“Hobbies as a Catalyst to Ease Your Stress”
Before we understand how engaging in your hobbies helps you deal with stress, let’s first understand where this phenomenon called stress, which is so common in today’s world, stems from. Stress is said to come from any sort of event that has yet to occur but still makes you feel nervous, frustrated or angry. When faced with situations where an individual has something big coming their way, their body tends to react before they have experienced that “big” thing. Stress could come from both anticipation or out of nervousness as well. While stress has become so normal in the present, having it for a prolonged period of time becomes harmful to one’s health and well being.
Healthy and unhealthy way of dealing stress
In today’s fast-paced world, we are constantly running to meet deadlines and to submit projects and assignments on time. We tend to be so easily caught up with the hustling and bustling of life that we dismiss the stress and pass it off as something normal. There are both even shares, the healthy and unhealthy ways of handling stress. The healthy ways of dealing with stress is important and is certainly what we are missing as of right now. One of the most common gateway from stress these days has been distracting ourselves by scrolling through social media for hours. This falls under the unhealthy way of coping with stress. With the easy availability of online entertainment and social media platforms now, we tend to spend hours stuck in a loop amidst videos and content that align with our interests since that is how social media platforms successfully keep their audience engaged for a long period of time. Despite being aware of the fact that this particular activity of scrolling for hours is not productive and does not bring any sort of advantage to us, we still end up doing the same, falling right into the loop. This is why there is a need for healthy alternatives now, more than ever and indulging in your hobbies can be the perfect way to go.
Hobbies to cope with stress
Everyone has certain hobbies, basically things they like to do in their leisure time. For example, let’s say, one loves to cook and it is their hobby. Here, cooking can be a healthy alternative for them to deal with stress. Stress, as mentioned before, often stems from past and future events. When we think about past and future events for a prolonged time, it builds up the anxiety thus leading to stress. In simple words, it is just us not being in the present. Therefore, when we engage ourselves in our hobbies, it helps us become present. Just like how, when we are cooking, all five of our primary senses are active such as sight—when we are allocating the ingredients, smell—while handling the different aromas of spices, taste—adjusting the flavors and seasonings, touch—feeling the texture of the food and finally hearing—the sizzling and boiling sounds of the food in making, hobbies such as these keep you active. Hobbies are more of a therapy as it calms you down and at the same time, you are also improving an extra skill as well thus a win-win situation.
Even if you have never had a hobby in your life, you can always get started with finding one. No one is good at what they try the first time. Therefore, eventually with time, you will also get better at mastering yet another skill. By being completely present in the present itself, hobbies are a great way to release your stress the healthy way. Today, we have become very used to using smartphones continuously for hours resulting in excessive screen time and binding us from being physically active and productive. To get over the excessive scrolling through social media and also being physically active and present, finding yourself a hobby to keep you engaged is highly recommended. At the end of the day, anyone would prefer a productive and healthy way of releasing stress in their life. Doesn’t matter if you have already mastered a hobby or are starting as a complete beginner, finding your interest and engaging in your passion is for everyone and especially for those who need a quick break from the hustling and bustling of life.