HomeBuilderGuy

When I am not building something, I get anxious. If you’re feeling stressed or depressed, it’s a good idea to just start making something. Doesn’t even have to be good, but the act of using your hands and tools is therapeutic in its own right. I’ve restored old motorcycles, dug trenches, milled timber, planted trees, fixed computers, tapped maple syrup from our own trees, brewed peach mead from scratch. All of it helps relax my mind and get me focused on that single task. Human brains evolved around building things with our hands. Then in recent decades we moved all of that to screens, and now most of us spend our days consuming instead of making. Endlessly scrolling, watching, analyzing, reacting, yet very rarely building something physical. I think that mismatch is making a lot of us miserable. Your brain doesn't care if what you're making is 'good', productive or monetizable. It just cares that you're doing the thing humans evolved to do. So if you're restless and you can't figure out why, log off and go make something. Dig a hole. Frame a wall. Restore something broken. Plant something. I’ve found that restlessness usually stops once your hands are busy.