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 people I interviewed...

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?