.

Yeah, I love that. Absolutely. That's, that's so cool. Like I, like I said, like, I love following your journey, and it's just, it's just so enlightening.

It's been fun. It's been fun. I mean, now I get— I go, oh geez, you know, I've, I gotta try this new stitch, and I get myself in— I get myself into trouble now, right? I've got this one stitch that I absolutely will love to do, and I was gonna make it for this blanket for my nephew, my great nephew, but I had other colors to put in it, and then the, the blanket would have to be like different colors and different lines, and it just wouldn't work with that particular stitch. It was so frustrating. So I'm getting myself into a bit of trouble, but it's fun trouble.

Yeah, like, that's the thing that is so unique about crocheting, too, is you can play with different colors of yarn, different colors of stitches, different types of stitches, different types of yarns. You can Mix and match, and it's just the creativity is endless. And there's so— there's different levels of skill that are involved, right? Like, if you just want something that's like mindless, something to just keep you busy without overdoing it or overstressing yourself out, like the beginner level product projects like are the best for that easy level. If you want to get into some complex design, uh, stitch work, or, you know, just some variations so it's not boring, right? You know, you can do that as well. Anything that's like intermediate and advanced level, those are complex, right? Those are not for mindless crochet at all. That's like, I need to forget what's going on in the world and just focus on this.

100%. I— and I think that everybody has to find like their, their own piece of joy, so Like, for me, I don't get, I don't get, uh, bored if I'm doing the same stitch over and over again. I like the rhythm of it. To me, it's calming. Some people like to have complex stitches where they have to be counting and thinking the whole way through, and I'm not, I'm not into that. Um, to me, that's more work, right? Like, my daughter wanted me to make a frog for her, and so she had this yarn. It was kind of a rainbowish kind of color yarn, but it's not really nice on the finger, so it wouldn't make like for a nice scarf, or, you know, like it wouldn't be something you'd want to wear around yourself. And she's like, maybe you can make me a frog with this. I'm like, well, I'll give it a shot. And I enjoyed the process, you know, that because you have to like add stitches and take stitches away and, you know, make different shapes and stuff. But it required so much concentration on that, I could do nothing else, right? Whereas with making other things, I can sit and watch TV while I do it, or it's It's like, you know, you get to a row and you go, oh, I screwed up that last row. Okay, we'll take it all apart, go back to where we were. It's less stressful for me.

With you there as a crocheter on my, my hobby side, I love the simplicity things. I love things that are just get in there, get it done, make it simple, don't complicate it. Use stitch markers so you make sure that you have the same stitch count, because those are important. But the business side of me, the professional side, I, I've tried to design intermediate level and experience level patterns. And I was like, you know what, this still is not fun for me. Like, I, I enjoy it when I really want to learn something new. Or the design just happens to fall into that intermediate category. Like, I get that, that's fine. But I still love to stay in that easy beginner level area because, you know, I do a lot of the mindfulness work with patterns too. It's like, this pattern is compatible with mindfulness. This pattern is not compatible with mindfulness unless you need that complexity, then it could work for you.

Right. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, I think that's one of the things that is really important of what you said. And it's part of the stuff that we bring into Geeky Girls teachings as well. It's stay in where you're most— that brings you most joy in your business, right? If you try to say, oh, I have to create intermediary because other people want it, then you're now putting yourself in a position where You're having to do things that aren't going to bring you joy, and now you're not going to enjoy your business anymore. I'm just not for it.

I agree. And that also leads to burnout. So because if you're, you're not loving the energy that it gives you, you're going to get exhausted and want to give up, and you're just like, this is just not cool anymore. Like, I don't want to—

Exactly.

And then you're like, well, why did I burn out?

Well, and that's the thing. I think that when we are new to this concept of burning out, I'll just say it, when I was younger, I wouldn't— I had no cues. It was like I would go and go and go and go and go and go and go. And then all of a sudden, the world would burn and I would be in it, right? And I would just completely burn out to the point where I couldn't function. In fact, there was one time, 2008, I think it was 2009, when I burnt out so hard that I couldn't even get off the couch. It was 5 days. I got up in the morning, got my kids to school, and sat on the couch. And that was it. Like, I just couldn't even move. move for 5 days. Like, that was my hardest core burnout that I've ever had. But starting to learn about burnout and starting to understand what leads me to burnout, which is different for all of us— each of us have different reasons why we're burning out depending on what's happening in our lives, and it changes as you, as you change— but when you start to be able to say, oh, hold on a second, I'm not feeling right, what's going on? And you start to recognize these burnout things, then That's where the magic happens because you can stop it happening, right? But let's say, for example, we have people who may be listening right now and they're like, girl, I have never been able to see it coming, but it happens. Like, how am I going to reset now even though I'm in the middle of it?

