[Issue #31] It's Time to Get a F❗cking Hobby
A short essay arguing against idle hands
“Hobbies are great distractions from the worries and troubles that plague daily living.”
-Bill Malone
I used to love video gaming. Long before it was an option for a career. In high school, my best friend lived in a purple house down the street from me and was gifted a Super Nintendo one year. I remember staying up many nights beating every game we could afford, blowing out the cartridges when they got dust and gunk inside them.
Then my life changed and gaming became an escape. Fast forward several years, I’m in the Air Force and back from my first deployment to southern Iraq (this is 2006). When I got back home, I began to drink heavily, try all those drugs, and make some pretty interesting decisions that would follow me for another 15 years.
I didn’t know it then, but I can see it now - I gamed a lot of my free time away. I played World of Warcraft for years, but I spent so much time inside that world because it was too difficult for me to live in my own reality. At the time, I wasn’t thinking too hard on my reasons for playing.
Then, one night, after I had gotten my first apartment (but still not a lot of furniture - one of the many symptoms of complex PTSD is being terrible with money and finances), I decided to build a tiny diorama, a little military one. I built it out of the cheapest kit I could find. I used cardboard for my base (this is also before YouTube or tabletop gaming information was so easily found) and poured some dirt on it. I don’t know why that specific project was what I focused on, but I still love building those tiny dioramas. And I’ve gotten a lot better at them.
There’s (finally) a good amount of research on the benefits of Creative Arts Therapy and the positive impact it has on processing trauma, increasing resiliency, and diluting the effervescent symptoms and reach of trauma - across all ages, disabilities, and trauma types. That’s a huge pool of potential impact. Creative Arts Therapy may be the only therapeutic modality that has the capacity for this large of a therapeutic impact.
Art therapy has been a proven beneficial modality for trauma survivors, across ages and cultures, social classes and experiences. In fact, art therapy is so beneficial, that the intensive treatment program through Operation Mend at UCLA has built it into their 3 week programming, using several of the most highly researched art project-types coupled with the appropriate therapeutic interventions.
Neuroarts (an organization dedicated to researching the impact art has on humans and how to integrate science and creative arts- from their website: What is Neuroarts? “Scientific studies increasingly confirm what human beings across cultures and throughout time have long recognized: we are wired for art. The arts in all of their modalities can improve our physical and mental health, amplify our ability to prevent, manage, or recover from disease challenges, enhance brain development in children, build more equitable communities, and foster wellbeing through multiple biological systems.”) has published a Blueprint in which they list 5 core principles of Neuroarts - the first two struck me:
“Experiencing art is fundamental to being human, a common thread across cultures, racial and ethnic backgrounds, age groups, income levels, and skill sets. The arts offer a shared language, a means of elevating diverse voices, and a catalyst for action.”
and
“The arts, as expressed through many modalities, have demonstrable, evidence-based impacts on physiological and psychological health and wellbeing.”
And one core finding:
“The arts and aesthetic experiences impact human biology and behavior in ways that differ markedly from any other health intervention. Scientific studies demonstrate that many art modalities act on complex biological systems and mechanisms to generate physiological and psychological effects. As research applies increasingly sophisticated technological tools to learn more, practitioners are already using dynamic and targeted arts interventions to advance health and wellbeing.”
But what if I told you that keeping your hands and mind busy with shit you enjoy doing is a recipe for joy and contentment, and maybe even pride? Which means, more time with less stress, less inside your own head, fewer bodily aches and pains, better sleep quality, improved cognitive functioning, improved emotion regulation, improved spiritual connectedness, and a wide dampening of anxious energy among other things?
“Engaging with creative and artistic activities has a proven track record of improving individual and population health—from increased emotional regulation and social connections and improvements in cognitive capabilities and meaning-making to alleviating pain, reducing anxiety, and facilitating healing processes. Those health benefits, in turn, are deeply linked to economic performance, in part because people are more productive when they are healthier.”
-Human Capital and the Arts at the World Bank Group (Biondo, 2020)
A long time ago, my therapist encouraged me to write, but to take it more seriously. So I did - and it’s lead me all the way here. Had my therapist not offered writing as a means of self-reflection and entertainment, I’m not sure I would have gone down this same road. Maybe I’d have been a writer either way, I guess we’ll never know.
And my therapist also encourages my other hobbies - I also distinctly remember someone telling me to keep my hands busy on days I feel depressed or a lot of anger, and I took that bit of advice to heart.
