Have you ever described the time you spend as a ”hobby” time, and when was that? If this sounds like a very strange term for you or you haven’t heard it since you were a kid, it’s not only you. It’s becoming harder and harder each day between all of our various tasks, answering emails from our smart phones until midnight. If that’s your case then the time is right now with the quarantine for the coronavirus giving us way more free time that can sometimes make us feel bored, confused and even anxious. It’s up to us to change that and hobby is one way to do it.

Our goal will be to slow down ourselves long enough to start accessing the creative side in our brains.

The trick here is to get away from the efficiency and productivity mode and create just for the sake of creation.

These are three tips to starting a creative hobby while in the comfort of our own homes.

1 be curious about the way you spend the free time you have.

Reflecting on how we spend our time we can actually know how to start exactly. Do you feel your time working, answering emails… Etc.? Do you stop working immediately once you reach your couch? We’re not saying what’s right and what’s wrong we just want to analyze how the time is spent because once we understand clearly how we pass our time, we can take immediate action.

2 experiment outside the comfort zone but start small.

Because we analyzed how we spend our time it’s time to start replacing our habits with new creative ones. It doesn’t really matter what creative hobby you choose as long as it’s different from what you used to do and of course it’s creative. To throw yourself into a low barrier creative medium in a hobby that has nothing to do with the normal daily routine, helps the brain work better, according to Drexel professor and art therapy expert Girija Kaimal, M.A., EdD.

Starting a new hobby can be easy for some, but making it a habit is a whole different thing. You can start by setting some small goals for yourself like maybe painting one day per week as opposed to every day. Just remember you’re doing this for fun, not to be productive. In the future our brains will make this act come more natural to us.

3 always remember, hobbies aren’t supposed to be perfect.

Because of the nature of the world today, we’re so result oriented focusing only on efficiency and achievement. We can forget the importance of enjoying the experience. That’s not the case with hobbies though. Hobby time is specifically designed to channel our feelings of joy and happiness. Always remember that the small moments when we truly feel happy and alive will make us perceive that our lives are actually happier overall.

So don’t expect to be the next top chef while you’re having some experimentation time in the kitchen, Or how to impress your Instagram followers when you’re doing some woodwork or even a puzzle. Step back and question the goals and intentions. You need a little bit more creation time and a little less work time and the most important thing is the joy and hobbies is the way to do it.

You can read more about it from here.