While staying focused and productive is critical for your financial survival during lockdown, it is equally important to take time out from your daily grind and recharge mentally, physically and socially. One way of doing this is taking up a hobby from home.
Hobbies are not only great for relaxation and personal enjoyment. They inspire creativity, are known to increase productivity, boost your energy and uplift your mood.
In a 2019 article on entrepreneur.com, Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of JotForm Aytekin Tank wrote “non-work activities can inspire us to look at familiar things in new ways.” In the same article, Founder and Director of Harvard Medical School’s Institute of Coaching Carol Kaufman emphasises the restorative effects of hobbies, which lead to increased productivity. “When you’re really engaged in a hobby you love, you lose a sense of time and enter what’s called a flow state, and that restores your mind and energy,” explains Carol.
Let’s explore the benefits of hobbies you can take up from home.
Gardening
Whether you’re working in a lavish garden or nursing an assortment of herbs from your balcony or kitchen window, gardening can help reduce the symptoms of stress and depression.
Cooking
No relationship is immune to disagreements. In this time of lockdown, relationships might be stretched the longer we are confined to being indoors. Cooking with your spouse or children, is a great way of strengthening your relationships. Don’t forget to frequently wash your hands (for at least 20 seconds) and sanitise surfaces before and after cooking.
Exercising
It has been proven that being active has numerous health benefits. Moreover, being fully engaged in an activity, increases the levels of what I like to call the “happy” chemicals in your brain. Known as neurotransmitters, chemicals such as dopamine, endorphins and norepinephrine regulate your temperament and alleviate stress.
Get creative
Our editorial director once called the staff into a creative meeting and gave us a set of story dice to role. She sent us away with the instruction to create an audio story using the characters that the dice landed on. We were delighted by the level of creativity demonstrated by the team, which included advertising sales executives and production managers. Now is as good a time as any to revive your sense of creativity, whether it’s picking up your paint brushes again, or writing that children’s book or gripping novel you’ve been putting on hold for the last decade. Who knows, you might end up producing a poignant work of art.
Author: Alicia English