Yeah, absolutely. So that kind of brings me to the topic, right, of, of the Stop, Drop, and Roll method that I have put together, and it literally became— came from my own experiences with burnout over and over and over again. With ADHD, it seems like it actually comes in more of a cycle. Like, I get burned out almost every month for at least 1 to 2 days, but then— and my creativity falls off, and I don't want to work on my business. I would just rather binge on true crime and work on a simple stitch that, you know, is either for a custom order, even though it's still working, but I still get enjoyment out of it. Or like, I completely, completely shut down. Like you said, like, I don't even get off the couch. And I also deal with depression too. And so sometimes it's hard to discern, is this a depression burnout or is this a work burnout? And So looking through that and just kind of stepping back and kind of having like an out-of-body experience, just being like, okay, what are the symptoms of each? What are the triggers for each? How do I discern between the two? And at the same time, kids were starting to go back to school this year. And we had— they talked about, of course, in the US, we have lockdown drills, which is And then we also have the standard fire drills. And my 12-year-old was talking and kind of laughing about how fun it was to practice the stop, drop, and roll. And I— it just kind of clicked in my head. I was like, yeah, you do need to stop and evaluate, see what's going on, decide what you need to do. Do you— can you stay? Are you okay to stay in place, or do you need to pivot and do you need to move? You need to— what, what do you need to change? Your environment, your, you know, whatever it takes to look at how to prevent or to move forward through burnout. And then the drop is, yeah, that's your moment to pause and to say, what do I need? Do I need mental health? Do I need a mental break? Do I need a physical break? Do I need to actually put my— especially if you're a craft business owner, right? You need to put down the business-related projects, pick up your hobby-related projects so that you can remember why you fell in love with it in the first place. And then, of course, the, the power down or the stop, right? That's where you're like, okay, what are the The roll, not the stop. Thanks, ADHD, right? So with the roll, that's where you're taking your next step. Are you, you know, like that— this is where the schools are like, do we need to evacuate the building? Do we need to just isolate? You know, like, what's the action step that's next that we take? And so in business, that could be something is like, okay, I need to completely rest. I need to not turn on my computer. I need to put my phone down. I need to bury my head in my blankets. I need to, you know, whatever it takes for you, what action step for that. Or if you've already evaluated and you're like, you know what, I do still have some energy. Maybe I'm not at full capacity. So maybe I could just send that one email or I can just, you know, create this one post, you know, things like that. So it just kind of, yeah, like even in my own burnout, I practiced it first before everything I do. I practice first on myself before I always take my own medicine before I put it out in the world, because I'm just kind of that perfectionist kind of tends to come in. And I tested on myself and I was like, you know what, this actually works. And then you had an opportunity to share this with your audience. And I was like, and it resonated with people. And I was like, oh my gosh, this, this actually, it was validated. I was like, this is cool. So now I use it every month for myself too.

But I think it's interesting, like I heard some things recently about being neurodivergent, let's call it, because whether you're ADHD or you have some other kind of divergence that is fun, whether it's labeled or not, it doesn't even matter. But they talked about something like, I know how important for me it is to rest, and I know how important it is for you to rest, and I know how important it is for all of us neurodivergent humans to rest. However, we have this thing upon us, this story that comes upon us that we're being lazy if we rest, that we should— here's those shoulds, right? That we should be working this full-time job, blah, blah, blah. And then I heard this person speak and I went, oh, here's the key that I think is missing out of all this. It's important to rest piece. Neurodivergent people work really hard. Like, our 4 hours is really 8. You give us a job in an hour that we're really focused on, we can do 3 hours worth of work within that hour. So, here's what's really important I think that I got out of that piece is that when you do get to the point where you stop, right? And then, you drop all the things. You drop and you take account. Honor the work you've done as well because you may feel, oh my God! I just need to crawl into blankets but it's only 1 o'clock in the afternoon. But then, if you go, but hold on a second. I've completed an entire email series that You know, you don't— you may not realize that that might have taken somebody else 3 days, right? And that's why, that's why I think it's so important to have these clear goals, these, these clear ideas of what you want to accomplish. Because yeah, this, this concept of stopping, dropping, and rolling, I love. Like, I just totally loved it when I heard it, when you put it together. And I think that it's something that needs to be done Regularly, like even, even we're gonna come back to my concussion because it's my life right now. But like literally it could be like, you know, maybe 1 o'clock in the afternoon and I might go, there's nothing else I can do. I'm done. I'm— there's nothing else I can do. And sure, I could choose to say, you know, shit on myself and I can totally be upset with myself for not being able to do things. But what I've taught myself instead is in that stop moment, right, when I've get to that drop and roll piece of what am I going to do next, like you said, analyze. How am I feeling? Can I do more? Can I not do more? Maybe it's I can't do more of this, but I can go do that, right? Going for a walk, touching grass, um, looking at the sun. Somebody called it sunflowering. I just fucking love that so much, right? Whatever it means, like you could do something else, right? Like, like I said with the crocheting, like I can still create something even though I'm Relaxing, right? And so I love that concept. And you know, it's so easy to remember stop, drop, and roll because it's in our heads.

