IT'S NICE TO HAVE A HOBBY: SOMETHING YOU'RE INTERESTED IN, SOMETHING LIGHT-HEARTED. EVERYONE "BUSY BUSY" SEEMS TO BE THE WAY OF MODERN CIVILISATION SINCE THE TURN OF THIS CENTUARY, HEY? BUT IS THAT HEALTHY FOR US OR OUR KIDS? NOT REALLY. NO. SOMEONE SAID TO ME A FEW YEARS AGO "SOME PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY LOVE, TO DO IT?" IT'S SO TRUE THAT SOME DON'T KNOW THEIR PASSION, TO PURSUE IT. THERE ARE BENEFITS WHEN YOU DISCOVER WHAT IT IS, LIKE MANY HAVE EXPERIENCED FOR MONTHS OR YEARS. WE HAVE A FRIEND WHO HAS JUST DISCOVERED HIS AND IT'S REALLY GREAT TO SEE. LIFE SHOULD NOT ALL BE WORK, CHORES AND TV OR SOCIAL MEDIA. TRY AND THINK YOUR WAY AROUND THAT. FEEL FREE TO LOOK FOR IDEAS AND EXPLORE. BE KIND TO YOURSELF, HEY?
6 Reasons To Get A Hobby
By Jaime Kurtz, Ph.D., PsychologyToday.Com
You're Really Not Too Busy.
Over a couple of generations, we have somehow misplaced their free time.
Various things contribute to this, but for many of us, being legitimately busy simply isn't one of them. Instead, we habitually waste time, creating the illusion of busyness. Facebook, Email, Netflix…….. If you’re like me, you don’t wake up in the morning with the goal of squandering so many precious moments on social media, but it often happens, and this is unaccounted for time that can be better spent elsewhere.
Consider the possibility that you’re not as busy as you think. In her recent book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, Brigid Schulte argues that “I’m too busy” has become a badge of honour, a sign of virtue and importance. We have done a nice job of convincing ourselves that we’re super-busy. Don’t buy into it. You have time for a hobby ... or two!
Why You Need Hobbies
Hobbies help you structure your time. According to Parkinson’s law, "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." More simply, things take as much time as you have. So, when the evening stretches out before you, unscheduled, you might find yourself labouring over that work project or answering emails into the wee hours. Chances are, if you had choir practice or a book club meeting that night, you would get those tasks done much more quickly. So, hobbies can seem to create more time by encouraging efficiency.
Hobbies Promote Flow
Left to our own devices, we often opt for passive leisure—TV and web surfing are at the top of most people’s lists. And, sure, we all need to veg out from time to time. But we are so much more invigorated by active leisure, the sort of thing psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow activities. If you’ve ever lost yourself in a sport, art project, or other challenging, absorbing activity, you’ve experienced flow. Time flies, self-consciousness disappears, and you are fully immersed in the activity at hand. Hobbies, especially those that stretch our skills, foster this desirable and increasingly elusive state.
Hobbies Can Foster New Social Connections
While some hobbies are solitary endeavours, many get us out in our communities, meeting people we otherwise wouldn’t, sharing our passions, and forming new bonds. Countless studies have found that social connection is a key component of happiness and a meaningful life, and hobbies have the potential to create precious new ties.
Hobbies Make You Interesting.
Hobbies give you something to talk about at parties and around the water cooler. They add layers to your identity, richness to your self-concept. People want to be around those with passions, with a sense of curiosity, with stories to tell. You not only feel more inspired when you have a rich and active life, but you will inspire others as well.
Hobbies Help You Cope With Stress
Imagine a rough day at the office, where you were harshly criticized by your boss. Coming home and turning on the TV may provide a brief distraction, but it doesn’t address your damaged ego head-on. Now imagine that after work you head out to your soccer league or pottery class. These activities are more than merely distracting. They remind you that that are many facets to your self-concept. Employee, yes, but also athlete or artist. As such, a blow to one aspect of your identity is less damaging. Simply put, your eggs aren't all in one basket.
And the benefits can spill over into other aspects of your life. If you can designate an hour a day or even a few hours a week for something you feel truly inspired and enlivened by, don’t be surprised if some of that newfound zest carries over into your work and family life.
Source HERE
How Hobbies Impact Your Head and Your Heart
By Srini Pillay M.D. 2017 PsychologyToday.Com
New Research Explains How Hobbies Can Help You Feel Happier And Younger.
Many of us have no time for hobbies. Stretched for time, we feel lucky if we make it to the end of the day without complete exhaustion. With our packed schedules, the last thing we might think of is to add another task to the day, yet dabbling in hobbies may be just the activity we need to enhance our lives.
Physiology professor Robert Root-Bernstein studied forty male scientists who had been interviewed four times between 1958 and 1978. He found that hobbies that involved visual thinking (imagining), learning from doing rather than just thinking, and art and music were particularly advantageous. When scientists engaged in hobbies of this kind, they were more successful. i.e. They had more citations. Key to their success however, was the fact that they saw their hobbies or dabbling activities as having some purpose. They were working on the same thing from a different angle.
Hobbies may also protect your brain. When aging researcher T.F. Hughes and her colleagues examined how hobbies impacted peoples’ lives, they found that engaging in hobbies for one or more hour every day may protect against dementia later in life. Another study found that having a hobby may also result in your being more functional when you are older and living longer too. And yet another study found that In patients who are surgically treated with breast cancer, having a hobby can be protective and help people live longer too.
By definition, hobbies bring people pleasure. And when they do, they not only make you feel better, but they improve your physiology too. When psychologist Sarah Pressman and her colleagues examined who pleasurable activities impact our wellbeing, they found that enjoyable leisure activities are associated with lower blood pressure, smaller waist circumference, and a lower body mass index. People also feel better physically and are less likely to be depressed.
Having a hobby can also improve the way your heart functions. In one study, researchers examined how hobbies might impact coronary arteries which were near-normal. They were in the earliest stages of being clogged. They found that having a hobby was associated with heart arteries that dilated more easily, and blood was able to flow through them more easily.
Hence, hobbies can be helpful for your head and your heart. To get started:
1. Choose a hobby that you enjoy.
2. Plan for an hour a day of activity.
3. Clarify how this hobby relates to your primary vocation. For example, if it is a sport, see how you can apply the learning about when to be offensive or defensive.
4. Monitor your mood, memory, weight, and overall cardiovascular function to see if this hobby makes a difference for you.
PsychologyToday.Com
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