Regular exercise is so helpful and important for our physical and mental health. Physical activity releases endorphins in our brain, which helps us feel good. If you’ve ever went on a run, walk, lifted weights, danced, played a sport, etc., it’s likely you experienced the effects of endorphins. You feel great for a little while after the activity, are alert, and feel awake. If you are also dealing with stress, anxiety, or depression, exercise can be a great coping mechanism. I’m not sure I would’ve made it out of sophomore year of college without dropping organic chemistry if I wasn’t working out before or after class.

Not surprisingly, during the pandemic, many people became interested in house plants. As someone who has been a “plant mom” for about 6 years, I can agree that my interest has only grown in the past two years. There are few things that bring me joy like doing anything involving plants. As far as hobbies go, getting into house plants is relatively inexpensive, fun, and they bring decor to your house. So, let’s talk about this hobby. 

Whether it be school, work, sports, or just maintaining a social life, our day to day lives can get pretty hectic sometimes. A way I like to calm down and destress after a long day of rushing from activity to activity is bullet journaling. A bullet journal is a journal of your own design with the purpose of recording the past, organizing the present, and planning the future. Bullet journaling is a simple but effective way to organize your thoughts and free up brain space each month. It can be however simple or detailed you want it to be and all you need is a dotted journal and a writing utensil. A bullet journal keeps track of your goals each month and it’s fun to look back on and see how far you’ve come. It’s also a great way to get your creativity flowing. 

There are few hobbies that require as little to get started as drawing or sketching. Although this may seem like an intimidating hobby at first, drawing is really more about the way you see things than anything else. And like anything else, it can absolutely be learned. There are countless books or online tutorials about how to draw. The one thing that connects them all is the learned ability to look so closely at something or someone that you can break it down into shapes, shades, and angles. Besides, who doesn’t love an artist?!

When it comes to hobbies, not all of us can throw a mean curve ball, set records sprinting down the final stretch of the track, or sink a basket for our teammates. Thankfully, sports aren’t the only game in town, and there is one incredible option available to most that celebrates an entirely different set of skills. I’m talking about drama. Theater. The stage. Musicals and plays. Linked to these events are communities that tend to celebrate the things that make us different. Besides, it takes just as much courage to perform in front of all your classmates and family as it does to play a football game or cheer.

With life in the midwest, the winter time can bring out the blahs, and sometimes to fight it, I will start planning our family’s spring and summer getaways to new locations. However, I often overlook the amazing gems of entertainment, scenic views, and privately owned restaurants that are only a short drive away. Sometimes our own city or state begins to feel so ordinary to us that we forget to seek out the treasures that are right around us. When that happens, it is time to think like a tourist while still keeping it local. 

One of the very best things about chess is the way it requires those who play it to consider the board from the other player’s perspective. You’ll never be a very good chess player if you can’t see the moves your opponent might make. A great game of chess requires two players who are actively aware of the possibilities before each of them and how those possibilities change with every move on the board. This is wonderful for a number of reasons, the most apparent being that it challenges those who play to develop and deepen their theory of mind, an integral part of having empathy (Stanborough, 2020).