World Mental Health Day: The Hobby That Became Something Bigger

If you’re new here, I’m Becky, the founder of The Always Busy Mama. You may know me for gemstone jewelry, but what you may not know is that this business actually started during one of the hardest seasons of my mental health.

I had my daughter in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. My husband was a frontline worker and working a lot of extra hours. My family was in Michigan, his was in Florida, and like so many new moms during that time, I was home with a newborn without much of a support system nearby. I had spent my entire professional career in healthcare, so I knew enough to recognize that something didn’t feel right. But knowing something professionally and experiencing it yourself are two very different things.

I remember one night so clearly. My husband got home around 11 o’clock. I had just finished feeding our daughter and gotten her to sleep. I laid my head in his lap and said, “I don’t feel like myself. I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience.” I am incredibly grateful that his response wasn’t, “You’re fine,” or “It’ll get better.” It was, “I think you need to talk to your doctor.” So I did.

My doctor listened to me and recognized that I was experiencing postpartum depression. I started therapy, and during one of those sessions my therapist suggested that I find something creative to do with my hands—something that could give my mind somewhere else to go for a little while. And I tried. I tried knitting. I tried macramé. Nothing really stuck.

Then one day I walked into Michaels and bought some chain and charms because I wanted to make jewelry for my mom and sisters for Christmas.

And something clicked.

Making jewelry gave me a creative outlet during a time when I desperately needed one. It gave my hands something to focus on and my mind somewhere else to go. I could sit down and create one small thing at a time. I could choose the colors, change my mind, start over, and make something simply because I wanted to. At that point, it did not need to become anything bigger. It did not need to be productive or profitable. It just needed to give me a little space to feel like myself again.

Eventually, that small creative outlet grew into The Always Busy Mama. But that was never the plan. I did not sit down with a business strategy or decide that jewelry making was going to become my next career. It started as something I needed for me. That is why this business will always mean more to me than jewelry.

Today, I get to make pieces that carry other women’s stories—their children, milestones, new chapters, hard seasons, and reminders of who they are. But I also wanted the meaning of this business to extend beyond the jewelry itself. That is why a portion of purchases from The Always Busy Mama now supports Postpartum Support International, helping support their work with moms and families navigating perinatal mental health.

On World Mental Health Day, though, I do not want this to be about shopping or jewelry. I want it to be about the woman who knows something does not feel right but has not said it out loud yet.

Please say it out loud.

Tell your partner. Tell a friend. Tell your doctor. Ask for help.

For me, asking for help changed the direction of my story. It led me to therapy, which led me to something creative, which eventually led me somewhere I never could have imagined when I bought that first bag of jewelry supplies. But the important part was not that the hobby eventually became a business. The important part was that, at a moment when I did not feel like myself, I found one small thing that helped me reconnect with a piece of who I was.

I think we sometimes put too much pressure on the things that are supposed to help us feel better. We think self-care has to be a huge lifestyle change or that the hobbies we choose need to become something productive. They do not. Maybe your thing is gardening, reading, running, baking, painting, taking a walk, working out, or sitting quietly with your coffee before anyone else wakes up. Maybe it is something you have not found yet. The activity itself matters less than what it gives you: a little space that belongs only to you.

Mine happened to become something much bigger, but it mattered long before that.

So on World Mental Health Day, I want to ask you something I genuinely would love to know:

What is your one small thing?

What is something that helps you come back to yourself when life feels especially heavy or full?

If you feel comfortable sharing, reply and tell me. I’d truly love to hear it.

Mine started with a bag of chain and charms from Michaels.

I never could have imagined where it would lead. 🤍