On Finding New Hobbies & Setting Routine
One of the hardest parts of quarantine up to this point has been the seemingly endless lack of physical social interaction. For many of us, moving away from seeing coworkers, friends, and family on a regular basis has been, to put it mildly, difficult. But coming to terms with our new normal has allowed us the time for self-reflection, setting up new routines, and finding new hobbies to focus our energy on.
For me, it wasn’t easy. I spent the first week working from home on a steep decline from focus to laziness. My first day was relatively normal – showered and ready to work by 9AM, with my dining room table transformed into my digital workstation. By Wednesday though, the comfort of my bed was long-lasting and where I spent most of my day. I was lucky enough to move in with some family for a few months who fed my need for daily social interactions, but more importantly set me up on a new routine that I’ve held onto throughout quarantine. It was a meeting of the minds where they helped me re-ignite an old passion and light a new hobby all at once.
I’ve always been interested in cooking, but quarantine certainly brought it out full force. I saw myself as an amateur chef – or at least that’s what I would like to believe based upon my countless hours watching Top Chef, Chopped, 30 Minute Meals, and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Living with others, they offered me the thing I hate most about cooking – hands for cleaning up dirty dishes. In exchange, I promised to cook nightly. Cooking provided me a ton of things – a creative outlet using whatever the kitchen fridge provided, the opportunity to test the recipes of some of my most admired celebrity chefs (currently working through Chrissy Teigen’s two cookbooks), and the time during each day to mentally unwind and relax.
While cooking may have been my forte, my family was more of the fitness types. Regimented daily workouts were never my cup of tea, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt almost a year in – daily exercise has definitely kept my attitude more positive across the board. I had picked up a fondness for boxing and spinning prior to quarantine, but the time stuck inside certainly intensified it. While my cousins were outside lifting with daily cross fit workouts, I was in my room punching, jumping, and pushing away to master basic boxing skills. Working out from home means I miss the joy of punching a bag on a regular basis, but knowing I’ll be back in the studio soon with a new attitude (and new muscles) is part of the excitement!
My daily routine which starts with a workout and ends with home cooking doesn’t sound like how you would traditionally celebrate hobbies, but they have certainly provided me my daily opportunity to play, learn, and perfect new skills. As we stay indoors for the foreseeable future, that exploration of new hobbies will definitely continue as well – including this blog itself as a creative outlet for my writing; maybe one day I’ll finally get to writing that script I’ve told all my friends about…
At the end of the day, finding new hobbies and setting up a daily routine for myself has not only benefited my waist and my wallet, but my mental health as well. That first week of quarantine I didn’t think I would be able to last even the two weeks we originally thought we would be stuck away from our daily lives. But today I’ve certainly learned to accept our ‘new normal’ and focus on what few things in my life I do actually control to fulfill myself both mentally and physically.
