Practical Skills: An Introduction
Let’s spend a few weeks getting our (literal) houses in order.
I’ve mentioned before that I resist “playing with my inner-selfness,” yet most of these newsletters have addressed either psychological or emotional needs. It’s great to embrace rest and improve your well-being, but so many of the things we discuss are made more difficult because of other, more practical concerns.
It’s hard to focus on self-care when you’re not sure how much money you have in the bank, and it’s challenging to make time for daily yoga when you don’t have space for a mat on your cluttered bedroom floor. Practical life skills can help you enhance your psychological well-being in many unexpected ways.
I think that the skills we need for daily living and the skills that help support our emotional health are linked. I’m not saying we need to go to extremes, but shoring up our housekeeping skills, learning to balance our bank accounts, and taking actions to bolster our physical health can make us feel better emotionally day-to-day. Addressing practical skills can help to reduce friction in daily life and stave off some common stressors.
Practical skills can also be a source of secret shame for many of us. This shame may come from internalized childhood trauma, struggles with perfectionism, or as a response to challenges with mental illness or neurodivergence. Banishing unwarranted shame isn’t easy, but no attempt can be made without shining a light on those hidden areas. (As always, if your issues are acute, please seek outside help.)
I plan to spend the next several weeks exploring more practical skills for day-to-day living, such as simple budgeting and housekeeping routines. As this series will be more of a “choose your own adventure” than our usual posts, I’ll include a section of further resources each week instead of a specific challenge. Consider a longer-term, ongoing challenge: Pick the areas you most wish to improve and delve more deeply into that topic’s resources to see how you can improve going forward.
Practical skills are an area where our individual needs will look radically different from person to person. You may be a wizard at one skill set but a complete novice at another. This variance is entirely normal. All of our lives are unique, and no solution is one-size-fits-all. Just remember to take what works for you and ignore the rest.
Challenge:
Use this week to become aware of hiccups in your day-to-day life and start thinking about areas you can improve. Are there specific origins for perpetual snags? Try to look for causes and effects. You may wish to revisit “Make a practical improvement to your home environment” or “Schedule an irregular household task” to get a head start on our new series.