From Necessity to Guilty Pleasure: The Evolution of “Hobbies”
Redefining hobbies as a fulfilling lifestyle choice.
Someone said to me the other day, “You have a lot of hobbies”. What they were referring to was all of the ways my hands-on approach to life manifests. Yes, I do love making things!
The statement got me thinking, and a profound thought popped into my mind:
“Once essential survival skills of our ancestors are now the hobbies that enrich our modern lives.”
A person sewing moccasins in the 1600s or Arctic villagers drying fish and reindeer meat for consumption during the winter would not be considered hobbyists.
Patchwork quilts may well have been functional before the modern age, but someone with the skill to create something functional AND beautiful was valued in their community.
Barter and trade were an exchange based on the value of energy and skill rather than currency.
I have come to the realization that we, as a species, have a form of tribal amnesia regarding art and skill.
How hobbies became guilty pleasures.
“Convenience”.
Statistically in this age and stage, modern humans have the ability to drive to the local store to pick up a few groceries, or whip out an iphone and order something online in a few minutes.
With the advent of machines and technology, most household items and staples can be replenished in a few days if not hours.
Right now, I can pop down to the store and buy a bar of soap with mystery ingredients for $3 or buy an “all-natural” option for twice the price.
But I don’t want to. Making things is like a meditation for me.
From the olfactory stimulating blending of essential oils of amalgamating ingredients together to create a nourishing goop, to the hardening curing process, which requires a 5-week practice of patience, making soap is a pleasure for me.
We are conditioned to the addiction of instant gratification! I want it NOW!
But in my opinion, we have lost the joy in the journey and the feeling of abundance that comes with being able to make something with our hands or from the earth.
Reframing the labels we associate with different activities.
When my soap-making interest was labelled a “hobby”, I was initially confused by a strange sense of loss and sadness.
I’ve been conditioned to label processes that were once an integral part of our everyday journey as guilty pleasures.
We’ve tarnished words such as “hobby” with an expectation that we can only enjoy something when we have earned it – in “our spare time”.
And that what we spend time on has been dictated to us by social narratives.
Spare time away from what?
Our societal obligations to earn more so we can want more, get more, and achieve can be likened to an uncontrolled monster on the loose.
There is a cost to being perpetually busy. We miss the importance of spending time in the magical space of just being in each moment while on our human journey.
Human doings rather than human beings!
I have many “hobbies”, from soap making to growing my own veggies, to sewing clothes for myself and my family, to building a myriad of things I would otherwise have to buy.
It has been a difficult journey to give up the guilt and give myself permission to let go of the societal meanings we have given to activities once deemed necessary for existence.
It takes conscious presence throughout the day to observe the self-ridicule and guilt mechanisms we have become accustomed to.
Shoulding on ourselves is a modern curse!
What if we choose to pay attention to how we feel about words like hobby, art, play, or doing nothing? What feelings arise when you say these words?
What do YOU define as “guilty pleasures”?
In other words, when do you catch yourself saying, “I’ll do xyz when…..” and notice a sense of guilt associated with whatever the xyz is?
Every day we have the option to re-label something, a word with a negative activity and associate it with something positive instead?
I have consciously chosen to rewire the neurons in my brain. I stop myself in the middle of a self-rebuke and rename my hobbies, whether sewing, soapmaking, gardening, building, or cooking, a “walking meditation. "
What would happen if you re-labelled something that gives you pleasure with an empowering term? A walking meditation, maybe? Or something that feels true to you. How would, could you feel different?
What would make you smile?
A friend and I tried practising this habit daily (as part of a 21-day walking meditation exercise), and it has been transformative.
I now notice how I feel about my “hobbies”, and how the meaning that I used to associate with the time spent in my own personal hobbyland has changed.
Modern society may have taught us to work ourselves into the ground and to keep that treadmill running, but we do have the power to redefine the meaning we assign to….well…anything, actually.
Inherited associations with specific words run deep.
With gentle, compassionate observation, we can unpack and transform meaning.
Making soap from e may have been a necessary skill a mere 200 years ago, if you wanted to enjoy the luxury of soap.
Now you pay a premium for “all-natural chemical free” anything.
We all have the power to choose what meaning we give to simple words.
Maybe a hobby is actually a way to reconnect with your heritage. Maybe it is a reminder that the value of that skill was appreciated by someone with a different set of skills they would once have exchanged in a barter society.
What would we regain, something lost in our global community, if we remembered that our interests, skills and passions were important?
What if we could celebrate the time in between the chaotic human doingness and see each other as human beings, just beings, while we grow to fill our souls and our pantries?
Next time someone says I have many hobbies, I’m going to say with delightful glee: “Yes and my hobbies not only feel great when I immerse myself in them, but I also enjoy sharing the resulting fruits of my enjoyment with my tribe, (and lowering my grocery bill at the same time)”.
So I leave you with a question….
What “hobby” or guilty pleasure would you dive into if you gave yourself permission and the resources to do it?
What would you do in the gap between doings?
Maybe doing nothing is just as important as something?
What meanings do you assign to the terms “spare time” or “hobby”? What unspoken rules govern your understanding of these ideas? Remember, they’re merely abstract concepts until we imbue them with significance!
