Hobbies: A Pointless Waste Of Time Or The Key To Happiness?

“Fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum.”

[Do something, so that the Devil may always find you busy.]

– Jerome, 4th Century Theologian

Hobby /ˈhɒbi / noun - An activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.

Have you ever tried getting to know someone and found out they don’t have any hobbies? I certainly have and each time I’m taken aback and left confused. Hobbies are like the rainbow sprinkles on an ice cream, they make life a little better, a little more bearable.

My favourite kinds of hobbies are the ones that involve arts, crafts and making cool things. In fact, you could say I live to create things; my whole life revolves around my creative expression! I love to inspire my friends and family to try new crafts and make wonderful things for themselves.

When most people think about doing arts and crafts, their first thought is ‘but I’m not creative! I can’t even draw a stick man’ or ‘I don’t enjoy art’ perhaps you’ve even thought this. But I fully believe that creating things is human nature and that anyone can learn a craft. Just like any other skill, art needs practice and passion to develop.

I recently wrote an mega list article with over 150 different crafts linking free beginners tutorials, 'An (Almost) Definitive Guide To Creative Hobbies'. I guarantee that there's something on this list for absolutely everyone! If you’re still unsure if you should learn a crafty hobby, then sit right there because I’m about to tell you 20 reasons why making things is essential to living a happy, healthy life.

1. A Productive Way To Pass Time

Pastimes should be more than just a way to pass the time! Sure lazing on the sofa and watching the TV is a grand way to spend your free time, but repetition quickly gets boring and you need other things to keep your mind occupied and stop you from going insane. The devil makes work for idle hands! When you find a hobby you can be passionate about, you'll easily be able to while away the hours in a productive way.

2. Makes You More Interesting

You’ll never run out of conversation if you have a creative hobby that you can't stop talking about! Most people love hearing about creative hobbies and express an interest in how people create cool things. Having one or more hobbies makes a person more interesting and easier to engage with. You may even forge new friendships through your passion.

3. Helps You Explore Yourself

Art is the act of taking an internal thought or feeling and translating it in to something tangible. Creativity is a way for humans to express their dreams and ideas to others or to release an emotion that had previously been pent up inside them. Makings art is a great way to explore your thoughts and emotions and express them in a healthy and productive way. Not only that, but you will constantly get to test your skills as an individual and learn that you can accomplish many awesome things.

4. Improves Hand/Eye Coordination

Since arts and crafts are about making things by hand, it makes sense that your hand/eye co-ordination is improved by regular craft time. It also helps with your reflexes and balance, so dedicating daily time to your chosen craft can greatly improve your physical health. That’s not to say that the differently-abled cannot participate in creative hobbies, there’s always adaptions and work-arounds that can suit all skill levels.

5. Improves Cognitive Function And Memory

It’s pretty common knowledge that you can improve your memory and general brainpower by regularly doing puzzles like chess, crosswords and logic games. But did you know you can get just as much mental enrichment from hobbies like crochet, beadwork or anything that involves a pattern, recipe or specific instructions. There are also tonnes of hobbies that can help keep your mind sharp in old age, the focus and repetition can help keep your brain in tip-top condition.

6. Develops Patience

They say patience is a virtue, but like all skills it takes practice. When you work at an artistic hobby, it greatly helps to develop patience. From the initial project idea and planning stages to triumphant completion, creative endeavours take time to see through to the end. The more patience you put in to a project, the better your skills will develop and the better the finished piece will be.

7. Opportunity To Take A Break

When you break out your arsty tools and projects, you give yourself permission to take a break from the usual hubbub of life. Your subconscious is alerted that this is the time to switch off, relax and enjoy the down time. In today’s busy world, we need this quality relaxation time to recuperate from the daily stresses; which bring us to…

8. Stress Relief

As I just mentioned, during our hobby-time our brain relaxes and shifts focus. Even though some crafts can mentally and physically taxing, because we are still doing something purely for joy it still counts as relaxation. During this time our breathing, posture, attitude and focus all changes; similar to when one meditates. This helps reduce cortisol in the body, which is caused by stress and can lead to health problems.

9. Promotes Eustress

Have you heard of eustress? It’s the good kind of stress that leaves you feeling exhilarated and keeps your mind sharp and focus. Eustress is created when we’re doing something tricky just for fun, when we push ourselves through a challenge for the sheer fun of it. It’s a positive type of stress that makes you excited about what you are doing.

