The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our way of life, resulting in higher rates of anxiety and depression. People are isolated in their homes and find themselves with a lot of free time on their hands. This leads to anxiety and depression and once you get engulfed in those two, it is nearly impossible to get out.
Telling ourselves that everything will be okay is the first step, then maybe pursuing creative and interesting hobbies could be the solution to evade anxiety and depression. These trying times are a perfect opportunity to take up something that you wished to do in the past, but couldn’t because of how time-consuming it was. Without further hesitation here are some ideas that may help you find meaning even in the hardest, most trying times.
Learn Something New
While we cannot rely on a patron like St Rosalia to lift the COVID-19 curse like she did the 1624 plague in Palermo, we can make the best out of a bad situation. A new hobby just might do the trick to cure depression and help you find new meaning in life.
Creative hobbies
If you want to pursue a creative hobby as a leisure activity, origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, is an excellent choice. It is not only creative, but it is also relatively simple to pursue as a hobby. It essentially entails transforming a piece of paper into a sculpture to represent the creatures or objects of your choice.
The best part is that you only need a few sheets of paper to begin pursuing this hobby. The only other thing you’d need would be your creativity and some knowledge of folding paper. Origami is performed with the help of special paper that is thin and able to hold a crease. This paper is unique in that it can be folded multiple times without tearing. In general, the origami paper is colored on one side and white on the other.
Although origami may appear to be a difficult art at first, once you understand the folds and how the paper can be modeled, the sky is your only limit.
A New Language
But maybe you’ll want to try something different, a common hobby among people is learning another language. The reason is that it has advantages regardless of where you come from or how old you are. Since learning a new language requires you to use your brain in ways you would not do otherwise, it strengthens brain functions such as memory, problem-solving, multi-tasking, and observation.
As a result, bilingual and multilingual students outperform their monolingual counterparts in unrelated subjects. Learning about another culture on their terms is not only beneficial, but it can also help you consider other people’s points of view in a variety of situations.
It can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before. Of course, depending on how related they are to your native language, some languages will be more difficult than others. Any English speaker will find Spanish easier to learn than Japanese. Likewise, some people just simply have an easier time with languages than others. However, regardless of which language you learn or how naturally good you are at picking it up, it does not have to be the arduous task that you might expect.
Understand that everything will be fine
It is important to note that everything in life is ever-changing and that nothing is permanent. You might even want to embrace the change and use it as a learning experience, it will come as no surprise that you have learned a valuable life lesson on the other side. It is also crucial to have a very strong mindset and view of the world.
Sure, bad things happen, but you don’t have to react as if it’s the worst time of your life. If you maintain a positive attitude, you will be able to overcome any challenge without experiencing any hardship – simply believe that everything happens for a reason.
Be proud of yourself, your strength, and your ability to overcome obstacles. Never let yourself become demotivated or believe that you are worthless. Be proud of who you have become and what you have accomplished.
Final Thoughts
Anxiety, depression have all been an issue for all of us during this period of quarantine and isolation. Staying occupied has become difficult with all of our activities, classes, and projects canceled and we are left contemplating life all of a sudden.
It is critical to maintain your hobbies while staying at home. Your hobbies can aid in the creation of a semblance of stability in your daily routine. And most importantly keep yourself motivated by saying everything will be fine, nothing stays the same, a better time is sure to come.
