By Sophie Cross
Hobbies are brilliant for our well-being and it’s important to have some non-digital activities to focus on in our increasingly virtual worlds.
They can keep us distracted, make us feel like we’ve achieved something and we can make gifts for other people to cheer them up too. Move over sourdough (that’s so Lockdown 1). Here are the best new hobbies on the block to take up this year.
Macrame
You can learn pretty much anything on YouTube and macrame is no exception. Big in the seventies and making a huge comeback now, macrame plant hangers make excellent birthday presents for your friends. We love Wool and the Gang’s Jersey Be Good yarn and they even take you through the steps to make a stunning Top of the Pots macrame plant hanger in this video.
Pickling
Food fermentation is where it’s at. Not only is it a great source of probiotics, and a way of preventing food waste, pickling is also shockingly straight forward. You can pickle veggies like onions, cucumbers, okra and radishes. You can even make pink pickled eggs. So start saving up those jars.
Scrapbooking
You can scrapbook pretty much anything you want to from making mood boards and collections of your greatest inspirations to recipes and family photos. Start by choosing your theme and then think about your layouts with focal points, backgrounds and embellishments. Grab your scissors and glue stick and fill those notebooks.
Yoga
here are eight different elements to yoga and the stretching (yoga postures or asana) is only one of them. Yogis also practice observances, breath control, concentration, meditation, absorption, abstinence and withdrawal of the senses. There are lots of online options to choose from now so you can join classes live around the world or choose free lessons on-demand with teachers like Adrienne. Crank your heating up for hot yoga from home!
Writing
Anyone can write. And you can write anything. Invent stories, make up poems, start blogging, research a report, keep a journal. Tim Clare’s 100-day writing challenge is superb fun for any level writer and takes 20-minutes a day (10 of listening and 10 of writing). And don’t feel you have to do it on consecutive days.
Running
Over 45,000 people worldwide took part in the virtual London marathon in October this year. Running can offer us a bit of normality right now. You can lace up your trainers, hit the streets and forget about anything else for a while. You can explore more of your local area by jogging. It can give you headspace or thinking time. Curate the perfect running playlist for yourself for some added motivation or pop a podcast on.
Bird watching
How many birds can you name? How many different types do you see on a daily basis? Do you know what each bird’s song sounds like? Or why they sing so early in the morning? Get to know your local feathered friends a little bit better and then impress your human friends with your new-found nature knowledge.