Right? That's why I love that so much. And I kind of had a giggle to myself. I was like, this is perfect. Yeah. So I also practice sunflowering when we're not in freeze here. So I try, I do it through my window, but usually when there's no snow outside. I, I'll do it outside, but I also learned how to crochet and sunflower at the same time, which is actually kind of fun.

Nice.

Yeah, it's just a grounding method, really. It's really, really good to do that, especially if you have an indoor thing where you're— you like to be indoors a lot. Get outside, get some sun. It'll also help, you know, release some of that tension and give you some energy back. And yeah, that's a great solution as well.

Well, and we can learn from our animals if you have animals in your house. I know my dogs love to sunflower whether they're inside or outside because they'll find a spot on the ground that has the sun coming from the, from through the window and they just sit and love in it, right? So I mean, yeah, you can do it through your window. You don't have to be outside. But I will confess, our winters are really long here where I live in Canada, in the specific place where I live. Um, and so I will get dressed up in snow clothes and go hit the, you know, I will go for a walk in the woods. Uh, and Sunflower in that way, but not as often because it's a lot of work to get dressed up in all those clothes.

Right. That takes a lot of energy too. And if you don't have the energy for that day to put on the 20 layers you need, then don't do it. Find— open your curtain and stand with some— something warm to drink, something cozy. You know, that just 5 minutes even is, is just— yeah, I have cats. So I follow their lead.

There you go. Well, I think it's like we've talked about sunflowering, but some of the other things that work for me specifically, it'd be great if you shared some of yours too, but music is really important to me. So I have playlists for different moods, trying to get myself into or out of moods. Music can help me with that. So I have different playlists for those kinds of things. And I have been known to shower in the middle of the day because it has reset my day. I've done that. Water is also something that is good for my energy fields as well. So those are some things that I've done. Obviously reading and crocheting I throw into the mix too.

Yeah, absolutely. Like, I— that's so funny you mentioned the shower in the middle of the day because I am not— I— that is so my jam. I am like, like, I cannot shower at night. Like, the sensation of wet hair on— oh, cannot do it. But yeah, like, I— if I need to focus on my housework Because maybe I focused on my business too much and, you know, the house needs some cleaning. As a stay-at-home mom, I mean, with teenage boys, housework becomes even more needed. And like, yeah, I have a cleaning jam, you know, like playlist that like gets me in the mood and gets me going. And if nobody's here, then I crank it up and use the speaker and crank it up and sing along and have my own personal, you know, concert with my dishes. And then, yeah, like same thing again with that shower in the afternoon, especially if I feel stuck and I just need some clarity or I need to think through something. Showers are amazing for that. And then what else do I do? I, I basically— journaling helps a lot. Another way that I escape reality, right, is I— If there's a day where I'm like, okay, nothing physical is going to happen and My depression is starting to pick up, so I really cannot watch anything dark. So I can't do any of the true crime podcasts or the binge anything like that. And I'm also a historical junkie. So if there's— sometimes I'll watch documentaries on historical things. But I, I've gotten into reading the last couple of years. I have discovered I am one of those wives that read. Smut romance.

It's good stuff.

I have had to call my mom and say, I apologize for making fun of you when I found your romance books from the '80s. I'm into that now too. Of course, recent ones, not ones— but, but yeah, it's like, it's, it's a great escape for me because I can read a book in a day and a half. And so I tend to go through. And so sometimes I also recognize when I start doing that Instead of working, it's like, okay, so am I avoiding something? Am I using this as a distraction, or do I actually— did my body pick up on something before I did? Did I need this day to just— through the chores, through making dinner, I just need to, to make things. I just need to read all the things today.

