This probably seems really stupid but I’m not sure what to do at this point. The entirety of my summer break has been spent working on personal projects, I was supposed to have a great time but instead I burned myself out on art, programming and more to the point I kinda dread those things I liked before. Now, I’m not a complete idiot, so I saw that I needed to cool it a bit with everything going on, and focus on myself for a little while.
It didn’t work though, because all the time I spent dedicated to myself instead of my personal projects was actually spent trying to relax while thinking of all the things I could be doing for instead, so I still feel tense after my supposed breaks.
I hope this doesn’t come across as pathetic…
Move your attention from your thoughts about what you could be doing, to your breath and your body.
I find my feet can be quite grounding, as our feet have a lot of nerve endings in them, they’re pretty sensitive like the hands. And usually our thoughts you know, we experience those in our head, because we associate it with our hearing.
By moving my attention down to a different part of my body, it helps to make the thoughts feel less intrusive. You don’t have to push the thinking away or get rid of it, just put most of your attention someplace else.
A lot of mindfulness meditation is this practice. And body scans and walking meditation are a couple of nice alternatives to sitting that can work well even when restless.