From Health magazine
Renee Restivo of Bayonne, N.J., was heading toward the corner office in a high-powered advertising career on Madison Avenue. "It was a lot of stress and responsibility," she recalls. Despite her crazy schedule, Restivo snuck in a cooking course on Saturdays. "It was my one little piece of happiness," she says. "Even if the other six days were stressful, I could get inspired that one day of my week."She found the time because she considered it an investment in discovering herself. "It's a matter of priorities," she says. "If I hadn't dedicated a tiny bit of time to my hobby, I never would have known how passionate I was about cooking." Restivo eventually quit her job, got a master's degree in writing, and made cooking a bigger part of her life, including a blog she writes about authentic sensual food.
Like Restivo, most of us are hard-pressed to squeeze five minutes of leisure time out of the day, let alone the ongoing blocks of time needed to sustain a hobby.
"Many women feel guilty taking time for themselves, but for happiness and good health, you need an inspiring purpose," says Andrea Pennington, an integrative medicine physician and wellness coach. "A good hobby makes you lose all sense of time and self, liberating you from the everyday." In fact, research shows that a hobby can help you cope with work-related stress by providing a different kind of challenge and letting you disengage—and so recuperate—from work.
Convinced? Here's how to find the hobby that's right for you.
If you telecommute or live alone: Join a club
Consider something that gets you out of the house and around other like-minded people. Not only will you have fun when you join a cooking club, bowling league, or hiking club, but you'll reap the benefits of friendship and camaraderie. "It's easy to become stagnated after a long day or evening alone. Inertia takes over," Pennington says. "But research has shown that maintaining social connections can positively affect your health."
Elizabeth Cavallaro, a pediatrics resident at the University of Arizona in Tucson, works long hours at the hospital. Because she's single and lives alone, Cavallaro joined the Ramblers, a university-associated hiking club, to meet people, exercise, and socialize. "I wanted to get the most out of my free time," she says. "Residents tend not to take care of their bodies, so I love how hiking makes me feel physically healthy and in shape. It's a nice mental break from the rush and stress of the hospital, and I've become good friends with some of the club members. We even get together outside the club for movie nights, potlucks, and tennis lessons."
