Prozac Versus Gardening: Why Having A Hobby Might Be More Effective Than Your Current RX
I recently planted a small garden in front of my home. It’s nothing fancy, not yet at least, but it’s my new favorite hobby. When I’m gardening, I just get in the zone. I forget all about the outside world, and it’s just me and the earth. Digging in the dirt, tending to the different plants, watering them and watching how they grow makes me feel content, relaxed, and purposeful.
A strawberry from my garden... it's teeny tiny!
Whether it’s gardening, weight lifting, coloring books, yoga, hiking, painting, cooking, collecting, puzzling, woodworking, playing a musical instrument, bird watching, rock climbing, surfing, skiing, dancing, fishing…. WHATEVER! Having a hobby allows you to completely focus on just one thing. Most of us spend our lives focusing on a million things at once. But when you get into your hobby, you forget about your busy, crazy life, and just live in the moment.
There is actually a word for what you are doing: it’s called mindfulness. And there is some crazy science to back it up.
When you are being mindful, you are purposefully paying attention to one thing. You aren’t being judgmental. You aren’t worrying about the future. You aren’t thinking about the past. You are just being. When you get in a state like this your brain activates.
Activation is a really good thing because it helps grow, strenghthen, and connect certain areas of the brain.
Most of the researchers who study mindfulness observed people who practiced mindfulness for at least eight weeks in the form of meditation, yoga, or mindfulness based stress reduction. By comparing MRIs of mediators and non-mediators, we know that there are two main areas of the brain that get activated from mindfulness.
The first is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher cognitive functions like planning, decision-making, and judgment. The second area is called the insula, which is important for empathy, love, and self-awareness. MRIs also showed increased gray matter density in the brains of mediators. Grey matter is the area where most of the actual brain cells live, and the more dense the matter, the more the cells are able to form connections with each other, thereby giving you a more powerful brain. When you continue practicing mindfulness, AKA keep doing your hobby, the overall structure of your brain adapts to the activated state and experiences lasting improvements in the way you function.
I won’t continue listing boring facts about the brain, but if you want to read more you can click here or here. All you need to know for now is having a hobby is REALLY good for you because it strengthens parts of the brain that are crucial for helping us function in the world.
Here are some evidence-based examples of things that might happen when you commit to a hobby:
1. Your brain activity will develop in a way that leads you to have more resilient and less destructive thinking patterns.
2. Your immune system will drastically improve (even if you have HIV or cancer!)
3. You will notice an improvement in your mood, decrease in stress, and decrease in depression.
4. You will have less anxiety.
5. You will feel more empathetic.
6. You will gain a greater sense of self-control.
7. You will find an internal sense of stability and clarity. (Bonus: If you have ADHD you may notice more improvements in your attention from practicing mindfulness than from taking medications.)
8. If you have ruminating thoughts, impulsive behaviors, or repetitive destructive emotions, it will become easier for you to discern mental chatter from your regular baseline state.
9. If you have severe depression, the likelihood of your depression recurring will decrease by HALF.
10. You will notice an overall improvement in your physical and emotional well-being.
If you think having a hobby is a luxury or something you should only do as a reward, think again. Dedicating one hour a day to a simple hobby can immensely improve your life, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Mindfulness is something that anyone can do, any time, anywhere. If you want to learn more about mindfulness, or would like assistance incorporating some of these tactics into your life, reach out to me. I want to help. For more information or to book an appointment, please call 203-273-5950 or email me at amanda@amandajablon.com.
Amanda Jablon, MSW, ACSW, is an associate clinical social worker in private practice in Los Angeles, supervised by Ken Howard, LCSW, #LCS18290. She works with a wide variety of clients, but specializes in the special needs of millennials and in individuals who need help moving beyond the past.