Health and Well-Being
Ten Hobbies Enhanced the Quality of My Life over the Past Five Decades
Transforming my hobbies into lifestyle habits provided numerous benefits in improving my health, wealth, and happiness.
Transforming Hobbies into Lifestyle Habits
I believe everyone has hobbies. But my hobbies are a bit unusual compared to the majority. As documenting and sharing my life lessons is my meta-hobby, I explained the reasons in adequate detail in this story.
Over the last five decades, ten hobbies significantly improved my health, wealth, and happiness. I intentionally and diligently turned my hobbies into lifestyle habits to improve the quality of my life.
The brain functions better when it detects joy in our actions. Fun activities can silence the concerns of the primitive brain, giving a chance to the thinking brain to take over and make better decisions.
The brain works with patterns. Thus, habits determine our success or failure. Re-wiring my brain for joy, I converted hobbies into lifestyle habits, reaping multiple benefits. In short, this approach improved my health, wealth, and happiness.
An innovative way of incorporating my hobbies into lifestyle habits has been diligently scheduling fun activities and making commitments. Unless there is an emergency, I stick to my schedule.
Scheduling fun activities brought me many benefits.
For example, as mentioned in a previous story, this approach defeated my mild depression in my younger years. Here are my ten satisfying hobbies.
1 — Avid Reading and Methodical Research
I was born hungry for knowledge and insights. Knowledge and wisdom were more important than food and entertainment in my childhood.
Gifted with brain sensory data and information and turning them into knowledge and skills, I added reading and research to my hobby set since my early childhood.
Reading has broadened my horizons, showing me myriad possibilities in life. In addition, learning from the experiences and mistakes of others has become invaluable as they saved me substantial time.
Furthermore, avid reading served as a therapeutic tool for improving my mental health, cognitive flexibility, and emotional maturity by increasing my cognitive reserves for aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Reading and research contributed to improving my health, wealth, and happiness directly or indirectly. Moreover, after consuming research outcomes methodically and diligently, I gained insights by accumulating valuable knowledge and gaining skills.
2 — Expressive and Professional Writing
Writing has been a passion for me since my childhood.
Pen and paper manifested as two magical instruments in my life. Later, computers and smartphones extended the power of this magic.
Expressive writing has been a therapeutic tool for me, as proven scientifically. This technique allowed me to express my emotions timely, preventing them from suppressing. I gained a better emotional profile by penning my thoughts and feelings daily.
Using expressive writing, I regulated my emotions and increased my cognitive flexibility. As a result, expressive writing enhanced my emotional intelligence and maturity. Thus, this hobby contributed to health and well-being.
Professional writing leveraging research skills increased my knowledge and contributed to my communication skills. Thus, it allowed me to earn a living by contributing to building wealth.
I documented the pleasure of selling my books in a story titled The Joy of Selling 1,000+ Books In A Month With Minimal Investment.
3 — Intimate Self-Conversations
It might sound unusual, but I love talking to myself. As I mentioned before, talking to myself was not crazy but clever. Self-conversations brought me therapeutic values.
Self-conversations sounded unnatural and scary in the beginning. Initially, I disliked my voice. It felt strange and disturbing. Nevertheless, I made them a hobby and lifestyle habit with regular practice.
The instant benefit was stress reduction and mental clarity. However, the long-term cognitive development impact was intangible. I felt the effects as I got older. Here is a sample of how I talk to myself daily.
For example, by talking to myself intimately, I tapped into my higher self and enhanced my intuition. When I have a chat with my childhood self, boredom quickly disappears. I explored remarkable after-effects.
In addition, talking to myself increased my creativity and productivity. As a result, I gained innovative and inventive ideas that contributed to my personal development and professional growth. Consequently, I became an inventor with multiple patents.
Another tremendous emotional benefit of methodical self-talk is to deal with boredom effectively. Self-talk helped me turn boring times into more exciting ones, making them more productive.
4 — Regular Use of Dry Sauna and Cold Showers
I have been using dry saunas for over five decades. My interest started with learning about the longevity effects of long-term studies, especially in Finland, where I tried a dry sauna for the first time.
The research highlighted autophagy initiating benefits of exposing the body to high temperatures gradually and safely. However, the most remarkable aspect was learning about activating SIRT2 (longevity) genes after regular sauna use.
I learned that saunas could also be beneficial in improving cardiovascular health. I documented my findings in an article titled Saunas Might Improve Cardiovascular Health.
Over the last three decades, I have been studying the beneficial effects of hot and cold exposure for addressing metabolic and mental health conditions. My focus is on neurodegenerative disorders, particularly dementia.
I documented my findings and perspectives on cold exposure in a story titled Cold Shower a Day Might Keep the Doctor Away in My Experience.
In short, regular use of a dry sauna and cold showers put me in a metabolically better position by balancing my hormones and neurotransmitters.
For example, the effects of heat and cold significantly contributed to reducing my elevated cortisol level and balancing it.
Meeting wise centenarians like Algor, Gisela, Janine (RIP), and Jeremy (RIP) in saunas gave insightful life lessons that I documented in story format.
5 — Barefoot Walk on Grass, Soil, and Sand
I started a barefoot walk on grass and sandy beaches decades ago as a daily activity. The barefoot walk has become one of my favorite hobbies.
This earthing effect of walking barefoot on grass, soft soil, and beach sand has remarkably impacted stress reduction and sleep improvement.
I was thrilled when I learned that negatively charged electrons from our bodies could be absorbed and neutralized by sand, grass, or soil. Of course, some skeptics don’t believe it, but it is their loss.
