2 Benefits of a lockdown hobby
A year later, COVID feels like an unpleasant staple in our day-to-day lives. Looking back I can’t believe that we thought a 3-month lockdown was the worst case scenario.
I’d only started my blog a few weeks before lockdown, so a lot of my original content focused on trying to get through life working from home and staying sane. This website felt like a bit of a lifeline, a pusher for me to grow during lockdown and develop goals. Just to name a few of my favourite articles I wrote during those times:
Quarantine resolutions 5 months on
It’s a pandemic, you’re allowed to be a bit rubbish
Writing became my hobby, but so did several other things. I exercised daily, quit smoking, and read my way through half of my library. But I’m not the only one who picked up hobbies over the past year, loads of us did it. Craft business magazine published some of the top hobbies for women during lockdown:
The top ten hobbies learnt during lockdown:
Cooking (34%)
Baking (31%)
Gardening (26%)
Reading (25%)
Knitting / crochet / embroidery (15%)
Yoga / meditating / mindfulness (15%)
Gaming (13%)
Painting / sculpting / sketching / crafting (12%)
Writing (10%)
Dancing (9%)
The top ten skills women want to learn most:
Learning a new language (20%)
Painting / Sculpting / sketching / crafting (17%)
Playing an instrument (17%)
Baking (14%)
Flower arranging (14%)
Photography / video making (13%)
Dancing (12%)
Knitting / crochet / embroidery (12%)
Yoga / meditating / mindfulness (12%)
Woodwork / upcycling furniture (12%)
Especially in the current climate, picking up hobbies help us grow as a person. The best way to have a new hobby is to try something new. Once we find a hobby we’re passionate about, we can find ways to explore the activity further. Having a hobby in lockdown can be a peaceful moment and help us manage our unplanned time more productively. It also affords you the opportunity to learn new skills in life.
Increases confidence
It feels great to be skilled and good at something. This is what makes you confident. It can take some time to develop a hobby and turn it into a skill. But the journey of experiencing your hobby is very rewarding in itself. With the exposure to different types of activities these days, it doesn’t matter which activity you choose. Whether you are pursuing a craft, sports, or another hobby, it should be a diversion and a passion. Simultaneously, if your hobby gives you a sense of purpose, then you will be more confident about challenging yourself in your hobby and help you prepare for learning new things at work.
Allows you to De-stress
Hobbies give you an opportunity to enhance your life. Hobbies allow you to destress yourself while remaining mentally productive. Having hobbies promotes better health and may lower the risk of having high blood pressure. Enjoying a few hours of your hobby a week can also reduce the risk of depression and dementia. Hobbies refocus your mind on to something that you enjoy doing. Hobbies that include physical activities create chemical changes in your body that help to reduce stress. Even if it doesn’t involve physical activities, you can still reap the benefits of having a hobby. Getting a short break from work and doing something you are passionate about can rejuvenate your mind and help prepare you to handle challenges in the future in a better way.
As a marketer, the hobbies and skill development seem too blur a little bit. I read books on marketing, take marketing courses in my personal time, and I write this blog when I’m not writing for work. But for lockdown 3.0, I want to try and discover some lockdown habits that don’t align too close to work related tasks. Reading fiction, running, or even bloody painting.