By stufflovely
As we enter a socially distanced winter, it’s time to hunker down and get cozy — and figure out how to stay busy at home. Most of us have extra time on our hands, whether we lost work due to the pandemic, saw changes in our schedule, or canceled our usual holiday travel. While it’s perfectly okay to use this time to marathon your favorite shows or catch up on your to-be-read pile, it’s also a great time to pick up a new hobby. “Having a craft or hobby, such as embroidery, cross-stitching, drawing, painting, or deepening one’s practices with tarot and meditation, are all fabulous way to settle into the self, embrace your psyche and heart, and create spaciousness for mental health to flourish,” says San Fransisco-based psychologist Denise Renye.
Picking up a hobby is good for our mental health because it brings much-needed newness into our everyday routine, which can get, well, a bit routine. Picking up a new skill set also brings in a sense of accomplishment, which is great for self-confidence. “A hobby stimulates our brain in new ways,” says bi-coastal somatic psychologist Holly Richmond. Social distancing and staying responsible during the pandemic has made the world feel smaller for many of us. We work from home, socialize from our phones, and travel is pretty much off the table. Isolation can lead to depression, and it’s never been more important to come up with creative ways to stimulate the brain, which can improve our mood in more ways than one.
“An indoor project gives us something to look forward to, which we haven’t had enough of this year. We can feel the fulfillment and our accomplishment in seeing a knitting project come together, a puzzle being completed or a carefully tended plant growing,” says Richmond.
Also, while some skills, such as learning a new language or musical instrument, may mean that you get to interact with an instructor over Zoom, many others take us offline and away from doom-scrolling and screen fatigue. “A hobby or indoor activity should ideally be something that doesn’t involve a device,” Richmond says, noting that getting offline is good for your eyes, your brain, your body, and your mind.
But whether you’re finally taking up yoga, learning to sew, or getting into making candy, a hobby will add a much-needed burst of fresh energy into your life — and you can absolutely use your zodiac sign as a starting point for finding your perfect hobby. Fire signs love attention, even when we’re all stuck inside, so they’ll thrive with something like a karaoke machine, which helps put them at the center of attention. Water signs need to get all their emotions out, perhaps through learning a new instrument, while earth signs will likely enjoy baking and using their hands. Lastly, air signs will benefit from a hobby that will allow them to channel all that mental energy, like cross-stitching. Scroll down to see which hobby your sign should try this winter, but remember that we contain all 12 signs in our chart, so the right choice is whichever speaks to you.
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