This Week’s Thrive In Five is about how hobbies are beneficial for our wellbeing
Welcome to the last Thrive In Five of the year. And what a year it’s been. Many positives that can be taken from it, in amongst all the other negatives that we’re all too well aware of. What I’d love to leave you with and something that I’ll definitely be thinking about over the Christmas break, and that is what hobby or passion can you either kickstart or reconnect with.
What happens when we learn a new hobby or skill?
When we learn a new skill, we produce dopamine, which is a reward part of the brain that makes us feel good about doing something. We encourage neuroplasticity, literally, wiring new neurons together. We can encourage new agenesis as well, which is the promotion of new creation of new brain cells.
So lots to be said for learning a new skill or hobby and the benefits practising those hobbies can have for our wellbeing.
The new skill that I’m currently learning, as I’ve mentioned before, is the guitar, plus I’m also learning kickboxing. I probably won’t look to add to that list, but I will really double down on practising. Really connecting with that instrument and with the feeling that I get from playing it.
Combating convergent pressures of work and home
The convergent pressures of work and home squeeze out the bandwidth we have for hobbies and learning new skills. I believe that negatively affects our wellbeing. Before we know it, we can find ourselves in a velvet rut. It’s comfortable, it’s velvet, it’s silky smooth when you’re bumping into the edges of it, but it’s still a rut.
In order to try and increase the variety of life, which I also think is a very underappreciated aspect of wellbeing, find a hobby that you used to love. What did you use to love when you were 10, 15, or even younger? Can you reconnect with that hobby, passion or purpose or find something new that you’ve always wanted to do? Use some of that time that we’ll have over Christmas break to kickstart that habit.
I’m not a fan of new year, new you or resolutions, but we often have this fresh energy going into the new year. So harness that if you can to get this new habit to be something that is consistent. Have you tried forming new habits using “Kettle Training”?
I want to wish you a very good Christmas. Have a wonderful new year, all the very best and I hope that you get an opportunity to rest and recover, which is exactly what I will be doing. So, all the best stay healthy. And I look forward to talking to you in 2021.
At Bodyshot Performance, we work with businesses and individuals to manage all aspects of their wellbeing following our Six Signals methodology. Focusing on sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion and fitness. Please get in touch if we can help with any aspects of your wellbeing or your organisation wellbeing.
