I watched an inordinate amount of TV as a kid. I’m not sure if this is something that was just true for kids of my generation, or specific to our household, but TV is what we “did”…and “active” is NOT how one would have described our family.
Now that I live in New England and folks around here share their fantasies about “what it must be like to grow up in ‘sunny Cali‘” I realize that maybe we should have been taking advantage of “something” a little bit more.
I will say that from about 2nd-5th grade I spent most summer afternoons at the “park pool” – thank goodness for that public service!! My mom would drop me off and pick me up at a designated time (god forbid I would ride my bike the mile to get there – or even walk for that matter!!)…
But even with the park pool, I preferred basking in the sun than actually swimming and playing in the water (unless my friends were with me, which wasn’t often). I remember Dad saying once that I was the one (of the four kids) who *created* things to do – and I guess he is right. I staged and hosted talent shows… and I loved playing beauty shop with my friend, Maggie.
In reality, we just didn’t do much as kids. It wasn’t until about the 8th grade when a school art project introduced something about *hobbies*. Someone lent me a stencil – and I also managed to get my hands on some fine tip markers…. we were working on this cool poster project where you would write the letters of your name in boxes, and then place a “break box” with some sort of symbol (presumably a symbol that meant something to you) and then continue. Note Image to right/below (a poor mock up of the actual). As I look back with embarrassment, my “symbol” was 
the 31 Flavors logo (Baskin Robbins!! – an ice cream chain!!)… what was crazy about this project was how into it I got. I had never been so wrapped up in creating something. I continued working on it over the weekend, even though a bunch of friends were visiting Maggie’s house across the street!
I was completely engrossed in the process, fully “in the moment,” and totally *filled* by reviewing the progress and appreciating the result of my effort. Through a lot of childhood, I made fun of friends’ passions and I realize it’s because I didn’t understand how someone could immerse him/herself into something. Maybe I was jealous and my only (defensive) response was to make fun.
Research indicates that engaging in hobbies has a ton of positive effects; hobbies reduce your blood pressure AND you susceptibility to fatigue!! Another advantage can be the potential of uniting a person with others of like interests. (I LOVE getting together with fellow scrapbookers WAY more than scrapbooking by myself!!)
To me, hobbies are a big part of creating a life driven by joy/reward, and reducing drain. These days, the paper/stencil habit of my youth has become scrapbooking. House projects also fill a very important and personal hobby need… While my scrapbooking tools are not “landing pad ready,” I have been managing a few house projects here and there – my latest at left (painted the black $39 bench from Christmas Tree Shops and I LOVE it!! I am currently looking for a console table as my next home mini-paint-project.) I am even able to fuel these passions (and decompress) as I peruse Pinterest and Houzz.com!!
So, what is your hobby and are you allowing enough time for it? Do you have the right tools on hand and do you need to create a physical “landing pad” for your hobby tools? What are your productive mechanisms for decompression? Seriously – I’d love to know!
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