What are your hobbies? What activities do you regularly do for fun? As adults it’s easy for our hobbies to fall by the wayside. You get busy, you have a job, a family, and responsibilities. So that thing you used to do for pure enjoyment gets lost along the way. You are busy, there is always a “better” more “efficient” use of your time. Your kids need snacks, laundry needs to get done, the lawn needs to be mowed and that activity that brought you so much joy sits in the corner of a room untouched.
I am a crafter. I crochet, I quilt, basically I’m a fiber artist. A few years ago, I joined a quilt guild, where twice a month a group of people (predominately retired women) got together and talked about quilting. We’d share techniques, have coffee, socialize and show off our latest creations. Being the youngest of the group I would get comments that I should enjoy my craft now because once I had kids, I wouldn’t have time for it. That made me incredibly sad to think that I would lose a huge source of joy.
As life would have it, it wasn’t kids (I don’t have kids) that brought my hobbies to a momentary halt but starting my career. When I went back to school for massage, I was still working full time so every free minute I had, went to either doing massage or studying theory. For about the first 14 months of my education, I was just trying to survive, (a global pandemic didn’t help much either) and pass my exams, but a few months into my second year an RMT took me under their wing and became a friend and mentor and they reminded me that hobbies and rest are important.
I started reading books for fun again, taking a couple hours off to watch a favourite TV show, but I was still hesitant to take up my crafting hobbies. Activities like quilting and crochet require a repetitive motion and utilizes similar muscle groups that can easily be overworked by doing massage. I worked incredibly hard to find a career that I am good at and enjoyed and I was scared of getting a repetitive strain injury that would end my career.
Here's the thing my work is important, it’s my calling but my hobbies nurture my inner artist, helps maintain my mental health and it’s how I express my multidimensionality. Also, my hobbies will make me a better massage therapist.
By giving my body lots of different stimuli through various postures, fine movements and muscle patterns, it will signal to my body that more flexibility and versatility is required rather than strict adaptation to a single activity. I now make time for my art, lately that’s crocheting little toys and stuffed animals, and dolls.
So here is a gentle reminder that hobbies are necessary and if it’s been a while since you’ve picked up your hobby to get back into it.
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