New Hobbies to Try
August 31, 2021 - 3 min read
Stuck at home? This is the perfect time to start a new hobby! The pandemic may have put most travel plans on hold but that doesn’t mean that your whole life has to be put on pause. Picking up a new activity can give you a sense of purpose and meaning, something to look forward to. If life has become a monotonous, dull routine, it’s time to check out this list of hobbies.
Gardening
You don’t need a huge plot of land to grow your own plants, herbs, and vegetables. Indoor gardening and urban gardening are now all the rage! Gardening has a lot of benefits. First, it’s good for your mental health. According to health experts, focusing on a task with a clear goal keeps your mind off depressing topics. Second, it helps you get your much-needed dose of Vitamin D. Outdoor activities may have been limited, but you can still go out and work in your own home garden!
Third, it adds color and beauty to your home. Try growing some colorful flowers or ornamental plants, and you’ll have an inexpensive way to beautify your living spaces. Fourth, you can grow your own fresh produce! Going organic is healthy but costly. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to ditch another expense and simply pick the choicest veggies from your own garden?
Resin Art
This is a fantastic hobby to get into since resin is very flexible. You can create a variety of crafts -- jewelry, bookmarks, coasters, keychains, paperweights, and even tabletops! You can also add pigments to resin if you want to give your crafts a pop of color. One of the reasons why resin has grown in popularity is that it’s a great way to preserve important memories.
Resin, the main material in this craft, protects and maintains your art pieces, which can be made of flowers, leaves, wood, glitter, powder, clay, or fabric. With all the amazing resin art online, it’s easy to get intimidated. But creating art out of resin is also beginner-friendly. If you’re doing resin art for the first time, use epoxy resin as it’s the easiest to work with and has the longest shelf-life.
Perfume Making
DIY perfume is simple and fun to make. You only need a perfume recipe you can easily find online, a funnel, and a coffee filter. Ingredients are usually a carrier oil (jojoba, grape seed, coconut, or sweet almond), essential oils, ethanol, and spring or distilled water. Essential oils form the base or “notes” of your perfume.
Top notes (the first thing you smell) disperse the fastest and are usually citrusy, herbal, and light fruit scents. These give way to heart or middle notes, which are the core of your fragrance and evaporate less quickly. Base notes are made of essential oils that last the longest like sandalwood, musk, and amber.
Bridge notes tie all the fragrances together and are made of mild scents like jojoba, vanilla, or lavender. Experiment to come up with your signature scents and pour them into beautiful bottles to make a unique and memorable gift!
Yoga
Yoga and its accompanying meditative exercises is a hobby that you can do in the comfort of your own home. The breathing and meditation techniques in yoga promote calmness and mental clarity. The exercises also sharpen concentration and improve physical strength and flexibility. You don’t need to enroll in expensive classes to try yoga. There are lots of free apps and online videos that let you practice yoga indoors.
Which of these hobbies would you like to try? Got any more hobbies you think should be on this list? We’re down to the last quarter of 2021. Let’s make the most of the rest of the year!