As I watch my children and their kids navigate through their busy life it becomes evident why it is important to have a hobby.
What do I mean? Let me explain myself.
Have you ever asked someone what their hobby is?
Chances are if that person is under 40 their answers would be, “Hobby? Who has time for that?”
What a sad state we live in when we can’t afford the time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.
And get this…
Chances are those who are over 40 may have an actual hobby but don’t indulge in it as much as they would like to.
My daughter and daughters-in-law would claim they don’t have time.
They are too busy raising kids, having a career, running a household to indulge in something so frivolous.
I couldn’t imagine going through life and never indulging in my hobbies.
Some have a hobby that they don’t realize they have.
You can have a hobby and not realize it until many years later.
For me, life would be unbearable.
Indulging in my hobbies is very precious to me, why?
Because it is where I go to disconnect from the busy world and just enjoy the moment.
It is my “ME” time.
We all need our “ME” time which I will be covering in this article.
What a treasure it is and it is something I would never give up.
Some things I do often that I didn’t realize was my hobby – until much later in life. I always considered they were something I just really enjoyed doing.
So let’s have a look at what a hobby is…
Table of Contents
What is a hobby?
Wikipedia describes a hobby as
“any regular activity that is done for enjoyment, during leisure time, not professionally and not for pay.“
The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a hobby as
“a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”
Based on those definitions there are several hobbies I indulge in regularly.
How about yourself, can you see any of the hobbies you enjoy doing?
Hobbies provide a fulfilling and productive use of our free time encouraging personal growth.
Often our core identities are reflected in the interests we pursue when we are not working, sleeping or spending time with our loved ones.
Why we need hobbies
We all live a busy life working to pay the bills and raising kids or even pets. Those jobs steal a lot of our time away from us and your family.
Today, we are stressed even more than ever in these uncertain times. We find many of our social, physical, mental and career activities and routines have been disrupted.
We are told to work from home if you still happen to have a job, refrain from indoor gatherings, limit our social exposure.
So what are we supposed to do with all that free time?
Hobbies can fill that void and offer many benefits to our physical and mental well-being.
Benefits of a hobby
The benefits of regularly engaging in a hobby are immense. Surprised?
Engaging in hobbies can help us structure our time making us more efficient.
They give us a venue in which to develop and nurture social connections with people of similar interests.
Hobbies can add many layers to our self-identity making us much more interesting.
A hobby can help alleviate stress, teach us new skills that can carry over to our careers, and help us to become more innovative and creative.
Hobbies can give us an outlet for our difficult days and offer healing from mental health issues.
Let’s further explore the benefits of hobbies.
Physical Hobbies
The benefits of physical hobbies are evident in that they increase your heart rate as well as brain function. They also lower blood pressure, build muscle, strengthen bones, aid in weight loss and offer an overall increase in energy.
Physical hobbies can include:
- hiking
- camping
- swimming
- yoga
- rock climbing
- sailing
- martial arts
There are many others I am sure you can think of what you can do to stay fit.
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Emotional/Mental
Ok, sure we can all understand the benefits or importance of keeping our bodies healthy. Prevent injuries, stronger to do physical things, improves your cardiovascular, etc.
Ensuring you carve out the time to pursue activities you enjoy is a fun and easy way to improve your mental health and overall emotional well-being.
Hobbies have been shown to decrease stress by relaxing you and taking your mind off the demand of daily life like work, kids, and paying bills.
Many of the elite consider their hobbies are their time and they do not want to be disturbed. Disturbing someone from their hobbies is like waking them from their sleep.
Our self-esteem rises as we begin to master a new skill.
Hobbies that have been associated with improved mental health and reducing depression includes:
- gardening
- listening to music
- painting/drawing
- cooking
- colouring
- photography
Social
Hobbies also offer a great way to socialize and even meet new friends. Many hobby groups meet socially to either engage in the hobby or discuss it.
Every city has dozens of groups that meet up for a wide range of activities. This is where you will meet other people with shared interests who can offer support and advice as you pursue your passion.
Activities that offer a great social element would include:
- exploring new restaurants
- seeing movies
- discussing philosophy
- trying new technology
- playing music
- playing games
- model trains
- old steam engines
- fishing
Creative
Some hobbies encourage us to explore and develop our creativity.
This could be particularly helpful for people whose work offers no creative outlet. By engaging in a creative hobby you can essentially train your brain to be more creative in other areas of your life.
