We all need a distraction now and again, so why is this imporant? Let's discuss it.
What's Your Hobby?
Hobbies can come and go, some we keep at for years and years, others fizzle out in a couple of months. Yet we always find something to do in our freetime. Currently my main hobby is painting. I'm teaching myself how to draw, and paint to create little bits of art. The reason why is quite simple. As a software developer I find that I spend an extraordinary amount of time sitting in front of a computer. I feel that I'm always online and always connected, and I wanted to do something that helps me disconnect. When I paint, I'm normally standing which is good for me physically and different than my day normally. While I do have a tablet to hold a reference photo, and maybe my playlist playing in the background I'm not doom scrolling. I'm not browsing nonsense on the internet. I'm focusing on recreating an image onto a canvas with manual tools that I'm slowly learning to master.
Your hobby need not be painting, but it should engage your brain. It should be something where you can slow down, take your time and maybe stop that mad rush that is the world in which we live. Find enjoyment and peace, and perhaps learn a skill. Maybe for you sports are your hobby. You play ball with a local team, or you go running, maybe you like to swim instead. These are also absolutely fine hobbies. I've had people mention that when they go for a run, their brain enters a state where creativity, and problem solving can flow.
So what's your hobby? What do you do to relax, or are you someone who is completely in the "hustle" culture of the day, and burn the midnight oil? Are you someone who has a hard time finding time for yourself because you feel that if you take that time, everything you have worked for will simply collapse? Do you think that is healthy?
Taking Time Off is Good
I realize that there are many out there that are all about the "hustle" culture. My own boss is one of those. Maybe you are also a hustler. The question is are you doing yourself any good mentally or physically? Did you realize that your physical health is also closely related to your mental health?
Search on the internet for how hobbies are good for you and there will be many studies to describe how they can affect your mental and physical health. One of the primary reasons hobbies help, is that it reduces our stress levels. There are a multitude of article online explaining how stress affects our mental health, and when our mental health is out of balance, our physical health is not far behind. These studies suggest physical activities like swimming, walking and jogging, but also other hobbies that work our brain in a different way. Logic puzzles (Sudoku anyone), painting, learning music, learning other languages. These are all ways to activate different parts of your brain and reduce your stress. When it comes to what hobbies do for us in English we have the term "distract" but I find that term to be very negative. No one wants to be distracted. Distraction could be doom scrolling which many of us (including myself) are occasionally guilty of. I prefer the German term "Ablenkung" which in the most basic meaning is to turn away from. I'm providing my brain a way to turn away from the stress of the week buy giving myself time to do my hobby.
While learning new skills is a great hobby, you do sometimes need to be aware that you start getting paid for your hobby. What happens next?
Oops! 'My Hobby Turned in to a Profession'
So what happens when you've somehow turned your hobby into a profession? Is that actually realistic? Well it happened to me. After leaving the Army, I started working first as a technical trainer. It was during this part of my career that I started to teach myself how to program. It was my hobby. I would go home and then spend hours teaching myself how to craft applications. At first I worked with VB6, then moved to PHP. Eventually I learned Java, which shortly turned into my profession. My company had noticed that I liked software and programming and offered me a two week course. By the time I started the first week I had already mastered the basics. So my hobby became my job. I focused a lot on my job, and spent hours at work and hours at home programming in Java. This lasted until about four years into being a software developer (job title change in the company), I realized that programming at home wasn't fun anymore. I wanted to my job at work, but I needed to do something else at home. It was my wife who saved me from this problem.
It was almost time for Christmas and my wife wanted to know what I wanted for Christmas. I had no idea, I was relatively burnt out at work, and spent my time playing computer games, and really didn't "need" anything. At the time we were at a book store, and I happened to see a Bob Ross book with DVD included. So I said, "buy me this book for Christmas". She was a bit dubious at first, but bought the book (I still have it and its DVD). So shortly after Christmas I got the family together to watch the DVD. I got a little nostalgic as I remember watching ol' Bob on PBS as a kid. I mentioned that I had always wanted to try painting since he made it look so easy. I didn't realize my wife was listening, so for my birthday the next month she bought me paints, brushes a small travel easel and some canvases. I began to paint, and I'm still painting to this day.
Do I plan to ever make painting my profession? No, I paint for myself. I do occasionally give some away to people. Sometimes I will paint for someone specific (usually my mother-in-law) as a way to let them know I care. I'm just not interested in selling or making myself famous with my painting. For me the time I take painting something, and being disconnected from technology while doing it, is my reward.
Final Thoughts
So to sum things up, it's important for us as human beings to keep our minds active, but focusing on one thing too much becomes unhealthy. It damages our mental health, which in turn could cause us to have physical health problems. Maybe it's time for you to take that much needed break, touch grass, as they say, and maybe paint a mountain or too. Bob Ross would be proud.
This has been thoughts from a Jason, until the next post, take care.
Jason