Finding hobbies you enjoy is essential to maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle, but sometimes it can be so much easier to just sit and scroll on your phone. If you’re anything like me, I often do not want to leave the comfort of my room.
Here are some new hobbies to explore…
Reading Reviews
If you’re an avid reader or want to become one, keeping track of your reading history and writing reviews can be a great way to make reading more interactive and fun.
You can use sites like Goodreads where you can track your reading, put books on a TBR list, post your favorite quotes, join book discussions and groups, participate in reading challenges and get tons of recommendations for new books.
If you’re not a fan of Goodreads, you can try out The StoryGraph, which shares similar features to Goodreads but also allows you to have visuals of your book data. You’ll get graphs that tell you your most read genre or author and even what the most common moods are of the books you’ve read.
Along with tracking your reading through sites like these it is always a fun idea to buddy read a book with a friend! This can even help you stay more motivated to keep reading since you’ll have someone to keep you accountable and someone who you can discuss your thoughts with.
Hand Embroidery
If you have ever been interested in upcycling your clothes, accessories or decor pieces, embroidering may be a great new skill to learn. If you are a beginner it is a great idea to start with beginner kits where you can follow along a pattern. Often these kits come with step-by-step instructions on how to make certain stitches along with a traced pattern on the fabric.
After getting the hang of basic and more advanced stitches, you can begin to embroider anything you want. Instead of buying a pair of jeans with floral embroidery, you can opt to do it yourself on a pair of jeans you already own. If you have a plain tote bag or a plain hat that you’ve been looking to spruce up, try embroidering a pattern on it. To make it easier on yourself, print out patterns online or you can use tailor’s or sewing chalk to make temporary marks on your piece for guidance.
Writing Prompts
If you are someone interested in creative writing but don’t know how to get started, the best way to get some inspiration is to follow along scene prompts. Writer’s Digest or Reedsy are great websites to use to find several different prompts across different genres and topics. Or instead you could take inspiration from a song, book, movie or TV show that you love (kind of like fanfiction…). Sometimes it can be intimidating to worldbuild with your own unique setting and original characters, so using your favorite media to practice your writing is a great first step.
If you ever are unsure of what scene prompt to use, you can write down prompts on slips of paper and randomly choose them out of a hat or use a random generator online. The hope is that these prompts will lead to some good ideas or good scenes that can be implemented into full stories, poems, screenplay or any other type of media you are working towards.
Collage Making
Collages are amazing for creating inspiration for future goals, looking back at memories of friends and family, making vision boards for future redecorating projects or for no purpose at all except aesthetics. This can be physical collages that you can use as room decor or pinterest mood boards.
Anything that calls out to you can be used: magazine photos, old fabric, book pages, quotes, album cover art, stickers, dried flowers, the list goes on.
Collages make for great wall art, especially if you live in the dorms where the setup can be quite dull unless you put in the effort to decorate.
Paint by Numbers or Diamond Painting
Some hobbies can just be relaxing without having too much thought into them. As kids you likely did draw by numbers, but for some reason it doesn’t seem as socially acceptable to do as adults. Now with the rise of wellness and mindful based activities, adult coloring books and crafts are resurfacing.
Paint by numbers and diamond painting is a slightly elevated version of what we used to do as kids, and you can try out way more intricate patterns. The reason why these activities can be so relaxing is because repetitive patterns and motions can redirect our brain from anxious thoughts.
Give some of these (or all) of these hobbies a try! Try listening to your favorite feel-good songs or comfort show in the background to make the experience even better. If you like something for a while and then lose interest, that’s completely fine! Just keep trying new things that excite you and bring you some peace!