In a day and age where we are constantly bombarded with information and distractions via screens and devices , it can seem difficult at times to find a moment to escape, destress, and relax.
Hobbies are a fantastic way to relax, destress, unwind, and mentally stimulate yourself into a healthier lifestyle.
Scientific Studies Keep Pointing Towards the Need for Healthier Lifestyles
Think about it. Countless scientific studies have correlated greater longevity with a healthier diet, lifestyle, physical activity, and also mental stimulation.
You hear about new diets, training methods and workout regimens routinely changing peoples lives in a positive way. However, what we don’t often hear people discuss as much is how important it is to mentally stimulate yourself on a regular basis in order to increase efforts to stay healthy.
Find an Activity That You Truly Enjoy and Do It as Often as Possible
Science has pointed towards increased mental activity and mental stimulation as being important to stay healthy for the aging population to avoid risks of dementia associated with aging.
This says to me that we should get into the habit of doing something to stimulate your mind as often as possible in order to stay mentally healthy. What better way to do this than to pick up a hobby or past time to stimulate your mind and to aid in your personal well being.
You may be wondering what staying mentally healthy means. While I am no physician, and I possess no specialized training in the health or medical fields, I have directly felt the mental benefits of getting into the habit of mental exercise each day through having multiple hobbies.
Stimulating yourself mentally to remain healthy can mean many things. This could mean exactly what I am doing right here, right now. The process of writing. It takes effort, mental effort to sit here, have a thought, and then convey that thought through the keys of this laptop.
Mental stimulation and activity is healthy. When you perform tasks you have to think, calculate, reason, strategize.
And if it is a physical task you are completing, then there is the added complexities of hand and eye coordination and motor skills to factor in.
This is all healthy, very healthy for everyone to get into the habit of doing, and in whatever capacity that means for you.
Pick a Hobby, Any Hobby, Really
In fact, mental activity and mental stimulation can manifest itself in a wide variety of hobbies and activities.
Think about things like reading, chess, checkers, sudoku, crossword puzzles, word searches, playing a musical instrument, woodworking, fishing, cycling, kayaking, playing solitaire, gardening, yoga, drawing, painting, making jewelry, camping, learning a foreign language.
You get the idea. Almost anything you really and truly enjoy doing can be a hobby or past time.
And I bet you probably have more than one thing that you enjoy doing. I know that for me personally, I have many things that I enjoy doing, and thus have multiple hobbies that keep me busy.
Anything that allows you to relax, have fun, gets your brain going and gets you mentally stimulated. And if it is an outdoor activity that you can do, then that is even better.
This gets you some bonus physical activity, allows you to enjoy and take in some nature, and provides you with some good old fashioned vitamin D in the form of sunlight to boot. 🙂
The Right Hobbies Can Sometimes Bring Feelings of Calmness, Relaxation and Decompression
My personal advice is to try and do some sort of hobby or activity that you enjoy each and every day if possible. This shift in focus, concentration, and attention on an activity that you enjoy can be immediately be felt by both the body and mind.
Think about it, when you think about doing those hobbies or activities that you enjoy most in life, do you enjoy those past times because there is a sense of satisfaction, calmness, and relaxation associated with that activity in your mind?
There can sometimes even be a feeling of loss of the sense of time in our favorite activities. When you are truly engrossed, happy, and enjoying what you are doing, you can often lose track of time, and an hour can feel like mere minutes. And this can be a true feeling of decompression after a long stressful day.
I know that this is generally the case for me, and once my mind is more at ease, I can also many times feel my body respond in a similar fashion.
I begin to relax and my body becomes more at ease. This is even true for me in cases of physical activity. I do not enjoy running, but whenever I hike briskly for several miles, even though my body may start to physically tire, my mind is still at ease and continues to be calm and serene from enjoying the afternoon out in nature.
You Do Not Have To Be The Best To Reap the Mental Rewards of a Hobby
Similarly, I began to learn to play guitar when I was a young teenager.
Even though I took lessons for several years and did not become very adept at playing the guitar, I still do enjoy that feeling of calmness and serenity that comes over me after only a few minutes of strumming some chords on a guitar.
In my case at least, it is simply the activity of working out my frustrations out on a guitar fretboard that ends up calming me, and not any delusions of me being in any band or becoming an accomplished guitarist.
It is healthy to find some time for yourself to do those things that give you a sense of joy and fulfillment, and that also provide you with feelings of mental calmness.
If flying a quadcopter or drone is the thing that relaxes you, then do that. That activity itself requires plenty of dexterity, hand and eye coordination, mental focus, planning, reasoning, and motor skills.
If you enjoy gardening, then perhaps being outdoors in the garden as often as possible, may be what you need to add more of in your life. The environment calms the body and mind, and tending to a garden can bring a sense of peace and accomplishment to those that enjoy that activity.
Anything You Can Do To Reduce Your Stress Now Will Be Better Long Term
Stress has also been shown to affect the human body negatively over time, if left unchanged. So, it is a good idea to get into a regular routine of doing things in life that lower your levels of stress.
Again, those hobbies, activities, and past times that you enjoy most could just be the difference between living a life full of stress, anxiety, and health issues, or one that is full of happiness, mental stimulation, and a healthy lifestyle.
Anything that you can do to minimize your stress as early in life, and as often as possible, is likely going to make a long term difference in a persons health and well being, as opposed to the opposite.
I know for myself, when I have been away from my own hobbies and activities that I like doing, there is a shift in my mood mentally. i feel a bit cluttered, cranky, and not as mentally at ease. But, once I go garden, pick up a guitar, or go for a walk or hike, I almost immediately feel a positive shift in my mood.
You could try this experiment for yourself as well.
If you go even just a few weeks without doing even some of those things that you truly enjoy doing in life, you will most likely see a negative shift in your mood.
It is important to have hobbies and activities available in your life as early and as often as possible. These are those things that will help you to cope with uneasiness, stress, anxiety, and will help you to remain mentally healthy.
Many Hobbies Have The Added Benefit of Social Communities and Groups
Additionally, many hobbies have followings and communities associated with them, and joining one of these will also provide folks with the opportunity to participate in a sense of community, involvement, and engagement through social interactions and exchanges with other individuals with similar interests. And social engagement and a sense of belonging has also been shown to keep people healthier and happier later into life as well.
So, even though we mostly think of diet and exercise when it comes to staying healthy, we also need to remember to take time out each day for hobbies.
And if not a little time each day, then at least as often as possible, so we can do those things in life that relax us, put us at ease, and provide the added benefit of stimulating our minds, and keeping us sharp for the rest of our lives. Here’s to your favorite hobbies and past-times.