📝Articles Day 8

Hobbies can improve your health – here are four tips for choosing one

In 2020, the year Amanda lost her mother, husband, job and pre-pandemic normalcy, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. “My life was just spiraling down and down and down,” she says.
To help with her symptoms, in addition to an antidepressant prescription, Amanda was given a “social prescription”: a referral to a non-medical, community-based activity, typically involving movement, nature, art or service. Amanda lives near Devon, England, and became curious about sea swimming after reading about its health benefits and watching other women do it at her local beach all year round. When she told this to her mental health nurse, she was prescribed a spot in Chill Therapy, an eight-week course that teaches swimming, floating and breathing techniques to build skill and confidence navigating the open water.

Six years later, Amanda turns to swimming in the sea whenever she feels stressed. “It invigorates me and makes me feel I can cope with anything,” she says. “I can’t do without it, to be honest.” She is now down to the lowest dose of her antidepressant, and has made a ton of friends along the way: “I feel refreshed in body and soul.”
Though research has long linked hobbies involving exercise, arts and nature to a wide range of health benefits, social prescribing now lets people like Amanda participate in them as part of their healthcare, typically covering barriers like cost and transportation. While the practice is more common in the UK, some insurers in the US are starting to participate in social prescribing.
But you don’t need a doctor’s note to get started. We asked experts in the social prescribing field for tips on picking a hobby that will actually improve your health.

Match your symptom to the science
When choosing a hobby, think about how you’re feeling now, and how you’d like to feel in the future.
For instance, if you’ve been feeling tired or down, like Amanda, science suggests you should move your body; for example, multiple studies show sea swimming can help reduce depression and depressive symptoms.
On a physiological level, this makes sense: aerobic exercise has been linked with gains in mood-boosting endorphins and serotonin. Additionally, time spent in nature is linked with lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
Feeling distracted? Nature is also good at improving focus. According to the Attention Restoration Theory, nature is uniquely equipped to restore our depleted mental resources by providing “soft fascination”, a state of effortless focus that captures our attention without draining it. This could explain why nature has been shown to improve our executive functioning and concentration.

Creative activities can help with getting through sadness, isolation or pain. “Art is a human experience – it helps folks get out of their loneliness and into a flow state, which can rewire their brain from trauma,” says Holly Jacobson, CEO of Path With Art, a Seattle-based non-profit that offers free arts-based community programming. A new small study found that Path with Art participants experienced statistically significant gains in mental wellbeing and efficacy, and reductions in loneliness. Earlier small studies found that painting can reduce anxiety, and that art-making can reduce cortisol levels after 45 minutes.
Ask yourself what matters to you
Some people can’t see themselves knitting, while others might rule out sports because of injury. Research suggests we are more likely to follow through on an activity if we have intrinsic motivation – the internal drive to do something because we find it genuinely enjoyable or satisfying, rather than an external reward, like losing weight.

From theguardian.com