Well, and I know I feel the same way because I love— of course, I, you know, you know, I love reading books and started picking them up in 2020, um, during all that fun stuff. But I have found myself looking at that too, thinking, holy crap, like, I am powering through books right now. And yeah, so sometimes I think, am I using it to avoid? But sometimes I think, oh my gosh, is this a coping mechanism? Is this helping me get through something? And so you're right, like, being able to look at even those things that bring us joy or those things that support us during these times, being able to say, hold on a second, am I doing too much of this and why, right? So, it's a good cue as well for those kinds of things.

Yeah, absolutely. And that was part of the whole Stop, Drop, and Roll method was I actually, when I was developing it, I actually wrote down a list of things that I can do to pivot when I stop, when I pause. What is it that I'm doing to pivot? And so that I can always have a, have something on hand and be like, okay, do I choose this? Do I choose this? What do I do? Because, you know, with ADHD, memory fog is a huge thing. Um, so you can't always remember everything. But, and then, you know, there are some times when I'm like, okay, this is obviously a coping mechanism or an distraction, as you had mentioned. So I'm going to pause what I'm doing now. And I'm going to pivot to do something. My action step, my role is going to be a business-related task. Whether that's setting up a delivery for a custom product or again, it's, you know, taking a selfie so that I can put content to it or, you know, going into Canva, designing something. So I'm still being creative. And that's also one of the things that I love. I'm going to start beginning to talk to yarnpreneurs about how you can create a business around your hobby without falling And out of love with it, because that's a lot. That's a big fear. It's like, I crochet because it helps me with this. I don't want to start a business because I'm afraid that I'll fall out of love. It'll be too overwhelming to be too much. And it's like, yeah, but you can separate the two, especially if you're neurodivergent, right? We have these abilities just to disassociate, to separate, to, you know, this goes in this category, this goes in this category. And so I definitely have, like, I have projects that I'll only do for business, and I have projects that I'll only do for hobby. And I've done this for years now, and I have never fallen out of love with my craft. So there's got to be something there, right? And so, yes, you know, you do have to evaluate. It's like, okay, I've been working on this custom Poncho for 16 hours and now I'm feeling burned out. You're not going to go directly and want to make a hat for your kid, right? Maybe you're like, go scrolling on Ravelry for a new, for a new pattern because that's a hobby. Or go buy some yarn, go touch some yarn. That's a good way to ground too. I've done that in the yarn section. I get weird looks, but hey, you know what, it's touching, it's vibrant feeling. Do I buy something? Probably not always.

But really, it was so funny when my— when I was making a blanket for my daughter. I, I know she's very tactile, right? So I knew that if I just bought her yarn and started to make something, there was a chance that I was going to do the wrong— I was going to pick the wrong one. So I took her— I literally took her to the yarn store and I'm like, okay, let's go, let's go touch, right? And she's walking up and down the aisles, and I love the fact that she's so confident in herself that she didn't worry about whether or not people thought she was crazy. But she was just walking up and down the aisle, she's like, oh, and then she'd go, I like this one, okay, we'll put that in the basket, you know. And she was just very, very open with how she was feeling about it. And then she ended up with like, I think there was 4 different yarns that she, that she liked when she finally touched them. And then, then it was, she had to see how they felt when, you know, it was, it was wonderful to know that she was confident in herself enough that she didn't care. And really nobody looked, nobody cared, because I mean, I do it too when I'm going through the yarn place, right? Like, I'm like Oh, I don't want to touch that all day. Like, you did a video on— you were doing scrunch scrubbies or something. Oh my God, there's no way I could work with that stuff. No, I don't want my hands all ripped up. No, I'm out.

Yeah, that was an experience. Classic scrubbies from like the '90s have made a comeback, and Lion Brand has brought the netting yarn back. Now, they've never actually had— like, the industry was really good about this though. There is a— there's a silver lining to this scratchy yarn. So back in the day, so before 2020, if you wanted to make scrubbies, right, you actually had to go to the fabric section and find netting, like the fine netting, and then you had to like actually make— essentially make your own yarn from it. And that's partially why I stopped doing scrubbies, because it was something I had started when I started my craft the retail side of my business. I was doing scrubbies, but the netting was so rough, and I was like, this is annoying. It takes too much time for me to make my own yarn and to ball it and to use it. But then I was walking through the yarn store, and I saw that Hobby Lobby has reintroduced scrubby-specific yarn. So there's no knots in the middle of it. You don't have to make it yourself. Is it still rough? Yes, I call it the devil for a reason. I, I can own— so I only do like one, and they're small. They're really small. They're only like, I think, like 3 inches diameter. So they're small. I can work it up really quickly, and then I can put it aside and then work with soft yarn, or give my skin a little, you know, some lotion just to kind of heal and give it a minute, and Yeah. So craft fair season, scrubbies are a really good option for your craft fair as a product. But be aware, it's okay to not offer them the rough scrubbies.

