What do you do with your time?

One of the first questions I usually get from people when they hear that I am not working is:
What do you do with all your free time?

For the first month, I was super annoyed when anyone asked me this question (I apologize if I freaked out on you...) and not really sure how to answer it. I felt as though I needed to justify my time as though just being home relaxing and trying to take care of myself was not enough.

However, I also asked myself the same question when I found myself with a whole lot of free time. Initially, I had big plans of researching new therapeutic activities, maybe writing a few papers, anything to stay relevant in the working world. Quickly that became less of a reality and after spending a week watching mindless television, I decided that I needed to do something a bit more personally productive. So I quickly feel into a routing of filling my days with projects that I enjoy and that do not leave me feeling like a zombie at the end of the day.

I began to accept that maybe I wouldn't spend my time writing a ground-breaking paper in my field  and maybe instead I could learn how to knit a toque. I also did some art projects that I had been planning for awhile (as mentioned in previous posts) and my days quickly filled with various activities. Sure, it is not the same as working four days a week and of course I would rather be employed. However, I think I have found a good balance of relaxing like my doctors require and still be able to do activities that I enjoy (yay cycling and camping!).

Even after 5 months of unemployment, I still do not really understand why everyone is fascinated with what I do during the day. I don't recall ever asking someone what they did with all their free time on the weekends or during vacation. I assume that they will be doing mundane activities that they enjoy as I do when I have some leisure time. I think we are so focused as a society for the need to be busy. The need to always be doing something 'productive'. I think the fact that I spend my days doing essentially 'non-productive' activities can be confusing to people. It is a crazy society we have when we feel guilty spending a day reading a book, lounging by the beach, or doing something artistic instead of doing laundry, cleaning the house, or working for 12 hours.

If you are still curious as to what I do during the day, here is what I did today: Slept in until 10, did an hour of aerosol masks/physiotherapy, ate breakfast, finished reading Inferno by Dan Brown, did a load of dishes, had a bath, watched an old SNL episode (thanks Netflix!) while blogging. and now my partner and I are going to play a board game. It is not very exciting. I'm still not really sure what people expect me to say when they ask me that question but I have gotten a lot better (some might say less defensive) at answering it and usually end up just saying that I watch TV all day. Because really, what is more fulfilling in life than watching a season of Fawlty Towers in an afternoon.