“To be really happy, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies,”-Winston Churchill
In last week’s blog post, I addressed why having a hobby is important. I touched on the issue of the negative impact stress can have on the body and mind. Your whole well-being is weighed upon a scale of stress factors and their effect on you as a person. As noted in my previous blog, hobbies can come in any form that provides a sense of leisure and enjoyment. Sometimes 20 minutes in a day or week just doesn’t seem to exist. But this doesn’t mean it is any less important to decompress!
“Hobbying” Your Way to Happiness
I stumbled upon an article by Fox News that highlighted 5 ways to de-stress your life and make you happier. Guess what was on the list? Yep! Get a hobby! Interestingly, it mentioned that changing your hobby every three months or so actually gives you an even greater sense of happiness. A friend of mine has six children and a husband who is a proud, self-declared man-child. She is a stay at home mom, is self-employed, and she just so happens to also be a beekeeper (she’s the happy-to-be-stung friend from my previous post). She rarely sleeps and I’m pretty sure I heard her call her son by their dog’s name the other day. What is makes it worse is the dog is a girl. But I digress. The point is: she is happy. She has stresses in her life, more than some people, certainly, and her life is far from perfection. But she is happy. One reason she is happy is because she also has a number of hobbies. She is a hobbyist beekeeper, she likes to paint, sew, and she and her husband enjoy gardening together, and she loves to write…anything!
Diversify Your Hobbies
My friend has more than one hobby. When I talked to her about this, she told me it helps her to be able to have options. If the kids are bursting with energy, it might be too hectic to paint – but she can shoo them outside and go tend the garden so they are all still together. She doesn’t stop being a mother to enjoy her hobbies! Rather than get upset about a torn article of clothing, she takes the opportunity to use sewing as her hobby. She can practice some deep breathing exercises while getting something accomplished at the same time. We can’t always shut life down to have a moment to regroup. But finding ways to decompress even while in the thick of things will add years to your life and help you cope better when life throws you a curveball.
Applications & Resources
- Here is another article I fell upon about the “Importance of Hobbies for Happiness & Stress Relief”
- Check out Health Central and get an in depth look on how stress affects your physical body
- It’s Never Too Late no matter what life may have thrown at you, you can still find happiness
