It’s fun to embrace healthy habits at any age, but when you are older, keeping a hobby also brings great benefits to your health. Regularly doing something that you love helps your mind and body stay active and occupied. Experts have proven in countless studies how hobbies boost your well-being. So, here are the some of the most recommended hobbies to pursue that can improve your health naturally.
Here Are 5 Hobbies Proven to Improve Your Health
“Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn’t do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.” – George Eliot
1. Dancing
Dancing is a fun way to exercise. It boosts not just your physical wellbeing and strength, but it also helps with your mental wellness. According to experts who wrote a study in the journal Human Neuroscience, dancing helps slow down the aging process in the brain. Changing choreography or following and executing dance movements apparently keep the hippocampus active. The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for balance, learning, and memory retention.
Some forms of dancing lessons, such as Ballroom or Latin dance, have also been proven to improve body strength and heart health. A Tango class, on the other hand, can improve symptoms of anxiety and other mood disorders. You do feel more energized after a dance class because your brain releases more endorphins when you exercise. Hence, you’re inclined to carry on the day with more positive thoughts.
If you’re worried about movements that could hurt your back, weaken your legs, or trigger a fall, then why not sign up for low-impact dance classes? Dancing at least three times a week can actually prevent instances of falling, according to a study published in the Cochrane Library, therefore giving you a greater chance to live a healthy lifestyle.
2. Gardening
Being around a green space with lots of trees and plants serves as a natural mood booster. Many experts agree that older people can greatly benefit from gardening as a hobby. Gardening reportedly reduces the risk of dementia development in men or women above 60 years old, according to experts from the Lipid Research Department at the St. Vincent’s Hospital in Australia. Gardening also helps your body get natural vitamin D nutrients, especially when vitamin D deficiency becomes more common with age.
You’ll notice signs of health improvement from regular gardening because toiling with soil can do wonders for your immune system. Another study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden suggests that gardening lessens the risks of stroke or heart attack. There’s one other perk to gardening, too, because you can wake up each morning to a beautiful home with gorgeous flesh flowers or enjoy meals with delicious homegrown vegetables from your backyard.
3. Journaling
This is one of the few healthy habits that will improve your health and help you lead a healthy lifestyle. Do you remember keeping a diary when you were 12 years old, or 16? Wasn’t that fun to do? It can be just as fun when you’re older. According to University of Texas psychologist James Pennebaker, journaling is an effective form of therapy because it is a self-expression tool. Writing can help you process your thoughts and feelings, thus enabling you to come to terms with the good or bad events in your life. You will also be able to manage your stress levels when you make journaling a habit.
A study in the JAMA Network stated that not only does keeping a diary improve your mental health, but it can also diminish some physical symptoms of pain, such as rheumatoid arthritis or asthma. It might seem strange but writing down your thoughts and chronicling your life also helps heal physical wounds faster, according to New Zealand experts.
These days, most people take their journal online via a blogging platform. This has added benefits as well because you can grow a community around your blog and develop new friendships and interests with other people.
4. Coloring
Coloring is not just an activity for children; it also works as a stress buster for busy adults. It promotes mindfulness similar to meditation, as it keeps you focused on a specific task for one or two hours a day. According to art therapist Marygrace Berberian, coloring reduces one’s anxiety levels. Just like journaling, coloring is an expression of creativity and the process promotes inner peace and tranquility that trigger positive thoughts.
5. Crafting
Knitting, quilting, and scrapbooking are just some of the crafting hobbies that have been resurging in recent years. Many have gone back to these basic activities as a way to cope with the fast-paced digital world. Crafting allows hobbyists to produce something they can proudly display or give as gifts, but many indulge in these activities for their psychological benefits too.
According to expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in a TED Talk, these creative hobbies promote flow. In psychology, flow is that moment when you’re so absorbed in an activity that you lose the sense of time and forget your worries for a moment. Perfect hobbies for health, wouldn’t you agree?!
Final thoughts
You can pursue any of these recommendations either by yourself or with a group of people. You should take pleasure from doing a hobby, especially if it could be the best thing you can do to lead a healthy lifestyle. There really is no right or wrong time to start indulging in new hobbies for health and for encouraging positive thinking. There’s also no rush to complete a class or create something right away, as the most important thing is to love what you are doing. Remember, healthy habits and hobbies will lead to a healthy lifestyle.
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