Why It’s Important to Have Hobbies as an Adult

It is SO easy for life to feel like this never-ending hamster wheel that seems impossible to get off of.

Work. Chores. Maybe throw in a few hours of TV and mindless scrolling to help you unwind a bit. Sleep. Repeat.

I’ve been stuck on that hamster wheel far too long and it’s making me nauseous.

It feels so monotonous. Like something is missing. Like there has to be more to life than just this.

Well, as it turns out, there is. 🙂

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

My therapist first introduced me to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and when I saw it, the clouds parted and the sun came shining through, and everything just seemed to make ✨sense✨.

According to Maslow, we have five categories of needs:

• Physiological
• Safety and security
• Love and belonging
• Self-Esteem
• Self-actualization

According to this theory, our most basic needs must be met (physiological) before we can satisfy the upper needs (safety and security, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization).

It’s important to note that these needs are not mutually exclusive, meaning they can exist independent of one another. And while this is commonly modelled as a pyramid, the top 3 needs do not have to be met in that order. We all value love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization differently, and therefore may prioritize them differently.

But the basis of this hierarchy of needs remains.

The reason we feel like there’s more to life than work and basic survival is because we have ALL of these needs, yet we’re not meeting all of them. For the majority of us, we’re meeting our most basic needs and just stopping there.

A huge part of this is our addiction to social media and binge-watching TV. It distracts us from our needs and wants and desires, leaving us feeling unsatisfied and empty inside.

For me personally, I’ve found having hobbies to be so profoundly life-changing.

If you’re also hobby-less like I once was, and your life feels like it’s missing something, this one’s for you, my dear friend.

5 Reasons You Need a Hobby

And by a hobby, I actually mean 3-4 hobbies.

One to keep you in shape.

One that let’s you be creative.

One to expand your knowledge.

And one to earn income (if ya want).

Not sure where to start? Here’s 99 fabulous ideas!

Okay, now onto why you need hobbies 🙂

 

1. Gives you something to look forward to.

Think about something you’ve always wanted to do.

Paint.

Run a marathon.

Hike a 14er.

Play the piano.

How does it make you feel just thinking about it?

Happy.

Excited.

Probably a little nervous.

But overall, it fires you up, right?!

If that’s how you feel just thinking about it, then imagine how you’ll feel when you’re actually doing it.

Alive.

Happy.

Content.

Joyful.

Proud.

Buzzin’ like a happy little bee full of pollen.

That’s what life is all about, man.

We work to meet our basic needs and we use hobbies to meet the rest of them. Hobbies give us something to look forward to once all the daily chores of being human are taken care of.

They give us purpose outside of work and chores, so that we’re not just living for work or for the weekend.

Instead, we’re filling our time and life with things that bring us joy.

2. Helps you grow.

The beautiful thing about having a hobby is you learn new skills.

And the even more beautiful thing about having a hobby is that as your skills grow, so do you.

Hobbies challenge you and with every challenge you overcome, you learn that you’re capable of so much more than you ever thought.

You gain confidence.

Your self-esteem gets a boost.

And with every new thing you try, your comfort zone grows just that much wider. And I think that’s a beautiful thing.

3. Allows you to express yourself.

If you’re anything like me, expressing yourself is one of the hardest things imaginable.

From a young age, I learned to repress my emotions and ignore who I am for fear of getting in trouble. It’s made connecting with people and fostering relationships nearly impossible, because I don’t know how to share who I am.

I think this finally clicked for me when I was trying to figure out why I’m so uncomfortable dancing (I was at a wedding sitting awkwardly by myself while everyone else was having the time of their lives living it up on the dance floor).

I realized it’s because dance is a form of self-expression, and I don’t know how to express myself. And at the time, I didn’t have an outlet to help me learn how to do that.

Hobbies help us express ourselves, whether it be through dance, art, writing, music, poetry – really, anything that gets us out of our heads and gets the creative juices flowing. And it helps us find ourselves along the way.

4. Can help you make more meaningful connections.

How many times have you been asked what you like to do in your free time, only to give some awkward “I don’t know” kind of answer? Not only does it end the conversation before it even started, but it also leaves you feeling like shit.

Like you’re boring. Lame. Weird. Have no aspirations in life.

I am SO embarrassed by this (so much so that I STILL remember this almost 10 years later), but when I was in college, I started a new internship and one of my new coworkers asked me what kind of hobbies I have.

I kid you not, I said, “I like to clean.”

The look on his face when he heard that and I did NOT say I had other *real* hobbies…. I’m deceased just thinking about it. 💀

I didn’t play any sports growing up.

I wasn’t involved in any clubs or activities outside of marching band.

I didn’t do anything at home aside from chores (hence the “I like to clean” response since it was pretty much all I ever did) or scrolling on Tumblr.

And I stayed that way all throughout college and through most of my 20s.

Talk about a very boring, sad life. It’s no wonder it’s been so hard for me to make friends. I don’t do anything. I don’t have anything meaningful to talk to people about. I don’t know how to express myself.

When you have hobbies, you become passionate and knowledgeable about that thing. And when you have passion and knowledge, you can hold a meaningful conversation and talk about that thing with so much passion for hours and hours and never get bored.

And that’s how connection is born.

5. Great for your mental health.

It is for all of the reasons above that having hobbies is fabulous for your mental health.

It gives you something to look forward to.

It gets you off your phone and out of your head and helps you stop comparing yourself to others.

It helps build your skills and confidence and self-worth.

It lights your soul on fire and lets you share that fire with others.

It brings you meaningful connections.

It brings you joy.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying hobbies are the cure for depression. I know it doesn’t work that way.

But when you invest your time and energy into something that allows you to express yourself and be creative, it helps take your mind off of all the negative thoughts that usually keep you occupied. And you get to know yourself better and learn what you’re actually capable of. It gives you a sense of accomplishment. It gives you something to be proud of.

Having hobbies might not “cure” you, but it at least gives you some reprieve from the depression. And that’s a heck of a lot better than no break from it at all.

Life is so precious. We are only on this earth in this body this one time. We gotta stop wasting it doing things that don’t bring us joy and get out there and do what makes us feel alive.

We are meant to be creative. We are meant to be connected. We are meant to learn and grow.

And in the famous words of Creed Bratton: