“HOBBIES: OUR TICKET TO CHILD-LIKE JOY.”

CAN WE REPLACE URGED PRODUCTIVITY WITH DOING THINGS WE ENJOY, JUST BECAUSE?

everyone and their dog is trying to reclaim the vibrant color that existed in their childhood, at least on the side of the internet that i exist on. The narrative is as follows: in this present moment in our lives, grass looks less green, the sky is not as beautifully blue, christmas trees are more beige and less story-telling, flowers are hard to come by and trash is everywhere, and color in fashion, personality, and even hair style is hard to come by.

it aches because we can remember a time when it was different. When bumble bees and lightning bugs captured our attention all of the time. when each part of our outfit resembled a different color of the rainbow. when those multi-color pens, even though they never worked, lit our eyes up.

Theory: as kids we physically see more of the environment because we’re constantly interacting with new parts of it. we’re inspired by the world. we’re curious. we notice “color” both literally and metaphorically, because it makes things exciting and pretty and FASCINATING. back then, we noticed more of the world, to put it simply, because we were constantly being encouraged to.

so what if it’s not the color that’s gone astray, but rather, us? or more specifically, our desire to notice the whimsy all around us?

At some point each of us grew into older humans who have less grown-ups encouraging us to learn, discover, create, and become. We simply chose, or fell into, a life routine that checked the boxes we felt it needed to to be considered productive and successful, and then we repeated that routine over, and over, and over. the emotional exhaustion from living the same day over and over dimmed the light. spare time became scroll time, and life became monotonous. but i’d love to go back a few sentences and zoom in; This idea that one of the most major changes between childhood and now is that we have far less, if any, close adults encouraging us to do things just because.

so, now that the essence of that encouragement is less prevalent, it’s up to us to be the grown-up encouraging ourselves to do more.

to put it bluntly, it’s time to get a hobby, or seven.

see, when you intentionally create time and space every single day to do something that has nothing to do with work, responsibilities, or social media, you are activating your brain in a way it hasn’t been all day long. you’re breaking the usual routine and pattern and enriching your mind. think of your hobby time Like your dog’s intimate time with their slow feeder.

to get yogic about it… each one of us humans is believed to be made up of five ‘koshas,’ or layers. Kripalu School of Yoga, where i attended my first yoga teacher training, encouraged us to Think of these layers like russian dolls that stack on top of one another. it’s the metaphor that has helped me make the most sense out of the koshas. our first layer is the physical body, followed by the breath and the energy body, then we meet the “lower mind,” then the “higher mind,” and then finally we arrive at the deepest layer of our essence: the soul, or bliss-body.

the “higher Mind,” layer, called the “Vijnanamaya Kosha,” is also understood to be linked to the right-most side of the brain. this side is where the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, the place we step into when we reach a meditative state, and it is also the area of the brain we aim to activate in yogic practices. the right mind is believed to be the home-base for human genius, creativity, and pure love.

so if we choose to adopt this piece of philosophy, coined from The Sutras of Patanjali, then when we humor ourselves and embezzle some of our precious time and energy into hobbies, we are actually activating the right side of our mind. hence the calm, present, lovely feeling in your brain that follows after you spend time on something purely for enjoyment. and when more time is spent in this state on a consistent basis, the time spent out of this state typically becomes more aware, present, noticed, and cherished. meaning when you look around, the colors of the earth seem brighter, the sound of the birds chirping is louder, and rainbows feel like a gift from the earth to you once again. aka… the presence and levity we call “child-like joy” lives within our brains already, and we are able to re-ignite its flame at any time by exploring hobbies and activating the mind in ways you usually don’t.

I mean think about it… why WOULD life seem bright and fun and exciting if we stick to our strict, gray schedules that don’t honor time for creativity and curiosity? Why would life seem bright if you just kept spending it in the dimmed parts? Why would you feel whimsical when you’re hyper-focused on the logical?

so, on our collective mission to whimsy, magic, and joy being a real reality for us again, let us begin doing things just for the fun of it, with no intention of being productive, or successful, or talented. We don’t need a reason, we just need to do.

But what really is a hobby? and… how do you find ones that you enjoy?

A hobby to me, is something that you go out of your way to do, that you enjoy doing, that has nothing to do with work, and that has no ulterior motive, or a very quiet one at that. For example, I do consider trying new recipes to be a hobby, because of its creative and curious nature, although it does also check a box of feeding yourself. drift caught?

by my definition, Hobbies tend to be revolved around creation or discovery. It can be art, it can be a physical activity, really anything that brings your brain into a place of intentional enjoyment.

a list of hobbies you can soon adopt into your life:

• painting
• coloring
• crocheting/knitting
• reading
• cooking
• jewelry-making
• creating music
• designing something
• gardening (the kind you do with dirt and water and sunshine)
• wood-working
• rock-collecting
• dancing
• journaling
• poetry
• scrap booking
• documenting

and the list, it goes on. try one of these, then try another, then try another. The ones you find yourself wanting to go back to – those are your true hobbies, my friend. and in the case that your financial situation barres you from being able to take on the hobby you are truly interested in, then i encourage you to take a new kind of swing at it.

instead of feeling the need to go out and buy a bunch of new pens and a notebook to sketch with, use what you already have. Personally, when I began to get into drawing as a hobby form, i went outside to the backyard with a black ink pen, a lined notebook, and i picked up leaves, twigs, and seeds off of the ground which i then either traced or tried to copy to the best of my ability. I found it just as fun as i now find my blank paper and nice colored pencils that intreated myself to. All this to say, be creative with how you define each of these hobbies. Jewelry making does not have to include gold chains and diamonds if that’s not a smart choice… it could be deconstructing what you already have and making something new. reading does not have to mean spending an arm and a leg on new books every month…. it could be a library card, or a knack for online articles, or thrifted text. MAKE. IT. WORK. FOR. YOU.

The first time you try a new hobby you may feel the urge to thrown on a tv show, start scrolling, or fill the time in some other way instead. but you do that because those things are your normal. they’re comfortable, and they don’t require a lot from you, so of course you may feel a pull towards them. but this doesn’t mean that you like those things more… it just means that you aren’t used to using your brain in this new way yet, but you will be, soon.

two-weeks into your new hobby, you’ll find yourself excited to get home and spend time with it. like a date night with yourself. it starts to feel like sunshine, it becomes a part of your identity, and it nestles itself into part of your joy.

so I ask, if you too have been feeling like life has been serving up the dull, colorless, and unexciting, what are you doing to try to see it differently? How are you trying to treat your brain? What’s something you’ve admired as “cool” when others do it, but have never given yourself permission to try?

After all, the wonder you so crave isn’t creating itself, is it? you will never know if it can be revived until you try every last thing.

Food for thought. Thanks for hearing this.

With Love,

Madeleine

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SOURCE:

https://kripalu.org/living-kripalu/five-koshas-layers-our-being-and-our-journey-inwards

Zoom In To You. letters to better ourselves and to help us travel inward.