5 Hobbies That Will Improve Your Mental Health and Wellbeing

We all have a hobby that allows us to spend our free time around something creative and fun. It allows us to do something creative and fun during our free time, and to some, it helps them to even earn a side income on their own. There are many websites, and YouTube channels are available to promote new hobbies and interests. There are so many options to explore and find out what hobbies you are interested in. Our hobbies may vary from person to person as we are all unique, and our interests are in different aspects. Once we find a hobby that allows us to enjoy our leisure time, it becomes a part of our lifestyle.

Rather than to kill your time and build your skills, hobbies can also bring health benefits to your lifestyle. There are activities that help you to improve your overall wellness, such as mental health, depression, anxiety, and stress. A study conducted by the University of Glasgow shows that quilting improved mental wellbeing in a way that any other outdoor and physical activities couldn’t. Quilters have also reported that they experienced reaching a state of calmness, which is much similar to achieve through meditation.

After all, we all need a hobby to keep our health on track. And here are some activities that aim to improve your mental and physical health:

Choose Your Book

Grow Your Garden

Overall, gardening is a profitable hobby. If you have enough space in your home, anyone can build their small garden. Apart from growing your own healthy vegetables and fruits, and also beautiful flowers, gardening can offer these following benefits to you:

• Gardening reduces your level of cortisol. Cortisol is your body’s basic stress hormone. It works with certain functional parts of your brain to control your impulse feelings, anxiety, and stress.
• According to the American Association of Retired Persons(AARP), gardening reduces the incidence of dementia in older adults by 36%.
• Nurturing a plant or tree from its seed to its fullest form bolsters your ability to believe and cause positive change in the world.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gardening counts as exercise. And on an average scale, we all need to get at least 150 minutes of exercise per week.
• And as a bonus, you will get fresh, toxic-free fruits and vegetables for your daily needs.

Mindfulness Meditation

Various studies show that practicing mindfulness helps you to reduce your stress level. It is one of the most common reasons why people turn to meditation as one of their habits. Various studies conducted on regular mindfulness meditation all point to the health benefits of this hobby, including anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and substance issues. Daily meditation also scientifically proven to change one’s functionality of the brain within a number of weeks, showing improvements in their memory, focus, visuospatial processing, and other aspects of cognitive functioning.

• An eight-week study conducted by researchers found that regular mindfulness meditation decreased the chances of inflammation response generated by stress.
• Meditation is also proven to reduce the symptoms of anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, paranoid thoughts, and Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• According to PubMed, regular mindfulness meditation found decreased depression in over 4,600 adults.
• An overall review of 12 studies found that daily meditation helps to increase memory, attention, and mental quickness in older adults.
• Meditation also helps you to control your alcohol addiction. Studies found that meditation helped the participants reduce the emotional need for alcoholism.

Change the Colors

Coloring was once reserved for children. As an adult living in the changing era of balancing between workloads, family life, and other things, coloring has proven to be the best remedy to boost your mood. Coloring requires you to be creative as the colors you pick will give more definition to your pictures, whether it’s a simple picture of your pet or home. It improves your focus and creativity as it opens your brains, frontal lobe, which controls your brain’s problem-solving and organizing capabilities. And who wouldn’t know you will be this era’s Vincent Van Gogh!

Dancing

Have you ever been so inspired by any inspirational dance movies? Then stop hoping “only if you could be there” and get your dancing shoes on. Dancing is a wonderful hobby to practice, and above all, it is a fun way to boost your mental and physical health at a time. Every dance has its own health benefits! Research shows that Latin and ballroom dance moves have been scientifically proven to maintain your balance, boost your heart health and strength, and improve insomnia in mood disorder patients. If you’re holding yourself because you think it’s too late, remember it’s never too late to start anything!

Hobbies are the perfect way to distract your mind after a tiresome day. After a busy day, your hobbies will help you to have some peaceful “me” time with yourself, and it will give you a medium to release your stress. According to the Australian Psychological Society (APS), a research conducted on “Stress and Wellbeing” show that 4 in 5 participants found that engaging in activities like listening to their favorite track and spending their time on a hobby was an effective way of managing stress. If you are here to find hobbies that will help you to overcome your severe mental illness, you should consider consulting a mental health center. For others, take some time out of your busy day to spend some quality time on you by growing a garden, reading a book, or doing meditation.