I recently started a series where I share with you new and creative hobbies I am trying, which included Miniature making, Felt Doll making, Cloisonne art, and more. In today’s post I am gonna share with you a list of 20 hobbies that will help you still your mind and keep your hands busy.
Having a hobby is really important for your nervous system regulation. It also helps you bond with people you love over something entertaining, and turn a boring moment into a creative session of reconnecting with our inner artists.
If you are in a hurry, here’s the list of hobbies I’m gonna talk about in this article:
- Coloring, painting and drawing
- Calligraphy
- Knitting and crochet
- Pottery
- Clay making (air dry clay/ polymer clay)
- Board games
- Sewing and clothes making
- Beading and embroidery
- Legos
- Puzzles
- Wood carving
- Scrapbooking and journaling
- Candle making
- Soap making
- Card making
- Quilt making
- Video editing
- Jewellery making
- Cross stitching
- Mosaic art
Hobbies to still your mind
The best hobbies to practice if you want to still your mind are the ones where your thinking process becomes limited to making instant creative decisions, and turning your overthinking off to focus your energy on your hand-mind coordination. In a previous article, I explained how important muscle memory is to creative endeavors, and a hobby is pretty much the same.
For that, I would divide the previously mentioned hobbies to three different categories:
Hobbies that require no thinking at all (Difficulty level: very easy)
Jigsaw puzzles
Puzzles are all about observation skills. No thinking required. They are very effective at keeping you in the moment and fostering your problem solving skills. Puzzles are also very beginner friendly. Anyone can make a puzzle with no skill required which makes it a great hobby for a friends or a couple night in.
This 1000 piece puzzle is one of my favorites, and it’s pretty affordable on Amazon.
Cross stitching
Cross stitching is one of the easiest forms of embroideries out there. It is as the name indicates, a bunch of cross stitches coming together to form an image. Cross-stitching requires no thinking because it’s just X-shaped stitches creating a pattern. If you are following a design, you can turn your mind off completely and just do it.
If it is your first time doing cross-stitching, I highly recommend you get a kit like this one.
Coloring
Coloring is another beginner friendly hobby as it requires no skill to be done. Coloring is very therapeutic and refreshing. It’s also mess free and all you need is a coloring book or page and some colored pencils. So, you can do it outside, inside, on the train, etc.
Hobbies that require some thinking (Difficulty level: easy)
Board games
Board games differ in level of difficulty. Some are easy while others require a bit more strategy and thinking. But it’s overall a super fun social hobby that could make your family time or hanging out with friends way more entertaining and memorable.
Legos
Legos are my favorite. Assembling then into things like the lego flower bouquets or like a house is just a blast to both kids and adults. However, legos are very time consuming and sometimes the instructions are not as clear as you’d wish for them to be and so they end up being a bit tricky.
Scrapbooking and journaling
If you are a reader of my blog, you know how much I love journaling. It is one of my all time favorite hobbies that literally keeps me feeling alive. I have a bad memory and taking the time to journal about my week, or month really helps me remember all the things I did and the little moments I enjoyed. Here are some journaling prompts that you can use for your hobby time:
7 Journaling prompts to boost your creativity
Journaling prompts from my journal that you
Journaling prompts for the new year : my 2025 edition
