Life needs an escape from time to time. You go to work, you go home to your family and you head to your friends to maintain your social life – it’s busy and it can be all consuming. When you are busy belonging to other people, it can feel suffocating even when you’re happy to be a part of all that. Sometimes, you need to have something that belongs to just you – it really does make all of the difference. 

A hobby can give you that. It can give you the escapism that you’re looking for and it can be anything you want to do just for you. Whether your hobby involves playing cards or building your own furniture with the second hand woodworking machinery you bought for the garage, your hobby is all yours and you don’t have to share it. Some people like to monetise their hobbies, but you don’t have to do that, either. If you’re still on the fence as to why you should go ahead and have a hobby, we’ve got all the reasons you need a new one. 

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1. Learn to be critical in your thinking. Chess is a game for the brain. When you are spending time playing chess, you’re not just moving pawns and learning the spaces of the knights. Instead, you’re strategising and learn to be analytical in your thinking. You’re learning how to play against an opponent – because you can even play online. You’ll learn to think better and it opens a whole community of people who know how to play, too.
2. Learning to appreciate music. Hobbies are a brilliant way to network and meet new people, and playing an instrument gives you so much time to tinker and perfect your new craft. When you learn to play an instrument, you also learn to train your brain into something new, and you learn that there are others out there just like you who are ready to learn to play, too.
3. You’re going to show off your passions. You can really discover yourself when you get a new hobby. There are things in the world that help you to unlock parts of you that you didn’t even know existed, and it really will make a difference to how you feel day to day. You are going to be a happier person, too, while you make your place in the world.
4. You’ll cope better with stress. Stress is something we are all dealing with. The rate of stress related illnesses and deaths is on the up and that will take some time to get over. A hobby is going to help you to decompress and funnel your energies into something more fun, which will change your life.
5. You can finally feel accomplished. A hobby will give you the chance to feel like you’re accomplishing something new and amazing. In a world full of competition and movement, your hobby gives you that ‘walking on the beach’ feeling and you will be able to kick back for a change.

This is a contributed post.