Time for a hobby. Hmmmmm.
Do you have “extra” time on your hands?
Maybe that’s not the question you need to ask yourself.
Maybe a better question may be:
Is it time for a hobby?
According to an old article on Psychology Today, one of the many benefits of a hobby is that it helps with stress.
Do you feel stressed? Maybe it IS time for a hobby!
Watching TV isn’t a hobby (in my opinion, anyway).
Television or movies or Netflix (insert visual experience here) is a passive time occupier. (and yes, I am guilty of occupying my time this way also…)
However. Just consider what passive means…
Passive – here’s some of the definition:
- not participating readily or actively; inactive
- not involving visible reaction or active participation
- inert or quiescent.
Do you want to be known as inert or quiescent? (Hint – it’s not something you want to put on your resume.)
Let’s ditch that inert or quiescent attitude!
I challenge you to get (back) into a hobby and deal with stress, make life (and ourselves) more interesting, make new connections, and get lost in a challenging, absorbing activity!
What kinds of hobbies have you tried?
Pull out some of those projects that you haven’t finished! Feel good about finishing them!
- Read one of those books that have been on your shelf for years. Or re-read an old favorite. Children’s books are not just for children. Just sayin’.
- Put on your shoes and explore your neighborhood. It’s as simple as biking or putting one foot in front of another.
- Gather the supplies and bake something. Give it away or eat it yourself.
- Finish that puzzle.
- Learn a new language – try American Sign Language!
- Plant some bulbs now so they’ll bloom in the spring.
- Learn to draw, do calligraphy, become a city-expert, and guide…
- Knit, crochet, do some paper-crafting, or something else with your hands.
- Foster a dog from a shelter till it finds its “forever home”.
- Record yourself reading a story (weird voices and all) and send it to some kids you know.
- Send notes to people telling them how thankful you are for them.
- Listen to a new genre of music and explore a different culture/time.
- Get handy – build and/or repair something.
What could you do as a hobby?
Get out of the habit of watching TV – and explore all the benefits of working on one of your hobbies. You can make money with a hobby – you can help others with a hobby – you can make the world more beautiful with a hobby – you can explore, delve, and become a subject matter expert with a hobby…
Be thankful for your hobbies! They make you interesting and beat stress!
This is the 9th post of 30 Days of Thankfulness. Read the original post here. At the end of October 2020, I’ll be releasing a document with all the prompts and some digital freebies if you want to journal about thankfulness… Have you subscribed?
As you can tell from the photos in this series of posts, I’m practicing a new hobby. It’s called “junk journaling”.
It’s called “junk” journaling because it may incorporate things you’d normally throw away and puts together what’s old to make it new again. “Recycling” at its finest!
I’m fascinated by the breadth of this hobby – it can incorporate many, many skills. I’ve just scratched the surface.
Join me on YouTube to watch the videos I make about my hobby! Click HERE!
Here’s a pocket I made from a junk-mail envelope – then I added tags to the pocket. I also did a video showing the pocket.
Journaling is an old, old practice. My grandmother kept journals. In a way, your calendar is a journal – it’s writing down what’s happening with you – today, now, and as you add your hopes for the future.
After I take the photos you see in this series of posts, I’m filling the pages in – documenting what I’m thankful for right now. Now. In this odd, uncomfortable time.
Why not join me? Pull out some paper, or an app on your phone, or whatever you have at hand and journal along with me… Or you can wait to download the full document with all the prompts and do it then.
I feel strongly that documenting our lives – particularly what we’re thankful for – is a way to have a connection to the future. My grandchildren probably won’t remember these days (and a great deal about me) when they’re grown. But my journals will survive. What I’ve documented includes them…
(By the way, I also keep prayer journals, but Rob has promised he will burn them once I’m gone. Those are just between God and me, and I’ve seen how God has answered my prayers – it’s my personal reminder to myself that prayer matters and is a worthwhile action. In a few days, there’s a prompt about prayer, so you can know a little bit more about my view on that.)
However.
Back to Junk Journaling…
If you’d like to see more of what I make – and what I make to sell, I also invite you to check out my Etsy page.
During the summer I made 30 Hymn Journaling tags and little Booklets as a home for those tags – they’re meant to document just a bit of your life. They’re great as gifts – or as a way to write down your thoughts. I put a few on Etsy.
Making junk journals, tags, ephemera, and goodies is a perfect way for me to stay calm during this time. It keeps my hands busy and focused on something positive.
I’ll be adding to the Etsy store – more and more – as I practice my new hobby. Check it out!
I love having hobbies.I read,garden ,doodle,and blog too.You are right about hobbies being activity
I love your junk journal! My hobbies are sewing, crafting, gardening, photograph, baking and cooking with my great granddaughter and just being with my G-granddaughter is my favorite hobby!
I truly “get” the hobby of being with our little grands (or great-grands!) I agree, our grandchildren have opened up our world to old and new fun. 🙂
My hobby is politics. (But, I do swim, bike, read books, write blogs, and have at least THREE occupations…)
You’re a busy man, Roy. 😉 Thanks for using your time to comment!
Wow! Those journaling tags are beautiful!! But, I must gently disagree with you. If you include reading as a hobby – and it is one of my own – then you have to include watching TV, too. On the same couch, while not moving very much at all, you can read or you can watch TV, and it will look exactly the same. You might seem inert, but on the inside, you will be reacting to the stories you are taking in. Right? Same thing – the love of a story. Why would it matter whether you see it in a book or on the screen? You can be just as captivated. The first thing I thought of, at the beginning of your post, was how much I love Hallmark movies, and specifically, Hallmark Christmas movies. It is *definitely* a stress-relieving hobby for me. But then in the next few sentences you seemed to be trying to take it away from me. Won’t let you. 🙂 I do agree, though, that hobbies are important, whatever they are.
Oh, Jeanine – I’d never intentionally take away anyone’s pleasure! 😉 Maybe the differentiator is a hobby or habit? I think I was thinking of the mindlessness of watching TV – not the deliberate enjoyment involved in a specific program…. Thanks for disagreeing!
I’ve taken up some new hobbies…blog writing, playing the piano badly, and baking. Added to the oldest hobby or love of reading, my Covid quarantine has passed nicely.