The Power of Hobbies and their effect on your Wellbeing
Having a hobby or learning something new can have some great effects to your wellbeing and can also improve other aspects of your life.
Taking up a hobby or learning something new, whether that be cooking, DJ-ing or cycling, can help you learn new skills and be a step towards a happier and healthier you. Studies have found that doing an activity that increases you’re mental stimulation has a 13% increase on your wellbeing. People who didn’t learn anything new in their daily lives reduced their average score by 35%! This shows that adding in something new into your routine, however small, can have a positive effect. Depending on what hobby you choose to do, it can help learn skills that you may not even have thought about. Being part of a group or community like a sports team, choir or weekly meeting group can help with your communication, interpersonal and team work skills. Doing activities like art, music or drama can help you be more creative, find perspective or release your inner thoughts. They can all make you happier and more relaxed.
“Music has multiple mental health benefits – regardless of whether you play an instrument, sing or just listen and enjoy. Music can help you manage your emotions and cope with stress, and it’s also a great way to connect with friends.” – Head to health.gov
A study in New Zealand found that time spent on creative hobbies or goals during the day was associated with a higher chance of having a positive affect to that day. The participants of the study where asked to record how much time they spend doing a creative activity and their mood that day. The days on which people were doing more hours of creative activities, were the days on which they felt more positive. This could even affect the mood of the person the next-day depending on what activity it was.
Learning something new, whether that is part of your hobby or not, also adds great benefits to your wellbeing. On the NHS website, learning new skills is in their top 3 of things to do to reduce stress and improve wellbeing. It can boost your self-confidence and increase your self-esteem. It can help build a sense of purpose, when things around you may be challenging, and help connect with others.
It can be great to have or start a hobby or learn something new but It can be hard sometimes to fit in sometime for yourself when you have a busy life. They are a few things you can do to remind yourself to take some time for you.
- Make a list of hobbies or activities you would like to try or do – this can be ones you really want to try or ones that you want to spend more time on.
- Create a schedule- this can help see where you have time to fit in your hobby.
- Limit distractions – spending less time on the phone and more time on your hobby can make to world of difference.
- Making an hour available to do something for you.
- Be daring and start a course!
If you are still on furlough, been made redundant or unemployed. Why not learn something new with one of our courses. Go to: https://free2learn.org.uk/courses/ and register today!
