AIBU to ask for mentally stimulating solo activities at home?

[Searchingforananswer2023]

Living alone, no friends or family and I was wondering if you have any suggestions for actives to do when alone at home. I have just bought a game of Bananagrams on Vinted as I can complete that alone. What else do you do that is mentally stimulating and can be done alone? I am looking for activities that I can get absorbed in

The following are a given: reading, watching a series, word searches, cooking, jigsaw, listening to music, knitting.

Am I missing something else?

I’m in the on line book club now in real time. It’s fabulous. I hope OP has joined too!

That’s good to hear @LadyMacbethWasFierce. Inspired by this thread I did read the book, but was doing something else yesterday evening. I’ll look out for future events from them, although I don’t think I’ll be reading next month’s book.

If you're creative try jewelery making. I buy old necklaces at charity shops (good quality beads, but the necklace is buggered) and make them into new necklace/earring designs. You can also buy loads of stuff online (new and secondhand) if you don't like trawling shops.

I usually have a dvd boxset or audio book going in the background. Audio books are great to make any solo activity more engaging/stimulating.

I'd recommend not ruling out something drawing/painting based because you don't consider yourself arty or able to draw. (Fair enough if it just doesn't appeal, of course.) When I recently ended up having more time alone, I joined an online painting and drawing group and followed a lot of free youtube classes. Often you're copying something, like a realistic botanical drawing, and in spite of thinking of myself as someone who couldn't draw and wasn't creative in that way, I was able to do much better than I thought. I'm not suddenly going to be an inspired artist, but it was lovely to develop skills that were actually more about observation than artistic ability, and it's subtly changed the way I look at the world. It definitely fired up a different part of my brain, and it's quite liberating to do something where you start out knowing you're not having to be talented or high achieving. I was hoping to improve to the level of unimpressive mediocrity, which I have!

@Ridiculouslyhairy
Would you be able to share details of your online volunteering activity? What kind of things can you do, and for which charities? This is something that could be very good for me to do.
thank you

I do little bits for a few different charities. They are quite small so it would be outing to name but to give you a flavour

• I take the minutes for our local PTA and run their Facebook page/website and set up meetings etc. our meetings are usually online or hybrid which helps.

• next charity - I am a trustee and most of our meetings are online. I also review minutes and papers in advance, draft and update policies, and review and assess grant applications

• another charity (related to a medical condition) - I review their fact sheets to highlight areas that can be clarified, I attend focus group type online meetings to give patient feedback, and provide quotes etc on lived experience for their press releases for awareness raising

Hopefully that gives some ideas! I really enjoy it. Two of the charities are local and one is a national one.

I enjoy painting by numbers
crosswords
cards

Ps @maddynorth if you Google "online volunteering" loads of stuff comes up as well - there's a lot more options than when I was looking a few years ago

Online scrabble

Duolingo - learn a language

knitting, crochet, Cross-stitch

Fitness routines

Would you enjoy building a Book Nook? It’s creative rather than educational, but absorbing - similar to a jigsaw puzzle.

Diamond painting is mentally stimulating whilst creative too!

Thanks @Ridiculouslyhairy , some food for thought there.

What's that @CautiousOptimist ?

I found Lego very good for my mental health 😃

I've done and enjoyed cross stitch for many years. Since divorcing I've joined two choirs and really enjoy that. Recently started making Rolife model kits.

I agree. The research aspect gives me back the intellectual stimulation I was missing but is bit more addictive than I would like!

Online gaming with Friends/Teams. A great stress buster.
Got hooked on clash of clans and Knights & Dragons during lockdown. Don't play as much now, but being stuck at home with a stinking cold - thanks Boyfriend you git 🤧 lol! - I can battle again with my old guilds ⚔️⚔️

Puzzles and free crossword apps on your mobile

I'm so glad you liked it. It clashed with a church service I had to attend but I bought The Duke and I today and am going to be there for the next one.

Well done for keeping the thread going and adding your suggestions.

I am keeping busy reading for the online book club, attending church services in the run up to Easter and the online puzzles.

I am counting down to the 18th April when the 1926 census for Ireland is available so I can carry on with researching my family tree. I am looking for a female relative who I have lost track of after 1911 as I do not know her married name.

Thank you for the suggestion of online volunteering, this is my next avenue to go down.

One of my best friends lives alone and there are apparently loads of solo board games now - become a problem as she buys more than she can play!

Hi op, you mentioned crochet. I recommend Bella Coco videos on YouTube. Very detailed and got me hooked (!)

@LadyMacbethWasFierce and others...I have found another online book group. I cannot attend as it takes place from 2:30 - 4pm but I thought I would share as the reading list looks good.

I can join the July meeting and probably August when the book title is released so I will be there.

https://nwr.org.uk/nwr-online/

The National Women's Register has online and face to face meeting groups too at various times of the day if anyone is interested

I am in the same situation, married but lonely. All the kids have grown wife spends her life on the phone. I got a dog and we go for walks. I also work in a charity shop. You meet people and interact with others.

Sorry to hear this. Loneliness comes in many different forms. You have children and a wife, I literally have no one.