What's your passion?

[mustbemoretolife]

I'm a thoroughly fed-up, peri-menopausal middle-aged woman and I've realised that I've got to find something before I lose my mind!

Had a chat with DH last night and realised how unhappy & lost I am. Which I also feel makes me sound ridiculous & selfish as on paper I have a good, long-standing marriage, brilliant teenage kids and a job I love. But if you asked me what my hobbies are....I've got nothing. I do my job, look after the house & kids and I'm knackered most of the time.

I can't help thinking 'Is this it?' DH is fantastic but just doesn't get it. He's very happy with his lot, has his hobbies and doesn't see why I'm unfulfilled. He also works weekends & I do Mon-Fri which probably doesn't help. But we're
working on that (hence the in-depth chat last night).

It sounds so selfish, but I need to find me again.
I see friends occasionally but mostly they are wrapped up with their own families, particularly weekends. Weekends are hard & I seem to spend much of the time ferrying kids to their hobbies / friends.

So what's your passion and how did you find it?

Years ago, I used to do lots of creative, arty stuff and ideally, I want to meet new people. Also happy to do something active that I haven't tried.

Sorry that this turned into such a long post!!! Any advice or suggestions gratefully received....

Horses. Yoga (so I can ride properly as I'm 46 and creaky). Cooking, gardening. TikTok!

I love volunteering, particularly with people with mental health conditions

Zumba and Just Dance on the ancient Wii
Ice skating
Gardening
Walking with or without my dog
Sleeping
I am a 42 year old female if that matters!

Thank you again one and all. It seems that there are a lot of us about!!! Perhaps we should set up a 'More to Life' group for all of us wonderful yet dissatisfied & a bit lost people out there?

I do crave interaction and am definitely a social animal. This is absolutely part of finding myself again. But learning a new skill or dusting off an old one would be great.

Mine are pretty boring to be honest. DS has asd so outings are few and far between especially at the moment... first passion, is football.... supported chelsea since I was 10. Watch most matches of any games if I can...
I love my Tv, I currently watch around 50 different series, obviously not all the time as I have school runs and work, but in between..... love celebrity’s, I love visiting abandoned places, or haunted places too...

Answering this, I realise I have loads!

I love bootcamps, weightlifting and bodyweight fitness. It makes you feel full of energy and strong, sculpts the body and massively improves posture as you get older.

I enjoy yoga. It's energising and calming and afterwards my body feels awake and stretched.

I love going to art exhibitions, live gigs and live theatre. Was hard during lockdown but we managed a few exhibitions and have been to a gig recently with more shows and gigs booked for the future, which I'm really looking forward to.

I love reading poetry. Especially if I'm fed up or bored or it's a cold rainy day. Light a fire, switch on a lamp and curl up under a blanket, reading poems.

I enjoy writing. I'm not obsessed about getting published and finding an agent like most writers I know, but I enjoy polishing a piece of work and get a kick if something is accepted for publication or wins an award.

I adore travelling - I love planning the itinerary, booking excellent restaurants, outings and experiences in advance, learning the language .

I love walking and hiking - anything from a wander around our local woods to admire the moss on the trees and listen to birdsong to climbing the three peaks.

I love journalling, pottering about on the page making plans or reflecting on things that have happened or undoing mental knots of worry. very therapeutic.

I have a hobby I really enjoy which I do on and off whenever I am bored or feeling low. It is to do something new every day - doesn't matter what, so long as I've never done it before. It really refreshes your life. I've tried everything and anything from polar bear plunging (outdoor swimming in winter) to kayaking, coding, drinking beetroot latte, all sorts of things.

I also love writing bucket lists and crossing stiff off them. I have one for things I've always meant to do but never got around to another for big life goals and dream travel, and I often do mini seasonal ones - things to do in autumn or at Christmas etc. They just help you focus on fun stuff.

@mustbemoretolife

Thanks for that *@mangoontoast*. I've just had a look and I'm intrigued. Have just signed up with my area and will see what happens. Just what I was looking for!

Fantastic! I hope you find something you enjoy. I was nervous about joining 4 years ago but I'm so glad I did. I now have a fantastic group of friends and a huge wider circle of people I know and hang out with and we enjoy doing so many things together.

For me it is growing things on the allotment and preserving the harvest. Spent yesterday afternoon hulling plums to make plum wine and to add to a windfall cider.

Photography and writing are my main passions. I have always been that way even as a tween, I had a diary and wrote short poems during math classes and I loved taking photos of my family and random trees or cats in the streets andenjoyed catching sun rays with an old camera, etc etc etc. It's not like I tried to find it, it was with me from the start, probably. I don't enjoy doing it in company, though. I've attended our local camera club and it was useful from the angle of learning something new and meeting new people but at the end of the day I find way more pleasure in trying various Photoworks tricks and walking down the street with a camera alone. No competition, no comparison, I'm just not interested, it's the process itself that I love.

Try think about things that brough you joy years ago, maybe your teen years. There could be many things you used to enjoy that got replaced buy your everyday duties, you need to try and remember them.

Just giving you a heads up, that the group promoted by @Mariell is an anti-restriction (mask/vax, etc) demonstration group

Eating, snoozing and watching rubbish tv

I was complete crazy for everything equestrian related before the kids came along. Horses were my whole life.

Then kids. Game over!!

Somehow I didn’t want to go back to that - but that’s more becomes I still don’t have the time to throw myself absolutely into it, and I’d hate to do it in half measures.

So I got a road bike. A year and a half on, it’s my new obsession. I joined the town cycling and triathlon club, I really go for it in terms of training. I’m loving it 😊 I’m mid forties now.

I’m glad I found something totally new and didn’t recycle my old passions.

I think sport is great at this age as it’s all so doom and gloom with menopause on the horizon. It’s good to feel physically strong!

A very marmite thing but gym / exercise.

It makes my body look nicer, I feel healthier, my mood is more positive and I have made lots of friends at the gym.

Also love theatre & performing arts.

I don't have passions as such - I'm too knackered with f/t working, family stuff and the perimenopause - but I enjoy gardening (just joined a local community gardening project), do other voluntary work, read, knit, walking, baking, meet friends, love a wander round the charity shops, go to the gym when I cba, like going to NT and HS places....that type of thing.

Playing the piano.
Baking and cake decorating, which I run a side business doing
Horses

Not a passion as such, but I really love yoga, I go to a class at least once a week and also practice at home. I also enjoy doing classes at the gym, I feel so much better afterwards, mentally as well as physically.

Other than, it's being outside - long walks with my dog, being near the sea, gardening. I like cooking too, and also read a lot.

Oh abd swimming