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The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
Unleash the Power of Hobbies: Boost Creativity and Prevent Burnout
Discover the transformative power of hobbies and how they can revitalize your professional and personal life with me, Rhonda Delaney, on the People Gardener podcast. Ever wondered how a simple hobby can be your ultimate stress-buster? I share my personal journey of finding solace and inspiration in activities like bike riding and gardening, and how these pursuits have become essential tools for self-care and mental well-being. From boosting creativity to enhancing cognitive function, hobbies provide endless benefits that can improve your leadership abilities and prevent burnout. Whether it's the thrill of rock climbing or the peace found in yoga, there's a perfect hobby waiting to fill your spirit.
As we wrap up this episode, I invite you to stay connected and informed about leadership and self-improvement through my email list and the Raving Fans Society app. With both free and paid membership options, you can access a treasure trove of resources tailored for leaders and small business owners, including teaching materials, group coaching, and exclusive sessions. Let's embark on this journey towards a more balanced and fulfilling life, where hobbies not only offer an escape but also enrich your professional endeavors.
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Well, hey there. Welcome to the People Gardener podcast. I'm Rhonda Delaney, your host, also known as the People Gardener, thrilled to put this podcast together to help small business owners, new business owners, frustrated business owners and aspiring leaders, whether they're inside business or outside. Each week, we bring you some actionable steps so that you can actually improve your skill as a leader. That's what we're about. We're here to help you become a better leader by giving you access to lots of different perspectives. By giving you access to lots of different perspectives, the guests are varied. We're thrilled to have them. Get out your pen, get out your paper and be ready to learn Every single episode. You're going to be able to take something away that you can implement. Are you ready? Let's get to work. Well, hey there. Welcome back to the People Gardener podcast. Happy to have you here this week.
Speaker 1:We missed last week. I played hooky and we did Thanksgiving here at the house for, I think, 18 people. We had a 23-year-old up to my dad, the oldest at 92. So lots of laughter and robust conversations happened. And then I got to spend the weekend with my three sisters and two cousins in Vancouver Our annual gathering in Vancouver. It was so much fun. Anyway, I have been on multiple adventures since we last chatted. We last chatted this week.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about hobbies. I've been doing a bit of research just to the benefits of hobbies and why having something that fills our cup or something that we enjoy, something that we're interested in, helps us to balance our energies and helps to relieve stress. So, as I was going, I'm going to share for those of you watching on video you'll see my head go down because I'm checking my notes. I want to make sure that I cover everything. Hobbies are wonderful. I've had hobbies my whole life and they can be as innocuous as, you know, bike riding, or they can be as intense as creating a new program, something in the computer world, or it could be in the woodworking world where you're getting really intricate and getting into things and that is just so relaxing and helping you to energize. It's really such a personal thing. If your hobby is crocheting, that is beautiful because it feeds your soul, it helps you decompressress and it makes life more enjoyable. So, whatever your hobby is, hobbies are really, really good for you to have, especially as a small business owner, as a way to relieve pressure, relieve stress that gets pent up in your day-to-day interactions with your business. So I was able to come up with 10 different benefits, potential benefits to having a hobby. So we've got stress reduction, which absolutely when I'm arranging flowers or when I'm out in my garden getting my hands dirty in the dirt, it is absolutely a stress reduction. You're letting all of that negative energy flow out of you.
Speaker 1:Improve mental health yeah, getting clarity. Helping with depression and anxiety. Hobbies relieve some of that pent-up-ness that is in you that's causing those feelings. Enhance cognitive function. You know thinking.
Speaker 1:One of your hobbies might be putting jigsaw puzzles together. That requires a lot of cognitive function, looking for the piece that's going to fit this particular area. Doing that. It's helping you regularly. Imp improves your memory, helps with problem solving. So there's lots of things that are a benefit, a side benefit of that hobby.
Speaker 1:Increased physical fitness. Now your hobby might be dancing, it might be bike riding, it could be that you love hiking, where you're physically active. So actually the benefit is that you're improving your physical fitness. It helps us to have a better work-life blend. When we introduce our hobby that can actually move us out of that work thinking, that work mode and into something that feeds you and is enjoyable and it helps with the whole burnout problem that is so common in small businesses because you're just all in all the time. So getting a hobby can help you get a bit more balance in your life.
Speaker 1:It boosts creativity. So if it's drawing, painting, it could be even cooking or crafting. That's one of my favorite, in fact, for this weekend I went and borrowed my daughter Tara's Cricut machine and I created a stencil and I stenciled on the bags that I got for each girl this weekend the dates of this weekend and it was so fun. I enjoyed that and it was just freeing and it allowed me to be creative as well. The other one other benefit is the social connections. Your hobby might be sports teams, it could be book clubs, it could be doing the paint and I think they call it a paint and sip at the local brewery once a month when they bring something on. There's lots of different social in your community.
