Psychological positive outcomes from favourite activities
What is your favourite activity or hobby?
It can be anything that help lifting your dopamine level and enhance your creativity.
For the nature lover gardening can be one of the favourite activities which is really a stress buster, all the gardening essentials available to buy on amazon here
Hobbies are an important aspect of leisure time for many people, bringing both balance and joy to normally stressful and responsibility-driven lives. While certain hobbies offer relaxation, others provide outlets for creative expression or physical fitness. Personality type certainly influences what kinds of hobbies people engage in, but does it also affect how we take up our hobbies in the first place? Whether you do something creative, athletic, academic, or something more individualized, what really matters is that it is something you find meaningful and enjoyable. Hobbies can range from spending quiet time alone, visiting or eating with others, communing with nature, playing sports, and even vacationing. When we dedicate time to voluntarily engage in pleasurable activities, research shows our mental health can flourish.
Evidence also shows that even for those with clinical depression, certain psychological treatments – like behavioural activation, which requires patients to schedule in time to do things that bring them pleasure and joy – improve symptoms of depression. A wide range of activities and hobbies may play a role in social prescribing and behavioural activation, such as exercising, playing an instrument, drawing, reading or handicrafts.
Little is known about the impact of engagement in personally meaningful activities for older adults. Thus, the study examines the impact of engagement in one’s favourite activity on cognitive, emotional, functional, and health-related outcomes in older adults with and without cognitive impairment.
Finding an activity you like and are able to do regularly is more important than pushing yourself to do something you don’t enjoy. You could try brisk walking, mowing the lawn, dancing, swimming, following an exercise video or online class, trying a new sport or anything that gets your body moving.
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References and further reading:
How Personality Types Find Their Hobbies | 16Personalities
How Hobbies Improve Mental Health | USU
The Science Behind Why Hobbies Can Improve Our Mental Health - Neuroscience News
https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464821999199Physical activity and mental health |