Yeah, you need to, you need to be resilient in your skin in order to, you know, handle that stuff.

It's, it's rough, literally and figuratively.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So if you were to say right now, somebody, somebody came up and they said, how do I start making the list of the things that I can turn to?

That's a really good question. Because what I would say is sit down and journal this out if you need to, or just Have a moment to like think about what really brings you joy and what energizes you and essentially fills your cup, right? So maybe it's a completely different hobby. Maybe it's paper crafts, or, you know, maybe it is reading. Maybe it's making yourself a latte and being able to find a quiet space and drink it for, for a few minutes without— especially if you're a mom, like having the interruptions and a wife and, you know, having the interruptions from your spouse and Like, I just need to enjoy this latte while it's hot and the flavor is good, right? I, I can't stand cold coffee. So to me, that is just the most— it's, it's really just creating a list that fills your cup, essentially. So yeah, you have to sit with it and be like, okay, what? And you can make a list of 10 things and then go back over and be like, you know what, maybe that doesn't really bring me joy, you know. So maybe, maybe I'll cross that off and just break it down to like start off with like 2 or 3 things, and then you can always add, add things back to it or later, later on. Just start, start with things that absolutely will refill you.

That's awesome. And you know, like, I would take it even one step further in terms of like, because you know I love to talk about how much energy we have. You take those things and say, how much energy is it gonna take me to do that, right? So for example, like going to sunflower in the winter takes less— more energy than sunflowering in the, in the summer if you live in a climate like I do, right? Or you. But, um, making a latte, is that easy or difficult for you, right? Like putting some energy thoughts to it. And then take it even one more step further and write down some of the things in, uh, in my world, in Geeky Girl's world, we call them brain dead tasks. Things that you can do in your business that don't require a lot of energy or that allow you to— let's call it what it is— squirreling in a fun way for your business, right? Like maybe it's like, oh geez, I need to find 20 memes that are in blah blah blah for my social media. If that's fun for you, then you can put it in that column of those kinds of things, right? Like you said, take selfies of yourself. If you enjoy that, you know, you can put that in that column.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. And I'm definitely going to revise mine by looking at the energy it takes. Because sunflowering in the wintertime is probably not going to happen outdoors. Grounding outside is what's, what's written down on my list. I wrote it down as grounding outside for 5 to 10 minutes, you know. And so, yeah, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna layer up and go outdoors in my 5 feet of snow on my porch. I'm not a winter person at all, so it's not my favorite. Yeah. I do love that, looking into it as like, what is the amount of energy that this takes?

Well, you could take yours even one step further because you had mentioned earlier like that sometimes it's the ADHD and sometimes it's your depression. You might have some things that work for your depression but don't work for ADHD and vice versa. You could even like—

Yeah, because there's some days I'm like, okay, I can— I've got 15 projects on 15 different hooks right now. Like, what should I do? Should I just finish one? Should I actually organize them into their different— how far along are they, you know? And that's one of the things too you can look— you can add to your, to your list too, is like finish a project, especially if all you have to do is weave in your ends. If you knit or crochet, you totally know what I mean.

That's the worst part of the whole project.

So like, maybe you just spent 5 minutes just weaving in those ends, and then your project is done, and you can do whatever you need to do with it, you know. And sometimes maybe, maybe you just ran out of yarn, and so it's just sitting there because you haven't added the next one. Like, maybe, you know, you can still incorporate your, your hobby, you know, or, you know, learn a new hobby if you have that energy. If not, Don't do that. Don't force yourself into things just because you think that's what is going to help you. Is that—

that's a big deal. Yeah, no, that's so important. So, so important. Uh, you know what though, sometimes we need to test, right? We're like, I think this is going to be good, right? And then test. And if it isn't, just go, oh well, okay, I thought it was going to be good, but it wasn't, right? By testing things, sometimes you can find new things.

