*This is a collaborative post
A lot of us have our own individual concept of fun things to do in our free time. Some prefer to engage in physical sports and adventure, a handful would like to socialise and meet up with new folks, while others may prefer staying indoors and creating artistic pieces of work.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s very much possible to continue engaging in one’s hobbies in adulthood.
While your weekdays may consist of climbing the career ladder and managing household responsibilities, there are some pockets of time in the week where you can continue connecting with your hobbies as a way to reset and indulge in your personal passions.
If you find yourself resonating with more creative pursuits, then there are a number of benefits you can attain from continuously working on these hobbies besides a beaming sense of accomplishment.
From painting from scratch to sculpting wooden carvings, there are many creative pursuits that can give adults a much-needed mental health boost. If you’re curious to learn more about them, let’s take a look at these mental health benefits that we can gain by consistently taking on these creative pursuits.
Let’s start!
It Can Connect You to New Friends
Creative pursuits may seem like a primarily solitary activity at first glance, but it can also be a social experience with the right approach.
If you live in a big city, there are likely a lot of meetups, events, and classes that cover your specific hobby—whether it’s painting, making poetry, or dressing up in cosplay. Consider hopping into any of these events to connect with like-minded adults who share the same interest as you.
For instance, in the UK, there are paint-and-sip classes in Pinot & Picasso that regularly host painting classes accompanied with wine tasting.
Joining these classes not only helps you spend time engaging in your hobby with the help of an instructor, but it also allows you to connect with fellow painters near your area. This can broaden your network and help you feel more connected to the community, which in turn, can boost your mental health and make you feel less lonely.
It Calms Down Stress
As you’re well aware, adulthood can have its fair share of ups and downs. And during those particularly down moments, you’ll likely be feeling a barrage of external pressures that can take a toll on your mental health.
While it’s your responsibility to manage your life appropriately, it can be difficult to do anything else in life besides trying to survive and withstand these stressors left and right. In case you want to enjoy some breathing room, tuning out the world and engaging in something calming, distracting, and enjoyable is one of the best things to do to help you re-enter a refreshed state.
Creative pursuits are some of the best breaks you can take whenever you feel overwhelmed by feelings of stress. Giving your full time to create art, whether it’s through painting, making music, or writing poetry, can give your brain a reset from heightened anxiety and reduce the levels of cortisol in the body.
Furthermore, engaging in creative pursuits also gives you something to do compared to more passive activities like watching films. This can occupy your mind and body, reducing the likelihood of your thoughts wandering back to the cause of your stress and thus keeping you relaxed and in control of your mind.
It Helps You Process Emotions
Emotions during adulthood can be complicated and nuanced. Whether you’re healing from a relationship falling out or dealing with grief, you may be dealing with something that’s emotionally difficult and rocky to process.
It may be hard to put these feelings into words, and in such cases, creative pursuits may be the best way to non-verbally express what’s going on inside your head and heart.
The great thing about creative pursuits is that there’s no guidebook or set of instructions to follow. It’s a free-form activity that can be done at your own pace and by your own stroke. Creative pursuits are an authentic composition of your emotional state, and this fact can be empowering to the artist.
As long as you’re not critical of your work and simply letting yourself be possessed by the rhythm of the creative process, then you can find healing in the act.
Another reason why this process can be so helpful is that it can increase emotional clarity. Art allows you to approach your thoughts and feelings wordlessly. It amplifies your mood and emotions over anything else. This allows you to softly process your emotions in a manner that may be most helpful to you in your current state.
It Grows Your Confidence
Unlike in a job or business, you won’t get berated by your boss or customer whenever you fail to hit deadlines or meet their expectations. Pursuing creative activities gives you the freedom to try things at your own pace without fear of being judged by others.
When pursuing creative hobbies, you are not at the beck and call of any other individual. You have the freedom to do what you want of your own accord.
This truth can be a good base to build confidence over time, as it allows you to experiment and do things the way you want with little setback if things go wrong. Mistakes are a part of the game in that sense, and doing creative activities normalises failure as a necessary step in the learning process. Each attempt, whether it’s good or bad, becomes a form of progress.
As you harness your creative skills, you’ll learn what creative style appeals to you and what doesn’t. In turn, you’ll become more confident in your creative abilities and prove to yourself that you’re indeed capable of improving in your chosen practice.
It Counters Work Burnout
Burnout can happen in stagnant, transactional environments, like offices and corporate settings. In places where quantity and output are the endgame, you can feel like nothing more than a cog in the machine, which can be a big demotivator if you’re someone who thrives on creating meaningful things.
While you still need work to survive, there are times in the week when you can reclaim what matters the most to you by pursuing creative hobbies. For instance, you can paint when the night rolls over at the comfort of your room, or create DIY crafts in your garage and basement over the weekend.
By doing these hobbies, you’ll not only be immersed in the task, but you’ll also allow yourself to recover and get in touch with the emotions that may be drowned away in your work life. This active reset enhances your clarity and makes you feel a greater balance in your day-to-day schedule, which can be beneficial in all aspects of your life.
It Changes Your Structure
When life feels like a repetitive cycle of sleeping, eating, and working with not much in between, it can feel emotionally draining to go through the motions of it at all.
One way to shake things up is by introducing something you look forward to into your weekly schedule. If you enjoy creating things, then that creative hobby can be something to slot between your schedule to reinvigorate you.
Having a hobby to slot between your usual routine can offer a sense of flow and rhythm that can ground you and help you gain some semblance of control in your life. It can be fitted in the middle of the week when you’re in need of external motivation, or it can be slotted at the end of each night as a bedtime routine.
In any case, putting a creative hobby in your structure can help you have something to look forward to and crate. In turn, this can make you feel more lively and enthusiastic about life in general.
It’s a Reminder of Life’s Meaning
Life isn’t all about meeting KPIs and passing deadlines. A lot of what makes life worth living is in creating and sharing beautiful things with the right people.
Creative hobbies let you tap into a quieter and more personal headspace, where making something doesn’t have to serve a purpose beyond joy or self-expression. It’s not something that you can easily accomplish; you have to show up and put in the effort to earn the prestige of having created the thing.
Unlike work-related outputs, these creations aren’t valued by metrics or profitability. Instead, they’re valued for the emotion behind them, the journey of creating them, and the sense of connection they evoke. The things that matter.
In other words, engaging in these creative hobbies helps us take a step back from the mentally-draining world of materialistic pursuits and instead return to more human and enriching endeavours.
