Hobbies for Health

How I am spending my time (and a little of my money)

Hey friends! It’s still school holidays, but this week I have a few days off, so that’s nice. I’ve promised to take the kids and their friends to one of those trampoline places for a few hours tomorrow. They can jump, and I’ll read or listen to a book.

If you’ve been around here long enough, you’ll know I am almost always trying to find ways to stay off my phone. I love my phone and all it holds, but I am easily sucked into a vortex with it. I’m not lying when I say I can spend hours staring at my phone, but then get annoyed when I don’t do things I say I want to do. So I’m trying to do more “things”.

What are the things I hear you ask? Well, mostly reading, but recently I’ve been thinking of other hobbies I can do to fill in those moments when I usually reach for my phone. I like things that I can get into a flow with, where my mind can wander off once I start, and mostly, the thing needs to keep my hands busy.

Crochet is one such thing, but I do get bored easily. It helps if I have a show to watch, something that doesn’t need my eyes on it at all times. Ambient TV! If it’s nighttime and everyone is in bed, I’ll listen to an audiobook while my hands hook away. Currently, I have two different blankets on the go. All I ever make is blankets.

Once upon a time, I would have said gardening was a hobby, but I don’t know if it is now. Over the weekend, I think I decided that all I want to do is maintain my garden and pot plants, but that is still good for keeping my hands busy and letting my mind wander.

Years ago, I got quite addicted to diamond dotz. Do you know what that is? It’s kind of like paint by numbers, but you use little diamantie-type things instead of paint. The thing is, the end product is kinda tacky, but I really like the process of doing it. I find it very meditative. So over the weekend, Sadie and I bought a few kits from Kmart, and that’s how I spent Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, sticking diamanties on bird coasters.

Writing and journaling is another hobby I enjoy. I’ve kept a diary since I was a primary school kid, started my blog back in 2014 and for the last couple of years have also had little notebooks I write in. I have pretty pens and textas, stickers and washi tape to help jazz up my pages. Sometimes I get ChatGPT to make quotes I like into little printables to stick in my notebooks, too. It feels like I’ve never let go of the girl who needs a place to gather her thoughts and feelings and who used to cover her school books and walls with pictures of bands and actors or song lyrics.

I have a little embroidery kit a friend sent me to try. I’ve ordered a little punch needle kit from Temu (please don’t come at me for where I shop. I know I am a trash consumer, but what can I say, I like cheap shit!). And I’ve been inspired by some accounts on Instagram to start a little doodle book. Back when I was a stoner teenager, my friends and I would get high, then sit around all doodling on the same picture. I can’t draw at all, but I enjoy making little patterns on a page. Again, it keeps my hands busy and away from my phone.

A month or so ago, I picked up some puzzles from the op shop because, again, this was another stoner hobby I had back in the day. When I first moved out of home, for months at a time, my dining table was covered in big puzzles. Fun fact, one of my tattoos, a green nymph, is actually from one of these puzzles! When friends were over, everyone would sit and try to add a few pieces. I want that again, but this time I want it to be my kids who sit with me. I can’t commandeer my kitchen table, so I need to find somewhere to set this up where the cats won’t trash it.

Cooking used to be such a big hobby for me, but somewhere over the last year or two, I lost my love for it. Sadie loves to bake cookies, so each Sunday we do that, and it’s slowly rekindling my love of cooking for cooking's sake. Dinner cooking can still eat a bag of dicks, I don’t enjoy that much at all, but things like baking, mixing up spice mixes or finding ways to use up the last of something (like the half pack of puff pastry I had in the freezer). I put some music on and potter about. It feels good to do those kinds of things because I want to, not because I have to.

This is a very long-winded way of saying that I am trying to look after myself with hobbies! When I have a pocket of time, I am trying to fill it with something that feels good, because even though I enjoy watching silly little reels and falling down internet rabbit holes, I want to have options. And now I do.

What about you friends, do you have hobbies? What are they? How long have you been doing them? Let’s chat hobbies!

Talk soon xx