Many of us have creative hobbies. Some of us have one creative hobby, some of us have multiple hobbies. I don’t think that we should even get started on how many I have. LOL
There’s so many benefits to having a creative hobby. Yes I said benefits! There is something very intrinsically positive about having hobbies. When you’re doing something that you love or something that makes you happy your body literally releases happy chemicals into your brain.
They’re like tiny little happy ants that spread themselves out throughout your body. Literally running through your veins up and down from your head to your toes. Happy people are healthier.
Creative Hobbies Are Literally Good for Your Brain
The website ohcraftyday.com states, “ Learning A New Creative Hobby Is Good For Your Brain. Well, we all know that learning almost anything is good for your brain. It can help form new neural connections, grow new brain cells, and even slow down cognitive decline in old age. And with most creative hobbies, the deeper you get, the more there is to learn.
Learning a creative hobby has the added benefit that you will be exercising parts of your brain that don’t get as much activity on a daily basis.
This is what is technically referred to as your Big-Brain Double-Whammy.”
I love that term. Big-Brain Double-Whammy. It’s a win-win in my book. lol
So let’s talk about your creative hobbies. Creative hobbies can be something extremely easy like reading a book, reading lots of books, reading multiple books at one time. Books take your mind away to a different land, an alter ego, or just distract you from the day-to-day life around you.
Craft hobbies are creative hobbies!
Hobbies that involve crafts are spectacular! Yes I am biased. I know and I don’t care, I’m gonna talk about it anyways. These days when you see somebody who’s crafty they are called “ makers“ .
I love this term. It actually sounds super professional as well as a higher elevation than just a “hobby”. Pretty much 90% of the people I know are “makers”. I have friends who are quilters. I have friends who make collages with fabrics. I have friends who make holiday wreaths to go on your door all year round.
I have friends who use a Cricut or Silhouette machine to make T-shirts, headbands, and lunchboxes. They label water jugs and other household items. They use their embroidery machine as well to personalize different gifts and items for themselves and others.
I would say baking is also a creative hobby. Meal prepping is the word of the day and getting yourself ready and organized for an entire week of food for yourself and your family is a timesaver and a stress reducer. I don’t know if I would call it a hobby but I do it frequently enough that it matches up with some of my other hobbies. It makes me happy when I do it because I know that I am being proactive and that it’s going to reduce my stress during the week.
Some physically creative hobbies include gardening, woodworking, dancing/choreography and acting/theater work all get you off your butt and moving. I had an entire dump truck of soil delivered to my school garden one year and after the two weeks it took me to move it all I noticed my arms were more toned (after the first few days where they screamed at me in pain).
How do you start a creative hobby?
Jump in and go for it! Find somebody that does something that you’re interested in and ask them for a tutoring session. Take a class in something that you see that looks interesting. Like to take pictures? Then sign up for a photography class.
There are cooking classes all over the city. I guarantee you you can find one that sparks your interest. Grab some friends and tell them that you’d like to try something new and you want they’re buy in. Trying new things can be fun, it can also be intimidating, so bringing along a couple people for support wouldn’t be a bad idea.
You decide to get into cooking, you’re probably gonna need some nice pots and pans, some nice knives, and other materials to get yourself started. The thing I like most about taking a class or connecting with a friend who does what you’re interested in is there’s not a lot of upfront costs. You’re going to borrow or utilize the tools and equipment that the class is offering and you’ll get a better idea as to whether or not this is something you think you’re going to commit to.
The cool thing about being an adult is that you can spend your money the way you want to. Some creative hobbies can be expensive, I can tell you that if I was buying the books that I read I would be completely broke. However I guarantee you
that there is a library within a 10 mile radius of where you live. You can also check out books online now and read/listen to books using their digital book program. So there really is no excuse. You don’t even have to leave your house to borrow a book from a public library.
Be Patient, It may take you some time to develop your hobby
I’d definitely encourage people to take one of my classes or do a private lesson with me before they dive into glass fusing for example. Glass fusing is expensive. If you have access to a kiln that somebody else owns, they might charge you a flat fee for firing it for you which covers their electricity and their time costs. However glass itself can also be very expensive. A 12 x 12 piece of glass can start at $14 and that’s just for one color.
Get into the fancier colors or the swirly glass and you’re looking at upwards of $40 per piece of glass. Then you have cutting tools and other materials that you need to get creative with. You also need a good amount of space for glass so if you have to buy a desk or rearrange a space for your work it could be costly and time-consuming. So again I recommend hitting up someone you know or taking a class before you dive in and spend all that money.
Creative hobbies could be things that you do with friends or family. You hear those cute little phrases like “the family that plays together stays together”. And it’s true! Finding something that everybody’s interested in doing is a great way to stay connected and keep the lines of communication open.
Maybe your whole family is into board games? Maybe everybody’s into puzzles? Doing these things together finds you gives you a time to communicate and talk about each other‘s lives as well as producing those happy chemicals in your brain called endorphins.
It may take you some time to develop your hobby into something that you do on a regular basis. When you start to reap the rewards emotionally and physically of having a hobby that makes you happy.
You’ll see that you tend to naturally migrate towards doing these hobbies without even thinking about it. I like to leave crochet projects that are half completed around the house so that anywhere I am down on the couch I see it.
I pick it up and start working on it. I have half completed crochet projects and have completed Cross Stitch projects, don’t get me started on how many half finish projects I have around my house. My ping pong table, in my living room, is currently a clay drying table, a tote bag drying station and holding the stuff my kid is taking to college with him. Someday we will play ping pong again. Sigh
You MAY even get good enough at your creative hobby to make some money! All those crochet projects of mine have given me the chance to sell homemade hats, scarves and purses that I have made. I have an OVERabundance of completed projects that I sell or give as gifts. It can help pay for your supplies, or if you get good enough help pay some bills too!
Try a new creative hobby today and let me know how you do! Happy Arting!