Creative hobbies would include:
- writing fiction
- calligraphy
- cake or cookie decorating
- soap making
- crocheting or knitting
- jewellery-making
Self-improvement
Some people love hobbies that encourage them to improve their confidence, boost self-esteem and improve the quality of their life.
When considering a hobby like this, think about what you would like to improve about yourself. For example, do you want to become a competent public speaker, lose weight or become heart-healthy?
Maybe you wish to improve your attention to detail or maybe even learn a new language.
Hobbies to help with any of these would include:
- travelling alone
- cooking
- meditation
- puzzles
- journaling
- volunteering
- join the local Toastmasters club to improve public speaking
Choosing a hobby
So you want a hobby but are unsure where to begin. Start thinking about the various things that interest you, or things you would like to improve upon. Consider asking yourself the following questions to help narrow your interests.
- do you enjoy competing?
- Do you prefer to do things alone or with others?
- Is there a particular skill you would like to develop?
- Do you want more physical activity?
- Were there things in childhood you would like to do again?
- How would you like your hobby to challenge or change you?
- How much time can you devote to your hobby?
- How much money can you invest in your hobby?
- What types of people would you like to interact with?
- What benefits would you like to gain from your hobby?
Perhaps you have a hobby in mind that no one else is doing.
My hobbies
I have a wide range of interests and because of this, I tend to change hobbies with the seasons here in Atlantic Canada.
For example, during spring, summer and early fall I love to engage in:
- gardening
- hiking
- sailing
- swimming
- camping
- bicycling
- running outdoors
- rock climbing
During the later part of fall, winter and early spring I enjoy:
- snowshoeing
- skating
- tobogganing with the grandkids
- skiing (cross-country and downhill)
- kitting
- crocheting
- cross-stitching
- reading
Regardless of the season, I love cooking and baking as well as writing on my blog.
One hobby I LOVE to engage in is making and decorating birthday cakes for my family.
Some would argue that writing a blog isn’t a hobby because it is a significant part of my online business.
However, I do enjoy it and I frequently lose track of time as I am happily writing away regardless of the topic.
So to me, that makes it seem like a hobby and if I earn a few dollars from it, well, that is just a bonus the same as when I knit a sweater for someone to purchase.
If writing a blog sounds like something that interests you have a look at this free training that got me started.
Final thoughts
In these uncertain times, it is easy to see why is it important to have a hobby.
We have learned that a hobby is any pursuit outside of your regular occupation in which you engage specifically for pleasure or relaxation.
We have explored the numerous physical, emotional and mental benefits of engaging in hobbies.
We have also learned how to choose a hobby if we don’t currently have one.
I have even shared my hobbies and how they seem to change seasonally more out of necessity than anything.
Do you have any hobbies?
Do you find they add substance and joy to your life?
If you’re interested in blogging as a hobby you have to check out the program that got me started. I know I love it and now my hobby pays me back, best of both worlds.
Don’t worry it won’t cost you anything to read it or even to give it a try.
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Hello!
I like how you structure your thoughts. It makes it very easy to read your articles and get the idea you are trying to relay.
There are a few things in here I never would have thought up on my own (without a lot of sitting, pondering and possibly researching).
Hobbies are most definitely important in life. Aside from family, what else is there for us to do?
Work?
Life isn’t supposed to be just working and dying.
We need something to make us who we are and not just a job identity.
Keep up the excellent work!
Tyler
Thank you for your kind words, it’s much appreciated. It’s true, we take a lot of the simple things we do in life for granted. And yes I have to agree, we are not put here on this earth to just work. Work was supposed to be involved in the gathering of food and building a shelter for our protection.
It’s the commercial world we now live in that has converted us to the idea that we need a job. The only requirement of a job is to buy our shelter and food that we once use to build and grow our selves. But it’s not all that bad either, we now leave the growing to the professionals so we can do what we enjoy doing. The funny thing is that most of us do not enjoy working for someone else. Even someone that thinks it is too much hassle or work to build a business will find that once they have it they would never go back to a job again.
It is true, we need something that identifies us, something we truly enjoy doing. But it also has to pay the bills.
That is why I took up blogging. Not only do I get to help others by steering them away from scams and pointing them to the best program to learn how to make money online by finding your niche, click here to learn more.
It also pays the bills so yes I have the perfect job and I am the boss and that makes a whole world of difference.
Thank you again Tyler and good luck to you.