Speaker 1:Events and things that might be your hobby Enhance patience and focus. So when you are doing things like knitting could be petty point, woodworking, gardening, floral arranging, where you're very focused on getting a particular outcome, that's a benefit Increased self-esteem, mastering a new skill, a new hobby yeah, it feels good. So getting in and trying new things has a way of building your self-esteem up. Physical pain relief Now your self-esteem up. Physical pain relief Now there are some, like if your hobby was yoga or tai chi or just becoming flexible, simply stretching, that's one way that you can get that physical pain relief. So those are some of the benefits, and I don't know. If you have a hobby, I'd love to know. Feel free to message me on the socials, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn. And here's some ideas. If you don't have a hobby, it's time you go on one. It really is so active hobbies could be rock climbing, yoga, tai chi, dance classes, getting out in the garden and being physical cycling. It might be martial arts of some kind.
Speaker 1:Go for a hike or just go for a walk If you've got opportunity. In your particular location here in the Pacific Northwest, where I live in Bellingham, there are all sorts of trails very easily accessible where you can walk for a mile or two or 10, depending on how energetic you are. But it's just like, hey, yeah, I'm going to go and do that. And it might be community sports pickup, basketball or volleyball or softball. I know here there's huge community of mixed leagues, men and women together in softball. Now that happens in the summer, it's not year round, but there's something you could do for pickup. Archery is another one. Here we absolutely have the stand-up paddleboard and the kayaking. We have lakes as well as the ocean, sedentary so the ones that aren't quite so active, the cooking and the baking which, hey, I'm a big bread baker. I'm always looking to try new recipes.
Speaker 1:Painting and drawing I find painting probably not as relaxing as it could be because I have a lot of expectations that are absolutely unreasonable when you consider the number of times I've actually picked up a paintbrush. You know you don't become this phenomenal painter just by dabbling in things. You need to do it a number of times, but I do enjoy it. I love working with the different colors. So journaling that might be a hobby that works for you just every day, writing about the day, about your thoughts and your dreams and your hopes. Reading that's a wonderful hobby, whether it's reading fiction or reading non-fiction, whatever appeals to you. Bird watching we watch birds here in our yard. We've got quite a few, but I wouldn't consider myself someone interested in bird watching, but absolutely it's a hobby. You get out and you do and you enjoy and you embrace the now of searching for those birds Again.
Speaker 1:Puzzles are great Knitting, crocheting, embroidery, calligraphy and hand lettering. When I worked in corporate, we had a gal in my sales department that was phenomenal at this hand lettering and it took a lot of time for her to become proficient at it, but she loved it and she kept working at it and she put some beautiful, beautiful cards and it was gorgeous. And then the do-it-yourself projects woodworking there's lots that you can get in there. And then it could be learning a musical instrument or it could be learning a new language. Right, languages tend to be more in the mind-bending ones because they require a bit more of your brain. Chess and strategy games if that could be a hobby, there might be a club that you could join. Escape rooms and puzzle solving games, the word games, coding or web development, learning how to do those things and having fun and enjoying them.
Speaker 1:The thing with a hobby yes, there is some learning curve and yes, there might be some challenges, but it can't this is my opinion. It can't be something that makes you want to throw in the towel or makes this a chore. You need to be enjoying this hobby Creative writing, and poetry is another option for you. So there's lots of things out there. As a small business owner, I really encourage you to take up a hobby if you don't have one, and if you do have one, stick with it. Make sure that you are maybe doing it enough so that it's helping you get some type of balance in your work and your personal life.
Speaker 1:All of the papers that I found on this particular topic hobbies are vital for us as a re-energizing, as settling us in getting to a place, letting go of a lot of things and in certain situations it's actually becoming mindless. So your brain isn't on all the time that you can just put it in park and do this and feel it and enjoy it. You're not Superman or Superwoman. You absolutely need time to rejuvenate, re-energize. Hobbies are one of those ways that you can do that.
Speaker 1:That's it for this week. We'll talk to you again next week. Well, thanks for joining me today. Just a quick reminder if you were not on my email list, go to my website, rondadelaneycom, and there's a place there that you can subscribe, keep you up to date on all things people, gardening and leadership. And also a reminder that the Raving Fans Society app is available on the Apple Store and the Google Store. I do have a free membership in there that you'll be able to access some of my material, and then there's also a paid membership and right now it's $49 a month and you will receive access to all of my material, all of the teaching content, including a resource library that will really help you along, as well as group coaching every month and then quarterly bringing in guests that will talk on topics that pertain to small business owners and leadership. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you again next week.