After a long and hard day of attending a bunch of boring lectures, doing tedious course work and sweating profusely from walking in the scorching sun to get to your classes on time, the only thing you might wish to do is get under your covers and do nothing for the rest of the day. However, as fun as passing the time by rotting in your bed may seem, it could be doing your mental health way more harm than good. According to Health.com, bed rotting may appear as self-care but can lead one to self-isolate, spend too much time scrolling through social media and create issues with sleeping. All of which can lead to developing depression-like symptoms.
To avoid this, one can consider adding hobbies to the list of things to do with their free time. A hobby is a leisure activity a person will do when they are not busy. A pastime that doesn’t require extreme amounts of stress that you might get from your everyday life. Examples of hobbies include activities like crocheting, gardening, photography, etc. There are so many more to choose from to the point where you will never have to feel limited to just one.
Depending on which hobby you choose, it can reap psychological and physical benefits that can enhance your sense of self in the long run. According to an article titled “Can Hobbies Improve Mental Health” people who take up a hobby report feeling a reduction in stress by 34% and a decrease in sadness by 18%.
Additionally, WebMd discusses that physical hobbies can lower your blood pressure, BMI, and waist circumference, due to the fact that you are engaging your body in an activity that you enjoy.
However, with all this information thrown at you, you might feel the need to hurry up and find a hobby. But, that is simply not the case. You should take your time and evaluate the things that you like and try to base your decision off of that. Hobbies are based on your interests so, if you do something that you don’t enjoy it’s no longer a hobby, and becomes a chore. For example, if you absolutely hate bike riding then maybe you shouldn’t try that out and choose a calmer activity like yoga instead. At the end of the day, do what’s best for you and what feels like a great fit for your lifestyle.
Yes, there are a bunch of great aspects that come from doing hobbies. But, the most important thing to remember is that you do it because you want to. We tend to lose ourselves in activities and think that we are wasting our time when we could be working or making money. Which is why we see so many people monetize their hobbies and begin to hate it because it becomes a job. Don’t put yourself through unwanted stress and always remember that it is okay to have a little fun. At the end of the day everyone deserves to be able to unwind and decompress with a hobby that they love
Photo Credits: Olivia Brzek