This is a vast and distinct difference from being inside a bubble of denial, lost in a fictitious world. I enjoy mountain biking and sure, it’s a hobby, but I’m not creating anything artistic when I’m biking.
When I’m being creative in someway, my emotions don’t have space to distract or divert me. Creating something brings me right into the milliseconds tick-ticking by, one after the other, because I’m click-clacking on my keyboard, or I’m putting together a tiny Tiger Tank, or because the hum of the guitar strings and my own voice have turned into something else, something far bigger. This is the power of creating.
Science now verifies what humans have known for a long, long time - art, and creating art, is a soothing, healing, invigorating, drunken-like experience. Art is cunning in that it’s able to hijack the systems within us that create biases and inflate the ego. Art doesn’t give a shit about your ego, or your judgements. Art is kind of badass because it’s so fucking fair game.
There’s lots of studies on the differing types of creative arts therapies, and more and more research is being done all the time. Remember issue #2, with the timeline of mental health? Thanks to the 1990s, “The Decade of the Brain”, science was able to fund and research the impact of art on the brain in ways not possible until then. With imaging, sensors, and techniques, we’ve been able to prove that art therapy really works. And it works for nearly everyone. There’s yet to be another therapeutic modality that is this inclusive. But our western society is only just now beginning to accept the true reality of mental health in our culture.
In the “Special Report on the Brain” from Art and Creativity for Healing, there are some extraordinary stats on the implications of engaging in art creation:
“Deep activation of brain systems through art reduces stress and creates happiness….These patients were referred to an eight-week course involving poetry, ceramics, drawing, mosaic or painting. A cost-benefit analysis showed a 37% reduction in GP consultation rates and a 27% reduction in hospital admissions. That represents an NHS (National Health Service) saving of £216 ($280) per patient.”
Art therapy and art creating/hobby are not the same thing - but my point is, creating art is unlikely to cause you harm. Unlike avoiding life for many hours per day, creating something adds an anchor of meaning and connection where those ties might have been severed.
Creating something allows us a chance to build self-trust, which is a tumultuous and fragile thing when you’re a trauma survivor. Then, we learn to drop the self-judgements when we look at our work. If I pre-empted every issue of this newsletter with a header saying something like, “I know you probably won’t like this,” or, “This isn’t my best, but…”, what message would that convey?
Not every piece of my writing is something I hang a lot of pride in - I also don’t berate myself if something doesn’t come out the way I’d intended. Creating allows us to learn that our intention doesn’t mean shit. It’s being present, and navigating the landscape inside ourselves that really unlocks our joy while creating.
If you want a fast track to learning how to stop judging yourself and others, pick up a hobby and learn to be kind to yourself as you learn.
I didn’t always know the A chord on the guitar. I still don’t know how to play an F.
I’m a terrible artist, and I painted some stuff I’m proud of.
We don’t have to compare ourselves with anyone else.
Picking up a hobby that is based upon creation will help us learn that we are good enough just as we are, where we are. And a good hobby will challenge us. Frustrate us. And bring us joy, empowerment, exhilaration or calmness.
Remember, art is fair game. It’s for everyone. Even you.
Some creating ideas to get you started (should you want/need them):
Writing something
Building anything
Designing anything
Cooking something
Baking something
Quilting/knitting/sewing something
Jewelry making
Painting/drawing/airbrushing/wood-burning/etc
Virtual design and art-making/graphic art
Creating films
Photography
Creating dance choreography
Sculpting/metal working
Tabletop gaming terrain/dioramas/scale trains
The holidays are upon us (here in the US), which usually means more stress - finding something you enjoy creating that keeps you busy is a great way to mitigate this increase in stress.
Now go create something! (But like this post first!)
“In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.”-Isaac Watts, “Against Idleness and Mischief”
Find an art therapist by clicking here (from artstherapy.org)
PSA: I’m Not Triggered will be taking a seasonal break. This issue will be the last live issue until January 5th, 2023 - the months of November and December will be dedicated to reposts and releasing audio versions of older posts (for paying subscribers - subscribe above!), time for my family, my shoulder surgery (with a 3 month recovery or so) in early December, and the writing of my dark fantasy novel. The newsletter will resume the regular schedule of every Thursday at 6am CST for audio episodes and every Thursday at 8am CST for regular posts beginning Thursday, January 5th - expect to see some bonus content (for paying subscribers)!
Thank you for your understanding! Enjoy the holidays, and my email box is always open: ADPurchas@gmail.com
I’ve found that working with my hands has been very helpful to me also!
Enjoy your hiatus!!