What are some calming ways I can help keep myself busy?

Hand weaving is fun. Just need a loom, scissors, and yarn. Change the size depending on how much free time you have.

Is simple. Just get, or make, a loom with nails at both ends. Start the frame looping the skeleton back and forth and one to the left verticaly.

Then cut wool or yarn over and under going right to left.
When you have two threaded tie together in the both ends with a knot.

Do until the loom is full.

That reminds me, I have a ton of yarn for some blanket thing I was going to make. Maybe I should try that again. I can’t remember what type it is called. It has loops.

I do jigsaw puzzles to relax. Coloring either online or with actual crayons and book is also relaxing. Do you like to journal? I hate it but many people love it.

Sketching, reading, cooking, crossword puzzles

@SergeantQueen, afghan?

You could try some yoga or some Zen meditation. Do artwork using pastels. Learn guitar. Knit or crochet. Arrange some interesting still life compositions and take pictures.

Sit on the sofa with a book.

Walk the dogs.

Plan a meal for when your dad gets home from work

Write about the difficult times you have been through or are currently experiencing. You have shown you have a talent for writing.

Huh. I have never thought of myself as being good at writing?

This is the blanket

^I concur with @flutherother ...
Great poets, songwriters, novelists, etc, have often risen from interesting origins.

@Jeruba beat me to the guitar idea. I was going to recommend an instrument. If you get bitten right by an instrument, it can pull you in. For many years, I would even play guitar, on the toilet.
Until it weirded out a girlfriend, so I haven’t played on the shitter for years…
But once you learn an instrument a bit, no one can take that from you…
I’ve lost everything. My landlord stole my last guitar, while I was dying in the hospital.
But, I got a cheap one after my transplant, and recently purchased another. I was worried that my shaky hands, wouldn’t work. But, I think playing helped me recover my hand coordination and strength.
I play at least an hour a day. When I sit it down, I feel SO cleansed…I wish others knew that feeling.

Beautiful, @MrGrimm888.

Exercise. It is relatively mindless and the exercise will release endorphines which will help make you feel good.

You have a story to tell, which is the main thing. Just writing it down can be therapeutic.

@SergeantQueen Only you can know which activities suggested will calm you down and which may agitate you more. Why not try some and let us know what works? Certainly the loop blanket seems like a calming activity.

Good time to play some single-player video games.

Yes I will be going through the suggestions and trying them out!!!

It is funny the instrument thing was brought up, I literally forgot I had just bought stuff for my saxophone! I played the weekend before everything happened so it has been sitting.
(I have always wanted to learn guitar, but small hands and short tendons make it hard and painful.)
Single player games are what I am aiming to do, cozy ones for mindless gaming and more serious ones for when I can think.

Thank you all :)

Adult coloring books are fun. I diamond paint and make jewelry as hobbies. I also read a lot. Try things you’ve never done before and see if you like them.

I look at my local libraries’ events calendars every month and I look to see free things that interest me, which, are author talks, book groups, and crafts. Many libraries have free craft classes now. I’ve done polymer clay jewelry, painting, wool felting, sewing, Christmas ornaments and making things on the CNC machine (which is computer programmed machine that does engraving, punching, carving, etc.). I look at it as a good way to see if there are any new hobbies I may be interested in with zero financial investment.

Just one more thing about libraries – you are not limited to only the library in your town. You can go to other libraries, too. Libraries are public. When I search my local libraries’ events calendars, I look at a bunch in NY and a bunch in CT (because I live right near the border). I’d be willing to travel if I found something interesting.

Ooooo. The “saxamaphone.”..

An acquaintance of mine has played guitar his whole life, and he’s gotten into the saxophone, and he said it’s very different than the guitar. Not in a bad way.
Surprisingly, hand size is not such a handicap for guitar. I have massive hands, and fingers. Django Reinhardt, was a famous jazz guitarist with only 2 fingers on his “fret hand.”..

See I don’t have the lungs, to play a wind instrument. Maybe in another 5 years of not smoking I’ll try again.

Good luck. Have fun. Chillax. You deserve it.