I’ve had a very busy week, but wanted to stop by to encourage you to add some fun in your life by spending time on hobbies. There is a lot of research that indicates that you can increase your joy and decrease your stress if you spend time on hobbies.
If you ask hubby, I have way too many. I don’t think so; I am just experimenting to determine which hobbies bring me the most joy…HA! In the course of one week, I may spend time on the following hobbies:
- Gardening – I LOVE co creating, watching the process of a seed becoming what it is meant to be; so many opportunities to apply what I see in the garden to my life’s journey. It calms me to be fully present in this space; watching the circle of life
- Learning to paint – Notice I said ‘learning’ because this right here is not a natural talent for me. I am so in awe of artists who can paint realistic or abstract art that leaves us speechless. My joy in art is learning to train my eyes and hands to work together to imitate a painting. One day I will create from scratch; for now I am having too much fun just recreating something that already exists.
- Sewing – I like to sew many things, but I’m smitten with making headbands. Specifically, I like making headbands from exotic fabrics. So in my travels around the world, visiting fabric stores is always on the site seeing list. Of course I have more fabric now than I know what to do with, but I keep sewing and it brings me great joy to wear what I’ve created.
- Singing – I mean I really practice the lyrics to every song I love. The kids go crazy when I get a new song because I must play it a thousand times over and over again until I can sing it straight through without stopping to look at the lyrics. A great song can minister to my spirit in ways that other mediums cannot.
- Writing – I have a love/hate relationship with writing. I have many goals for what I’d like to achieve with my writing. However, just like a super hero just given their super powers, I am unable to predict exactly how things will come together. So, I write anyway. I know that I will develop the voice that fits me.
- Long Distance Cycling – I’ve abandoned this hobby because I’m a bit skittish now about riding on the road and it takes up way too much time. I enjoy a great spinning session though.
Now that I’ve shared my list of hobbies, hopefully you are inspired to commit to spending time on yours. Did you notice that I did not mention exercising, running, cleaning up? Yes, I do those things but for me they are NOT hobbies!
If you are into learning to paint, my favorite YouTube art teacher is The Art Sherpa. She has many great paintings that you can paint with her, but this was my first one…
Until next week,