10. New Challenges And Experiences

Every type of hobby comes with a unique set of skills to learn, new things to experience and new challenges to overcome. So when you decide to learn a new craft, you’re broadening your perspective and expanding your limits.

11. Builds Confidence

When you make progress with something, be it learning a new skill, completing a project or defeating a challenge, it builds your confidence in yourself and your abilities. That confidence will begin to spill over in to other areas of your life.

12. Improves Self-Esteem

The confidence boost we just talked about isn’t just a one-time thing either! With regular challenges and confidence boosts from participating in your chosen craft, you will find a deeper sense of accomplishment. Those little, regular confidence boost will start to add up and build a strong sense of self-esteem; something that is vital to our overall mental health.

13. Improves Mental Health

With all the awesome exercise craft hobbies give your brain, is it any wonder that practising can improve your overall mental health? It’s like mental cross fit, but it’s also a great way to self-soothe. With illnesses like depression and anxiety, creative hobbies give your mind something else to focus on and are a productive way to pass the time if you’re struggling to get through the day.

14. Strengthens Your Relationships

Creative hobbies will introduce you to all sorts of new and wonderful people. From teachers and mentors, to fans and customers; crafting gives you a wonderful opportunity to expand your social circle, both online and in real life. There’s always someone out there who shares your passion and an abundance of people who want to know how you do what you do, and why.

15. Enables You To Give Back To Your Community

Once you learn how to make handmade items, you will suddenly find yourself in a position to give back to your loved ones and to your wider community. Not only will you be able to make unique, meaningful gifts for your family; you will also learn that you can donate your time, skills and crafts to worthy causes. Some popular charitable donations include auctioning art and donating the proceeds, creating hats, scarves and blankets for the homeless, making pet beds for rescue animals and creating special comfort toys for premature babies. In fact there are so many ways to use your crafting powers for others that I could fill a whole other book!

16. Improve Your Career And Provide Additional Income

It’s a fact that hobbies look good on any resume and can quickly become a talking point in a job interview, but recently there has been a huge increase in people turning their crafty hobbies in to a full time business. In fact, while writing my mega list post, I wondered if I should indicate which hobbies can be turned in to profit. But I quickly realised that every entry has the potential to earn income. If you’re good at something then you can sell it –whether it’s a finished product or private tutoring.

17. Creativity Is Nourishing For The Soul

Exercise strengthens your body, puzzles strengthen your mind and creativity strengthens the soul. Humans are creative beings by nature and it is what sets us apart from other animals. We makes things for no other reason than the fact that it brings us joy. Art helps us to explore the darkest corners of our minds and gain a deeper understanding of who we really are at our inner-most core.

18. Promotes Mindfulness And Can Be Meditative

There are many hobbies that require you to be still and focused while repeating certain tasks, knitting, colouring and crochet to name just a few. These hobbies and the stress-relief they bring are almost like a meditation. During meditation, our breathing relaxes, deepens and keeps a steady rhythm causing our heart rate to drop. The mental goal of meditation in to focus and free your mind of all the useless chatter, to simply observe your thoughts and let them pass. I find that hobbies such as crochet tend to be just like meditation, instead of a mantra I’m counting stitches and I’m at an advanced enough level to keep the same speed. When my hands and conscious mind are occupied, it leaves me in a meditative like state where my mind can go off exploring.

19. Strengthens Your Spirituality

The meditation and mental-wellness provided by creative pursuits can often lead down a spiritual path of enlightenment and connecting with one’s true, higher self. I’m not necessarily talking about religion, though if you are religious then I’m sure you’ll get a huge buzz from mixing craft and religion together. Art is good for the soul.

20. Helps You Sleep Better

You know what’s not good for you? Staring at your phone or electronic device right before bed. The light from the screens messes with your melatonin production and stops your brain from switching off and settling down for the night. Brain stimulation before bed is a sure-fire way to way to be up all night tossing and turning, it’s science! Which is why most people recommend reading, journaling or colouring before bed; but any relaxing hobby will do! But it’s not just relaxing hobbies that can promote a good night’s sleep, physically taxing hobbies done earlier in the day can leave your body and mind tired so that by the end of the day you’re the good kind of exhausted and drift easily off to sleep.

Creativity is an important step in living a long, happy life. So let’s go find your new passion! If you're looking to learn a new hobby or skill, then check out my 150+ Crafty Hobbies For Absolutely Everyone post.