How to improve your life with hobbies

I think having a hobby is seriously important. It's not just a play-thing for teenagers or an unimportant side activity in your adult life, it's a genuinely healthy thing to actively nurture.

I'm no psychologist, so I might have bought into the ideas in this study way too much, but I know for sure that leisure activity is just as important as work. It gives us a sandbox to experiment and fail without much consequence and this feeds creativity. It gives us pleasure in a world where mental health is on the back-burner. It keeps us actively engaged in learning and feeds communities that orbit around our hobby.

The researchers in this study think that the more seriously engaged in a hobby you are, the more capable you're likely to be in your career. They also think that this effect gets stronger if your hobby looks less like your work.

Personally, I'm into playing guitar and brewing coffee (yeah, I'm one of those guys). If you're considering either one of these, just be aware that the former gets incredibly expensive as you succumb to Gear Acquisition Syndrome and the latter makes you unable to relate to 98% of the non-hipster population.

What's your hobby?