Summer Is for Self-Improvement: Best Hobbies To Pick Up Over the Summer

Summer is a great time for self-retrospection and improvement. With no school to worry about, there’s so much opportunity to lean into new hobbies that you otherwise might not be afforded the luxury of, considering the chaos of the regular school year. Even if you’re taking summer classes or working a job, having the scaled-down course load and break from other university activities will usually leave you with a fair amount of time to explore new things. 

With so much time over the school year spent focusing on academics, it gets pretty easy to fall out of touch with our creative sides, which is why embracing them over the summer helps maintain them during the academic season. It also helps out that picking up new hobbies can reset the attention span for when it is time to get back in the full swing of courses, come August. 

The Arts 

Focusing on the arts has been an effective tool for many people to curate a well-rounded balance from factually oriented tasks that college usually requires of students. What better time to hone your craft than summer vacation? Hobbies such as photography, painting, dancing, scrapbooking, and writing all satisfy our creative sides and stimulate the different parts of our brains that academics may leave a little rusty. The great part about the arts is that there is something for everyone! From visual to rhetorical to performance, there are so many different ways to express your ideas or find an outlet. 

Connecting with the Earth 

With unpredictable weather or getting pulled into a plethora of commitments, it’s easy to lose time spent outside while at college – I’m guilty of it too. However, connecting with the Earth is so important for mental wellness and for us, as humans, to maintain a sense of belonging in our perception of the world. Some good ways to do this can involve gardening, yoga, hiking, or swimming. All of these activities are therapeutic tools for many people in maintaining a relationship with nature and balancing personal wellness with other affairs.

Stimulating your mind 

Even though summer calls for relaxation and taking your mind off the books, it’s still important to keep your brain sharp and stimulated. Reading, word games, and card games can all be linked to analytical thinking and maintaining a sharp mind long-term. By focusing on this aspect over the summer, you’ll also prevent a rough re-entrance to the school year and avoid having to retrain your brain back into the academic mindset.

If you’re struggling to find a new hobby and the ones from this list don’t work out, they are still a good start to figuring out what best suits you. If you decide to pick up one of these and don’t know where to start, YouTube will likely give you all the information you can dream of. Overall, the best thing you can do for your personal development over the summer is to connect with yourself and do things that promote your growth and well-being, whatever that means to you. 

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