Yeah, absolutely. Like, I have come across Tunisian crochet, right? And I'm obsessed with it. So there's so many new stitches. It's basically crochet, but it's knitting and crocheting got married and had a baby, right? That's Tunisian.

Oh, that's, that's when everybody has the crochet hook, but they've got all these stitches on it, right? Okay, I've seen those. I've seen videos.

Yeah, it's, it's the first— the beginner level stitches are actually really awesome for mindfulness, by the way. I've not gotten past that. I know that there are more complex stitches that I'm just like, those look scary, so I'm just sticking with the beginner level right now. And like, there's no way I could work on that without having the energy. To work on that. So it's like, yes, yes. New hobby or a variation of the hobby that's new and exciting, but here's what I have the energy for. Here's what I don't. Eventually someday, you know, I'll get there. I'll grow. I'll progress. You know, that's fine. But yeah, just definitely looking into, especially if you want to start a new hobby, just look at like the foundations of that hobby. Like, right? Because where do you actively start and, like, hang out there for a while? You don't have to, you know, paint Picasso, you know, when all you want to do is, you know, color in the lines, you know, do a thing, right? So there's lots of variations with that too.

It's awesome. I mean, and I think that, you know, there was somebody who was joking, and I don't think it's a joke. I think it's quite awesome. But somebody was joking about how, like, People with, with neurodivergent minds sometimes can pick up a bunch of hobbies and they just put them down. Like, they try them, they try them, they try them, but they've bought the hobby store along at the same time, right? But if they were saying that, wouldn't it be cool if we had a group of people that all like to do a bunch of things like that, and then we could just pass our stuff on to the next person?

Actually, a really good idea too. I agree with that. That would be Like a hobby exchange for neurodivergent. Like, that would be so cool.

Yeah, it'd be so fun.

Definitely have some, some different crafts here because I've, I've been guilty of that. So for sure.

It'd be like, you know, I think that, I mean, if, if you wanted to take on a project, which I do not right now, but I mean, I bet you a local library would help you put something like that together.

Maybe. Yeah, like we were talking about this recently because I've been in business since 2014, and also I happened to learn how to crochet in 2014. 6 months later, I started a retail business with it. And I remember, like, we were laughing because I was remembering, I was like, remember how you said, how long are you going to be doing this for? And I said, oh. Because he really didn't think it was going to last even 2 or 3 months because he knows me. He knows, yeah, I pick something up and I move on.

I pick something up, I move on.

I tried other crafts, you know, paper crafts, stickers, stamping, you know, all sorts of different hobbies. And crochet just had a profound effect. Like, I imprinted on crocheting. Like, it is in my blood. Like, it's, it's in my lineage. It's in my blood. It's like, it, it just— and I, I'm a natural at it. It just clicked. And, and yeah, I was like, I'm I'm hooked, literally. And again, now it's like, right, it's, it's been, it's been 11 years, and I'm still going strong, and I'm, I'm still, you know, learning new things and having fun with it.

That's awesome. So it's important to realize that it's important to go through the things to see which one fits me best.

I mean, and crochet is not for everyone. Like, I will be the first to say Not everybody can crochet. Like, I have had in my crochet programs where I teach people how to crochet for their mindset health, I, I have had clients that are like, they get through like 2 lessons and they're like, you know what, this isn't working for me. It's like, no judgment, dude. You know, that's fine. Go ahead. Like, you know, if you ever want to come back or, you know, whatever, just hit me up. But Thanks for giving it a try. Like, there's definitely— I don't get angry, you know, like, it's fine. It's— you tried something else. Try knitting. I can't teach you that, but, you know.

Yes, yes.

Totally fine. It's, it's not for everyone, for sure. But I love it when someone like, like you, when you got it, like, and then seeing you years later, you know, pick it back up, that it's like, ah, just It just, it just gives me all the feels, and I absolutely love it.

It's awesome. Well, I love this concept of the stop, drop, and roll, because I think that it's a, it's a great visual that we're used to, but applying it to a different way, I think that it's a, it's a great tool.

Yeah, it is. And just remembering that your hobby is not a distraction. It's, it's a tool to help you continue to grow within your business, to grow within yourself. And it's, it's not you being lazy. It's you having something that gets you back on track or helps you rest so that you can move, move forward within your business too.

I love it. Well, thank you for being with us today, and I know that everybody's going to enjoy all of your tips and, and of course our banter. It's always fun to be part of something like that.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

You bet. Have a fantastic day. Bye for now.

Bye.

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