Terri Ramsey Beavers As you grow older, you feel less inclined to participate in the life games you used to. You tend to want to be alone more often and have time for yourself. This is the natural path to growing up. A lot of people find pleasure in family and a small social circle; however, for others, they need something a little more creative and artistic. A hobby can give you far more than something to fill the quiet evening hours. It can affect the way you think in a positive way. It can build up self-esteem and motivation and can increase your ability to concentrate. By indulging in a hobby, you are channeling some of the creative energy that you may never have been able to release ever since turning into an adult, feeling that perhaps it is too childish. This is a shame that many people feel this way, as a hobby can simply make you happier. Here are a few ways it can help:
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It helps you focus your mind
The act of concentrating on creating something can become a sort of meditation. Where your entire life force is focused on something outside of yourself. You are in a sort of flow state between the work and you, and in those moments, nothing else exists. You have no worries, no stresses, or strains. This kind of focus can bring a sort of clarity and can help you make better, more reasoned decisions going forward. If you are the kind of person who does struggle to make a decision with a million different things going off at once in your head, a hobby can help you figure out what is important.
It is a creative outlet
Many people do not have an opportunity in daily life to express their creative side. They may have a 9-5 job where it is just routine and pretty dull. A creative outlet allows you to express your inner child. It can be a release for some of the emotions you have been repressing over the years. Getting things out in a creative way can be a cathartic event and may enable you to deal with your emotions better, by allowing yourself to admit that you have them in the first instance, and by using them in the second. This may be especially true for painters or writers. If you feel you want a hobby, but don’t know where to start, write a journal. It may actually have the effect of changing your perspective as you read things back.
It can build your confidence
Having a hobby can give you something interesting to talk about at social events. It will also give you a great sense of achievement, completing something from the beginning to the end. It can also help you make new friends, like if you joined The Powell Academy of Music and rehearsed together and created some beautiful music together. There are many ways of getting out of your own head, and concentrating on an artistic pursuit can help you in life.
*featured image credits: pexels