Making your downtime “Up”: 5 Hobbies that benefit your brain

Giving so much of yourself to everybody, whether it’s in the form of running a business or being a busy parent, means that you may have very little downtime. When you actually have downtime, you can’t simply sit and enjoy it; it’s got to serve a purpose! And this is why we could all benefit from downtime that does something for us, so here are some ways to educate, entertain, and make your downtime more “up.”

Online Gaming

From online escape rooms to playing free casino games for real prizes, gaming is not a waste of time. Gaming can activate numerous parts of our brain, can help us with spatial awareness, fine-tune our focus, and can increase gray matter in the brain. Which is associated with spatial navigation, perception, memories, and muscle control. Therefore. Online gaming is a perfect way for you to enjoy downtime and expand your brain as a result.

Gardening

Creating something while also ensuring it grows is just like running a business. Gardening is like running your own private business, but with a lot more peace and quiet. Starting a garden doesn’t just help you to soak up more vitamin D, but there are also mental health benefits to be had.

It’s an incredibly rewarding practice because if you sit in peace and quiet and tend to your herbs or decide what fruits or vegetables you’d like to grow, this is a very basic lesson in understanding you’ve got to give the right level of care and attention to anything. You can’t be hovering over succulents and vegetables constantly and willing them to grow, much like when running a business. You’ve got to know when to keep your distance.

Journaling

One of the most important tools any business person, but also any person, can benefit from. Journaling in free flow gives you the chance to do a brain dump and get rid of any random thoughts in your mind, but it also allows you to pour all of your anxieties into something, taking it out of your brain and giving you a renewed sense of perception. If you ever feel anxious about something, write it down. You might be surprised as to what you were worried about.

Additionally, it is perfect as a means to be more creative. You can start to journal about random thoughts you had in your past, which can bring about a sense of sentimentality, which is a good thing. Thinking about the past and who you where can help you realize how far you’ve come, but it can also help you to put away old lingering thoughts to bed and move on with your life.

Life moves forward, not backward, and sometimes we can certainly miss an aspect of our past or something that was part of our youth. It’s always there with us, but we also need to keep moving forward. Journaling is the perfect go-between.

Cooking

An amazing way to be more creative and create something that you can enjoy at the end of it. Cookbooks give you access to so much of the great wide world. You can start by expanding your repertoire and getting a cookbook that covers every part of the world, but you can also enjoy the benefits of cooking. Cooking is a great way to relieve stress, and a lot of people cook or bake as a way to unwind after tough days.

There’s nothing quite like using a palate of ingredients to create a meal that is incredibly satisfying. For many people, it is not even the end result that they feel most proud of, but the fact that they’ve undergone the cooking process. If you cannot sit down in the evening, and you need something to occupy your mind, cooking is a perfect choice.

Music

Music covers so many different disciplines, from singing to learning an instrument or making playlists on Spotify, music is one of the best ways to restore your energy. Music is an amazing mood booster and can lower your stress hormones. As you start to grow your business, you may find yourself wanting more free time.

Something like compiling a playlist doesn’t just benefit your cravings for quiet, but it also gives you the opportunity to spend time with something that has grown with you. It can also be an amazing way to create playlists for certain types of moods, whether it’s to boost your energy, increase your focus, or much more.

When it comes to rejuvenating practices, there is a lot you can choose from. Let’s make your downtime “up.”