In the world in which we live, it is now virtually impossible to avoid addictions and distractions. From the constant pings of notifications on our phones we are now bombarded with a never-ending wave of unrealistic expectations and marketing schemes which deprive us of all gratification and life. We now live in the future, constantly wanting new items, a new body, new friends, and a new life.
Competing with multi-million-dollar tech giants with the sole purpose of keeping you attached to this addictive lifestyle is hard, but it is achievable. All you need to do is add one simple activity to your life:
A Hobby.
A lack of hobbies and interests is what is driving this worldwide addiction to social media and technology. Therefore, by adding one simple hobby to your life you can stop it. Hobbies have many benefits and help to ground us and live in the present moment, thus helping us to lead a happier and more fulfilling life. There is a large variety of different hobbies in which you can partake, but how do you choose the right one?
It ultimately comes down to two different factors, your interests, and the benefits which you are looking to receive from them.
Figuring out your interests is simple, while reading this article think to yourself ‘If I had to do an activity right now, what would it be?’ Quickly, grab a notebook and pen and write down as many different answers to this question on a list and title it ‘potential hobbies’. If at any point while reading this article you want to add a new interest to your list that is completely fine.
Now that you have your list of interests, you have successfully narrowed it down somewhat. You now need to decide which benefits you would like to receive from your new hobby.
Labelling
The first step to achieving this is to label your hobbies. There are 3 different types of hobbies: group, creative and practical. Now go through your list of potential hobbies and label them one by one as they fall into each of these descriptions:
- Group hobbies are any sort of hobby done with other people for example a team sport like football.
- Creative hobbies are fairly self-explanatory, they are any creative activities like art or music.
- Practical hobbies are hobbies that don’t fall under either category such as gardening, reading, or journaling.
Benefits
All 3 hobby sets have unilateral benefits which apply to all 3 such as decreased stress levels, improved mood, and greater resilience to depression. Even if you only receive these benefits alone, hobbies wouldn’t be a waste of time. But the tailored benefits of each individual hobby type eliminate all doubts of hobbies are definitely worth your time. To continue narrowing down your list and selecting your hobby read the benefits of each set, select the set with the most appealing benefits and circle all hobbies that come under those benefits.
Benefits of Group Hobbies
You may be able to predict the benefits of a group hobby as being mainly social benefits and you are not wrong. Group hobbies are perfect if you are looking to improve your social skills or are lacking in friendships, the best group hobbies are activities such as team sports or clubs (like a book club) this being said here are some benefits of group hobbies:
- Improved social skills.
- Reduced feelings of loneliness
- Enhanced self-esteem
- Sense of belonging
- Reduced risk of illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The type of group activity in which you may want to partake heavily depends on your surrounding area and age but there are always different social activities out there for all different ages, sexes, and social skills.
Benefits of Creative Hobbies
Creative hobbies provide more mind-orientated benefits than social or physical ones as they look to relax you through deep concentration and thus avoidance of stressful thoughts. You may think that if you are no good at any creative activities then this is pointless and even counter-productive, and yes this is true. But learning a creative activity in modern society is easier than ever, it only takes as little as 1 week to, for example, learn how to play the piano. So, if you find these benefits the most attractive don’t be put off:
- Improves mood.
- Boosts self-esteem.
- Improves cognitive skills.
- Alleviates stress and anxiety.
- Improves concentration.
As you can tell these benefits focus more on mental benefits than the other two but don’t pick just yet, we still have the benefits of practical hobbies to go.
Benefits of Practical Hobbies
This set of hobbies is very broad and many different hobbies with many different benefits can fall under its wing, but even so, almost all hobbies in this set do possess these benefits.
- Improved mental health.
- Significant reductions in depression and anxiety
- Decreased cognitive decline.
- Reduced stress.
- Improved communication skills (in some hobbies)
- Improved mood
- Greater concentration (depends on the hobby)
As you can tell the benefits are much broader than the other two but don’t wipe them off, their benefits are still very impressive. Also, if you would like to combine the benefits of some practical hobbies with the benefits of group hobbies then most practical hobbies can be turned into group hobbies through clubs, for example, a gardening club.
Conclusion
You should now have a narrowed-down list containing a few final hobbies, and take on as many of these remaining hobbies that you feel comfortable with. But some advice, don’t take on too many at once, begin with one hobby and build up to your preferred number. So, hobbies can be classified into 3 different sets with unique benefits, and now you can use your interests and these benefits to decide on which hobbies you want to invest your time into. Choose wisely as once you’ve got going with your hobby you will be spending a lot of time invested in it.
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