Hobby? I dunno, but habit? Meditation.

Cycling has been a massive boon to my health, both mental and otherwise. It’s such a fun way to get around, and just so happens to be great exercise in the process.

League of Legends /s

Daily walks are so simple but getting out does wonders

Making the absolute best possible pizza you can, it’s an obsession and sometimes it’s actively stressful which you’d think would be bad for mental health but it’s just the right level of stress and frustration and reward and relaxation and well, pizza, that it’s something that the more I get in to it the more even the most unnecessary extra effort to get only the slightest improvement of the texture or the taste will seem worth it. I also really love trying to emulate ones that I’ve had and loved so there’s kind of an end goal in so far as I can test if I think I’ve replicated or exceeded a standard I’ve set from my favourite pizza place. Doing it this way also opens you up to all the different existing styles you can try and then try to recreate. You could also invent your own if you’re creative enough. You can spend big on fun equipment but you don’t even have to because part of the fun is figuring out the smartest ways to achieve similarity of results with the resources at your disposal. I like making lots of notes to try something subtly different next time.

Whatever else is going on, I’m always in that zone when making pizza. The only problem with it is that it’s a bit impractical. The best pizza tends to be at least a 24 hour long affair with dough made in the morning ready for that night so when you’re super busy at work it’s not easy to fit a good pizza day in there with all the effort and mess involved but when you can, all feels right with the world.

I’m a huge advocate of gardening. It gets you outdoors and active, gives a sense of achievement, you learn and improve over time, it’s popular enough that you can get involved in a community, if you’re growing veg it promotes healthy eating.

It should be mandatory.

Jigsaw puzzles. Start with a couple of hundreds of pieces and then go with the ones of thousands. Also gardening, but you need to have a garden or enough space to have plants inside your home.

Cocaine and good wine and sex and honesty

Bird-watching is very relaxing and surprisingly engaging. You get to know your local birds as individuals with personalities. It’s pretty neat.

Slightly more active, but not by much, raising native bees is low effort and it can be enjoyable to watch the bees go about their business in your garden or yard, assuming you have flowers. In fact, once you get the bees, you might become more interested in gardening because you need to get some nice flowers for the bees, naturally.

Playing an instrument, like a guitar. It’s great being able to play, but it takes time to learn it.

@return2ozma Checking your smartphone less often

I need to feel productive. Be it a programming project or woodworking. Just creating something new instead of maintenance like oil changes and mowing the lawn. Creating something new.

Also, take a walk in the forest. Get out on the water. Both are great therapy to disconnect from the mental todo-list of things going on around the house.

Disc golf is the sport for nerdy kids who never liked sports. And even if you’re absolutely terrible, you get to take a nice walk in the park or the woods. Most courses are free to play, and you really only need one disc to have a good time. Strongly recommend for those who know they aren’t active enough but have no interest in going to the gym.

Weightlifting has done wonders for mine. I don’t even go super hard with it, just an adjustable dumbell set and bench at home a few times a week.

Wax Sealing. You heat up colorful wax in a spoon over a tea light, pour it on a marble slab and then stamp cool designs into it. It is fun to experiment with different mixes, pouring techniques, etc and is very relaxing. Plus, when you are done, you have lots of cool seals. I have a bucket full of them and I like to just sit an go through them.

There is a youtube channel called ‘melts’ that makes really nice wax sealing videos with no talking.