Daily walking at least 10,000 barefoot steps on grass, soil, or beach sand made me fitter while increasing my happiness.
I documented the details of my bare foot walk experience in a story titled Why I Enjoy Barefoot Walk So Much.
I also enjoy calisthenics like planks and push-ups on the grass to stay fit. I documented my decades of experience with this invaluable fitness regime titled Calisthenics Shaped My Body and Lifted My Mood for Decades
6 — Mindfulness Practices and Meditation
Mindfulness is a lifestyle habit for me. Enjoying a mindful approach to my environment and circumstances, I turned meditation into a hobby as it has been one of the most valuable tools in my mental health first aid kit.
By carefully observing, noticing, and cherishing every moment with acceptance, my mental health improved, contributing to my physical health as a dividend.
Through mindfulness practices, my self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-love augmented. In addition, these practices substantially enhanced my empathy and compassion toward others. As a result, I enriched better relationships with people in my circles.
Furthermore, mindfulness practices enhanced my mental, emotional, social, and spiritual intelligence.
Initially, taming my primitive brain was a challenge. Amygdala hijacks prevented my concentration raising my stress and anxiety.
Leveraging the power of the neo-cortex learned through my cognitive science studies, I improved my focus, attention, working memory, task switching, and problem-solving. Besides, the practice of daily meditation as a hobby enhanced these capabilities.
The most significant contribution of meditation and mindfulness practices was improving my cognitive flexibility and regulating my emotions. These two outcomes balanced my hormones and neurotransmitters.
7 — Time-Restricted Eating
The best contributor to my health and fitness has been eating my food in a specific window. So I made this lifestyle habit an important hobby.
Learning about the remarkable benefits of intermittent and long-term fasting on the body and brain has inspired me to add this practice to my hobbies.
Fasting helped me re-wire my brain, increasing BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). Staying in deep ketosis changed the biochemistry of my brain.
As a bonus, intermittent fasting reduced my inflammation and defeated the symptoms of arthritis.
In addition, long-term fasting initiated autophagy, making my mitochondria denser and converting my visceral fat to brown fat.
Initially skipping breakfast for a decade, then transitioning into the one-meal-a-day eating regime, I significantly improved my health and prevented the emergence of inherited health conditions like diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders.
One of my parents died from ALS, and another currently suffers from type II diabetes. Their unfortunate situations inspired me to take personal responsibility for my health and well-being.
8 — Personalized Nutrition
Believing that we are what we eat, I made personalized nutrition a hobby.
I stayed away from eating out, learned to cook my meals at home, and traveled to apartments and Airbnb accommodations. I stopped using hotels.
Not eating out improved my health and helped me save money in the long term. But, bluntly, as a fussy eater, my food in restaurants is expensive. Moreover, finding my food choices in regular restaurants was challenging, stressful, and time-consuming.
Initially, with help from a dietician, then by trial and error, I developed a personalized diet. Finally, by tweaking it, I found my ideal diet, which is not very common publicly for various reasons. But it suits my needs and helps me thrive.
First, skipping breakfast for a decade, then adopting a one-meal-a-day eating regime made my food delicious, increased my energy, made me fat-adapted, healed my previous disorders, and gave me mental clarity with an optimistic and joyful mood.
9 — Delightful Workouts
Turning exercise into a hobby contributed to better health and fitness. Since movement turned out to be a hobby, I created my personal gym at home. It encouraged the family members to exercise. They had no excuse for not exercising.
I still like public gyms as a social gathering with fitness friends, but I don’t depend on them anymore.
Using my body weight is one of the joyful workouts daily. For example, I love planks (like Audrey), pull-ups, and push-ups daily. They are handy during my travel times.
Calisthenics is more valuable than weight training to me. I still lift moderate weights every second day and a relatively higher weight once a week with my inspiring fitness friends like Adrian in the community gym.
My most joyful workouts are jumping on the trampoline, swimming in cold water, Pilates, Yoga, and dancing. I dance on my trampoline for at least 20 minutes daily to activate my lymphatic system.
10 — Frequent Travelling
Traveling has been one of my favorite hobbies since my childhood. Unfortunately, the only year I couldn’t travel was 2020. It was due to the covid pandemic banning travel in my city, Melbourne, Australia.
As my family believed I was born a mature person, they allowed me to travel at a very young age with other relatives living in different countries. Coming from a European background, I visited all Western European countries.
Living in Australia allowed me to travel to Asia easily. Working in sizeable international business organizations for 40 years allowed me to travel to the United States and 50 other countries.
Travel has broadened my horizons by allowing me to explore different cultures. I embrace the diversity of cultures, races, and ideas. I improved my knowledge and skills through frequent traveling.
Combining my second hobby (expressive writing), I started documenting my travel stories. I’d like to share some exciting travel stories with valuable life lessons, hoping you might find them interesting.
My Australian Wife Refused to Revisit Amsterdam After Two Dramatic Incidents.
An Award-Winning Conference Ended Up in a Health Disaster in Boston
Conclusions and Takeaways
We all need and possibly have multiple hobbies. Some of us make a concerted effort to add them to our lifestyle to gain additional benefits, as I did.
Hobbies depend on our personality, capability, culture, and economic status.
From my experience, turning powerful lifestyle habits into hobbies provided me with additional benefits.
While enjoying my hobbies, the effects of regular joyful practices made me healthier, fitter, wealthier, and happier. I hope your hobbies can give you joy and satisfaction too.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
I wrote numerous articles about the brain and cognitive function that might inform and inspire you. I also wrote about topics like significant health conditions, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, humor, and content development.
I contribute to multiple publications but keep my health and wellness stories on EUPHORIA. My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
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