If you’re anything like me, you freeze a little when a professor asks you to share a fun fact or favorite pastime during the first week of the semester. You rack your brain to sound interesting, but ultimately, you end up sharing the latest show or album you’ve finished. Listening to music, hanging out with friends, and spending money on clothes and food are all fun activities, but they shouldn’t be your only hobbies.
Hobbies make you sound cool, sure, but the benefits are endless. They can reduce your stress, increase your patience, connect you with others, boost your confidence and deter you from repeating bad habits. For example, I have a bad habit of mindlessly scrolling through social media, especially when I’m avoiding school or personal responsibilities. I noticed that the habit was especially common at night before bedtime. I also wanted to explore my old hobby of reading – at my peak, I was reading several books a week. Now when I get into bed, I reach for a book instead of my phone, which has both restored my love for reading and helped reduce my social media usage. Hobbies have the ability to ground and entertain us more healthily than other outlets, like binge-watching Netflix.
So, how can you find your hobbies? For many of us, life and school became so hectic that we have neglected the hobbies we had as children. Start there. Did you spend lots of time outdoors? Did you collect a certain item? Recalling what used to make you happy can be a great place to start. Is there anything you’d like to change about yourself? Do you have any guilty pleasures that can be rebranded into hobbies (baking is a great example)? Is there something you have always wanted to try but have been too scared? Take some time to get to know yourself, try a few hobbies for size and keep what sticks.
As for me, I am my grandmother’s granddaughter. I read, crochet and play word games. But everyone’s hobbies do not have to be mine. Whatever you choose you’ll likely be new at it, so get comfortable with making mistakes and failing upwards. Hobbies fill your free time with activities that inspire you and give you more purpose, so find what interests you and breathe life into it. In turn, your hobbies will breathe life into you.