Participating in a hobby can bring you joy, pleasure, and purpose. But the benefits go beyond that, including improving negative emotions, boosting self-efficacy, and more.
What do you do when you’re bored? On your days off from work? When you have free time for yourself?
Many people fill this time doing a hobby out of sheer enjoyment for it. But hobbies aren’t just for passing the time — they have real physical and mental health benefits (and sometimes both!).
Before we get into the benefits of hobbies, we should define what a hobby is.
While many hobbies may be generalized into common categories like reading, playing an instrument or sport, or creating some form of art, a hobby can fall outside of these options.
In reality, a hobby is a leisure activity. It can be any pastime that brings you pleasure — going to thrift stores, decorating a room, tending to plants. The choices are pretty much limitless.
Now let’s get into their benefits.
You’re not alone if you’ve ever felt like that the days are just repeating themselves.
Finding a hobby may help change your outlook on life and bring you a sense of satisfaction or purpose. Research supports this, too.
According to a
- led to fewer depressive symptoms
- increased levels of self-reported health
- contributed to greater happiness
- added to feelings of life satisfaction
But more research is needed, the researchers note, on how the types, frequency, and length of hobby engagement may affect future results.
If you’re stressed, you may want to find something to take your mind off that stressful thing. So you might turn to a hobby for temporary relief.
A 2023 American Psychiatric Association (APA) poll supports that creative activities are a fantastic way to manage stress or anxiety.
What you define as a “creative activity” is up to you, because creativity varies for each person. That said, the APA gives a few suggestions, including:
- playing an instrument
- crocheting
- dancing with friends
- solving crossword puzzles
Of the 2,202 adults who responded to the poll and reported engaging in creative activities at least weekly in their free time, 46% reported doing so to help relieve stress and anxiety.
If your hobby is a physical one and you engage in it regularly, it’ll have all the benefits of any physical activity. These
- prevent high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity
- improve brain health and function
- enhance sleep
Hobbies are important to have or develop at every stage of life, including older adulthood.
Depression is common — but often overlooked — in older adults. This can result from complications associated with getting older, such as social isolation and limited mobility.
Leisure activities, according to 2022 research, may help with “successful aging.” The study authors claim that indicators of successful aging include levels of:
- life satisfaction
- happiness
- mental well-being
- depression
- anxiety
- stress
The small study involved 28 older adults who participated in activities like stringing beads, tying or knitting ropes, matching socks, and playing chess or checkers for 30 to 45 minutes daily for 7 weeks.
At the end of the 7 weeks, the participants reported that the leisure activities improved their happiness, life satisfaction, depression, and stress, but not their anxiety or mental well-being.
A 2020 study on the relationship between leisure activities and career sustainability.
The researchers define “career sustainability” as a career that keeps you happy, healthy, productive, and employable, plus fits into your broader life context.
Their findings suggest that participating in leisure may be positively associated with work-related self-efficacy, but only when that leisure is:
- High in seriousness but low in similarity to work: High seriousness is when someone greatly identifies and engages with leisure (high seriousness). Low similarity to work means that their work and hobbies use separate skills.
- Low seriousness but high in similarity to work: Low seriousness refers to when someone identifies with a hobby to a lesser extent or in a more casual way. A high similarity means their work and their leisure activities rely on skills that are comparable and transferable.
Looking for hobby inspiration?
Maybe you’re feeling uninspired by your current hobbies. Maybe you just want something new to do in your spare time.
Whatever your case, here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding on a hobby:
- What interests you?
- Do you have personality traits that lend themselves particularly well to a certain activity?
- What do you wish you had more time to do?
- Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn how to do?
If you’re still stuck, read about what our Healthline team has to say about hobbies!
Hobbies can be timeless and fun, and they can bring a sense of purpose into your life. No wonder they’re great at helping reduce negative emotions and managing stress.
Physical hobbies, like playing a sport or going to the gym, have all the benefits of physical activity, including helping lower blood pressure and with weight maintenance.
Some benefits are even transferable to your job and healthy aging. Maybe it’s finally time to try that one thing you’ve always wanted to learn how to do.