How can we better spend our time and be happy while doing so? Hobbies and or passions. In today’s busy society, we must find and sustain ways to make ourselves happy especially if we choose to be happy. Gratitude helps. In this gratitude-centered approach, you’ll see how appreciation can affect our lives through the hobbies we find and regularly engage in. Below are 4 ways gratitude helps with finding and sustaining a hobby or passion.
1. Gratitude is a source of reflection to better understand ourselves and discover the hobbies that make us happy.
Gratitude can be used to reflect on what truly satisfies and nourishes our soul. When we figure out how we like to spend our time by reflecting on it genuinely, we can discover the hobbies or passions that genuinely make us happy. Getting to know oneself this way is a powerful tool that helps you spend your time more wisely, with intention and in turn satisfaction. There are plenty of things we could be doing with our time, but when we choose to make ourselves happy with a specific activity, we show self-understanding and boost our happiness and enjoyment levels.
2. Frequently expressing gratitude gets you to try new things out of curiosity (i.e. a positive emotion) and can help you find lifelong passions or hobbies.
Curiosity often can be a side outcome of expressing appreciation as the feeling is positive. Being the gateway to positive emotions, gratitude can spark curiosity and in turn help you discover how you enjoy spending your time via a hobby or passion. Curiosity is similar to self-reflection (method number one) making the first two ways gratitude can help with hobbies somewhat similar but still just a bit unique. This is mainly because curiosity doesn’t always ensue from self-reflection. When it does, the curiosity can be an especially helpful tool to finding out how we like and ought to spend our time in order to feel happy.
3. Engaging in appreciation of our hobby helps you sustain the hobby or passion long term and with a positive affect for the hobby.
When we have discovered our hobbies or passions, we can appreciate our time actively spent on them. The appreciation instills a positive affect or attitude for the focus and time spent in the activity and helps sustain the hobby long term this way. We ultimately showcase our personalities and perhaps achievements through sharing our hobbies and passions with each other. Building relationships often comes through spending time and sharing with others who may have similar hobbies or are impacted by a specific achievement that comes with years of engaging in a particular activity.
4. Gratitude primes the mind with motivation in order to engage regularly with our hobby.
Motivation is triggered as another positive emotion for which gratitude is the gateway act. The motivation we find regularly with appreciation can help you get to the gym more often, cook more regularly, read actively and passionately, or run outdoors very often. Any such activities can be hobbies that require our motivation, for which gratitude often can be the primer. Gratitude is a powerful primer of the mind delivering substantial benefits.
Above are 4 ways gratitude can help find and sustain a hobby or passion which help distinguish how we spend our time and find joy. We live life more fully by discovering and utilizing our hobbies regularly. We also learn more about the world we live in and can find deeper meaning when engaged in our hobbies. There is productivity gained and satisfaction felt with the time spent engaged and this ultimately supports a gratitude-centered lifestyle that calls out joy.