Publisher: Mental health is as important as your physical health. Most of us have busy schedules and its difficult to take out some time and dedicate it in pursuing a hobby. But you should reschedule your daily activities to make room for ‘Me Time’. Choose a hobby that complements your interests and passion. Immersing yourself in a hobby is not only beneficial to lower the impact of stress on your brain but also helps improve your cognitive function and improves mental health. Go and start practicing something that make you happy. That could be growing new plants, reading a novel, writing journals, or learning a dancing style you always wanted to master. Having a hobby or multiple hobbies help boost your creativity, immunity, memory, and health and reduce the symptom of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Let’s explore some hobbies that are beneficial for your mental health.
1. Reading:
Reading and getting involved in a book can reduce your stress levels more than a walk or stroking your pet. You can read anything you find interesting from a novel to informative blogs and biographies. If you are engaged in reading a book for just six minutes, more than two-thirds of your stress levels will reduce. Reading allow you to feel and see something through other’s eyes; you got to see things from a different perspective. Readings enable us to enrich and expand our frame of thoughts and help improve mental health by better understanding ourselves.
2. Writing:
This hobby has many varieties like songwriting, creative writing, and expressive writing. No matter which type of hobby you choose, it proves to be beneficial for your health. Moreover, if you enjoy writing, you can turn your hobby into a passive source of income. For instance, you can become an essay writer, or a blog writer and write on the subjects of your interests. Furthermore, express writing has many benefits for your mental health. You can write down what you feel and issues bothering you in your daily life. Writing down your thoughts, emotions and issues help you to identify the pitfalls in your thought process so that you can work towards eliminating them and saving your mental energy to invest in a productive task or something that makes you happy.
3. Meditation:
Mindfulness meditation is an ancient method that has scientifically proven to improve the cognitive functioning of your brain. When you start practicing meditation regularly, you will feel a reduction in depression and anxiety, and betterment in your memory, focus, and visuospatial processing. Therefore, mediation is a great hobby for improving your mental health. It only takes 10 minutes a day.
4. Baking:
Baking can be a great hobby that improves your creativity. It has shown to be helpful for those dealing with depression in their lives. Bake cakes or cupcakes and this sweet hobby will help cure your mental illness. It is a way to transform your destructive thoughts into something constructive. In the end, you’ll have something to be proud of and something to show off that will be appreciated, and your work could inspire someone.
5. Volunteering:
Giving back to others, helping people, doing something for the betterment of your society also makes you feel good. Volunteering is also helpful for increasing your likelihood of living a healthy, long life. So start volunteering for one or more causes but your motivation to help people should be heartfelt. For instance, you can start tutoring kids that cannot afford school’s tuition, make efforts to provide shelter to a homeless person or family, or adopt a pet. Your stress levels will significantly drop, and you will feel happy to help humanity. The only reward will be your mental satisfaction, and you’ll lead a longer life.