So, it’s February. If you’re anything like me, you might already be slacking on your New Year’s resolutions. Normally, I would feel a lot of guilt and beat myself up for not sticking to my goals. In years past, I would have probably just given up on my resolutions all together since I already “failed” in January. But this year, I have decided to adopt a different mindset. Although it may not be January 1 anymore, that doesn’t mean I should just disregard all of my goals until next year.
One of my goals this year was to find some new hobbies. I wanted to find new ways to occupy my time that would actually benefit me and improve my life, as opposed to mindlessly scrolling on TikTok.
Now, people have different opinions on what constitutes a hobby. A hobby is defined as “an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.” I have heard before that everyone should have 3 hobbies: one that makes you money, one that keeps you fit and one to keep you creative. While I do believe that it is important to have a variety of hobbies that bring different things to your life, I believe a true hobby is something that is done solely for pleasure without any monetary gain. Sure, you can love playing soccer. But if you’re Megan Rapinoe, that’s your job. Playing soccer is now something that is monetized. When hobbies become monetized, your hobby might lose its meaning, become a source of stress or you might experience a loss of fulfillment. To me, a hobby is something that you do regularly in your free time that simply brings you joy without earning you money.
Not only are hobbies something that you really enjoy doing (I mean I would hope so), they also boost your physical and mental health. Research shows, “People with hobbies are less likely to suffer from stress, low mood, and depression. Activities that get you out and about can make you feel happier and more relaxed. Group activities like team sports can improve your communication skills and relationships with others.” As well as improving your health and happiness, hobbies can make you more creative, more confident, encourage you to socialize and strengthen your personal development skills. In high school, I didn’t really have many hobbies. My life revolved around school and the little free time I did have was spent with friends or scrolling on my phone. Incidentally, this is the time when my mental health was at its lowest. Since then, I have made an effort to adopt hobbies that would actually bring something positive to my life. I can’t even count all the ways that my hobbies have benefited so many different aspects of my life. By taking time to do activities that I genuinely enjoy, like reading, hiking and cooking, my free time is now spent in productive ways that help me de-stress, become more creative and just make me happier overall. As small and silly as it might sound, having hobbies gave a new purpose to my life.
So now that you know how amazing hobbies are, how do you go about choosing one? Well, first of all, your hobby should be something that brings you joy. Besides that, I enjoy activities that challenge me, encourage me to foster new skills and are relatively low-stress. Whether it is collecting sea glass or mountain biking, barbequing or doing puzzles, line dancing or making homemade lattes, I hope you find a hobby that makes you happy.