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In an increasingly lonely world, hobbies are one of our last remaining relational spaces. Hobbies are a vast playground of social opportunities, able to bring you into contact with both like-minded people with whom you have much in common and people with whom you would otherwise never interact.

Welcome back! This is Part II of my three-parter on hobbies. (In case you missed Part I . And, you can read Part III .) What follows are three ways that grownups benefit from hobbies. I’ve drawn on interviews with over a dozen friends and family members, so you can hear from a wider range of voices than just mine.   1.  Hobbies as self-care   Self-care is a broad category, encompassing fitness and physical health, social connection, and emotional wellbeing. Over half the peop

The subject of hobbies has been coming up often in sessions lately—the benefits of hobbies, the empty feeling of not having a hobby, the challenges of maintaining a hobby. This has forced me to slow down and think about my relationship with my own hobbies. What is a hobby? Why does it matter? What does it mean to have a hobby as an adult, a professional, a parent? What do my hobbies add to my life? What have they allowed me to learn or experience?

Our lives are full of winter seasons—not just the winter that comes around every year, but also wintry seasons of the soul. In a winter of the soul, life is cold and dormant, and something new is germinating in the dark recesses of your spirit.