What hobbies of yours have benefited your mental health the most?

[Bearthewear]

I would say walking , always feel better after a walk.

Reading, walking, running, crochet, cross-stitch. All feel like meditation to me.

Gardening, walking and cross-stitch

Yes to horses, I don’t even ride that often, but for me, just being around them is enough
I do craft stuff too, but I’m best getting out of the house

Swimming. I find it so meditative. I'm not very good, technique wise, although stamina is good (or was before lockdown and shielding!!) and the concentration of moving limbs in sync and getting breathing right to try to improve my technique doesn't leave room for any other thoughts.

I had an awful job and would go to the pool at 9pm on the way home, there'd often be no one else there and it would wipe away the day's stress obsessive thoughts so I didn't bring them home.

My mental health has taken a huge nose dive this past year, and I think a big part of it is not having swimming as a release.

Definitely my allotment. Time down there enjoying the peace and watching my crops grow always calms my mind.

Cross stitch, it got me through some very dark days, including lying in intensive care and the resultant PTSD.

Walking was my favourite hobby for years - now I have a 2yo we don't get to do long walks any more. I really miss it!

In general anything that takes my mind off work is relaxing - I can lose myself in playing the piano very easily.

Swimming

Mud wrestling

[quote Frazzledd]@CoalCraft interesting, what is collaborative fiction?

Always been interested in finding out more about the dungeons & dragons world- there used to be a shop at the end of my road that had a table in the middle and always a bunch of people looking like they were having a blast![/quote]
So essentially you have a group of people who all like writing, and each takes responsibility for one or more characters on a pre-agreed setting (often an existing fictional setting, say the Harry Potter universe, though original ones are common too). Players team up to write out scenarios in that setting, taking it in turns to describe their character's actions and advancing the overall story, posting their sections either on a public forum made for the purpose (more common now) or sending them back and forth over email. Increasingly nowadays the text chat platform Discord is used, though I'm not familiar with that.

It's extremely niche and extremely nerdy, but I love it! If you are interested, there's a website called RPG Directory ( rpg-directory.com/ ) that acts as a hub. You can find pretty much any type of have that night take your fancy there.

I genuinely couldn't recommend D&D enough; if you have even an inkling of interest, give it a try!

Running/walking is a key one.

Also being a Brownie leader - we have so much fun! Has been the funniest hour of my week through this lockdown.

@Coalcraft I'm definitely looking into both now, thank you 😊!

Horse riding for sure...wish I could afford it more

Horse riding, by a country mile.

I've also started life drawing with an online class this year, which I love. It's brought me huge amounts of pleasure.

Beachcombing
Horseback riding
Swimming

Thank you for this thread OP!

I used to do so many of the pps suggestions but since having my Dds I don't have time (or energy!) to do so many of these things that I know had a positive effect on me mentally - lockdown hasn't helped obviously with activity centres being shut.

Horseriding I did as a child, I forgot how much I loved it, also Gliding-

Some new suggestions that I'm definitely looking into!

I've been so trapped in routine with my girls (2&3) I've lost myself a little- but I'm making a list of things suggestions on here I can do with them, do for me, its given my head a bit of a pep talk and some stuff to look forward to!

Thank you all 😊