Start A New Hobby For Mindfulness

Did you ever have a hobby as a child? Did you spend hours coloring or making crafts, skateboarding, hula hooping or perhaps looking out at the clouds and imagining stories? My favorite pastime was writing, painting and imagining. I could spend hours without being distracted. I thought to myself what I could do when I finally grow up, the possibilities were thousands. Well, the downside of growing up is – earning a living, perpetual lack of time and energy, added responsibilities for kids and family – and hence I absolutely stopped painting. I don’t even have time to look at those clouds and get lost in my thoughts. I guess this happens for so many people. Recent research says that hobbies can reduce stress to a great extent and stress is what almost all of us are fighting today, especially in this year 2020.

When it comes to hobbies, there are unlimited options, but you need to choose the one that works for you and the one that connects with you the most, perhaps what you liked most as a child. Yes, you might fail, or not like that hobby as much as you thought, but there are no right or wrong hobbies as such. You just need to explore. Here are 5 hobbies I am thinking of trying.

1. Ceramic

I must admit, my first preference was ceramics and I started learning it. But it didn’t go that well. Why? Well, it’s nothing wrong with the hobby itself, but I somehow did not connect with the teacher. Besides, I realized this is such a hobby that I cannot really practice at home unless I create that setup, which is quite expensive. I let this go and for now I just browse through galleries and dream that one day I will have my own studio.

2. Knitting

I am very blessed to have an aunt who is really gifted in this. She is the one who made me realize that knitting can create mindfulness, help relieve your stress and anxiety. And the materials do not take a ton of space (well not initially at least) and you cam knit whenever and wherever you want.

3. Weaving

Weaving was not what I thought I would ever do, but while surfing the internet I came across this picture and the picture of a frame loom and it made me wonder if I can give it a try. The more I read, the more I got interested. I am giving it a serious thought.

4. Calligraphy

As a child, this was my most favorite pastime actually. More than anything, I loved writing and I loved working on my handwriting. I would try to follow different styles of scripts. Back then, I didn’t know that what I was trying was actually calligraphy. I never had special brush pens or any other fancy accessory – just my ordinary pen and paper. Every day after I came back from school, I would start honing my hand writing skills, spending hours in it. After I grew up and I started working on computers, I forgot to write and my hand writing became worse. Only recently, I realized that how I have missed the touch of pen to paper. I bought myself a calligraphy set, unfortunately never actually tried. I need to start this ASAP.

5. Painting

Painting was one hobby which I started at the age of 9 because someone motivated me enough with her paintings for me to try. As luck would have it, my uncle returned from his trip to Japan and brought me a very special coloring supply. This inspired me to such an extent that I poured my heart and soul into painting and the result was remarkable, especially coming from a 9 year old child. While I don’t like to brag, but this isn’t bragging. This was my proud moment. The hours of solitude spent in painting. My special art supplies from Japan got over and I didn’t have any more supplies. My ordinary supplies of art didn’t inspire me and I lost the interest. Eventually I lost touch. However, knowing that at some point in life I could produce such remarkable art, gives me hope. My daughter loves painting and I already have loads of art supply at home. What I now need is just a boost.

I hope you have a hobby too or perhaps thinking of starting one soon. Year 2020 was a very difficult year for so many of us for so many reasons -building up fear, stress, restlessness and anxiety. This is all the more reason that we need to practice mindfulness to let that stress and anxiety go away or at the least reduce. Think of a hobby as a me-time for you, which actually is self care. Tell me what are your hobbies or what are your interests? And take good care of yourselves. 🙂