Do you wish you spent some time in your day being completely offline and enjoying an awesome screen-free time? I think we all do. To help you with this, here are some great screen-free hobbies to have fun offline.
In this recent age, our screen time always seems to be up.
As much as beneficial electronics have made in our lives, if we don’t put an intentional limit on them, it may lead to some negative effects in our life.
But what can you do in your spare time to get moving and enjoy life like we did before electronics existed? Here are 13 ideas for mindful, screen-free hobbies to help you have fun offline.
P.S This is a guest post contributed by Cora Gold.
13 Screen-free hobbies to have fun offline
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1. Interior Design
Anyone can buy a new couch when they have the means. Still, it takes skill and planning to invent an interior design that encapsulates your unique personality while making your home suitable for the showroom.
You have multiple ways to dig into this hobby. Are you fascinated by how your environment affects your health and fortune?
Explore your interest by studying feng shui, perhaps creating a Bagua map for each room of your home to facilitate better energy flow and enhance your sense of well-being.
You’ll also discover how to incorporate various elements to harmonize your interior.
You may prefer making what was once old, new again. It’s a piece of cake to learn how to refinish furniture and once you get the knack, you can spend many pleasant weekend mornings scouring thrift shops and yard sales for hidden treasures.
Then, use the afternoon to transform your finds to beautify your home or sell for extra cash.
2. Gourmet Cooking
Cooking wasn’t always an unpleasant chore to squeeze in after work between homework duty and soccer practice. It used to be an integral part of human life and can be again if you adopt it as a healthy hobby.
Do you want to shed unwanted pounds in the new year? How about experimenting with healthier substitutions for common ingredients in your favourite recipes?
Many of these slightly alter the taste and texture of well-known dishes, so play around with different blends until you find one that delights you and your family. Here are some ideas:
- To cut red meat: Try making your burger patties with portabella mushrooms, hemp seeds, black beans, walnuts and chickpeas.
- To eliminate white flour: White flour is a nightmare. Instead, try using whole grain, quinoa, amaranth, chickpea, lentil or almond flour.
- To go light on sugar: Both stevia and monk fruit are all-natural, but different formulations require slight tweaks to make your recipes taste identical to the original.
- To banish butter and oil: Try using applesauce or yogurt.
3. Dancing
Here’s a hobby that could preserve your brain as you age. Researchers studied the impact of walking and social dancing on several adults’ risk of dementia.
One activity emerged as the clear winner — dancing. It could be that paying attention to the steps while in motion creates the ideal brain conditions for increasing neuroplasticity, your mind’s ability to form new connections.
4. Reading
What if you work a physical job and want to relax after work? The TV isn’t your only alternative.
Humans have communicated through the written word for years and reading is a fabulous mindful hobby to try in the new year.
The trick is to pick something that grabs your interest. You’re never too old to lose yourself in a comic book or graphic novel if that’s your yen.
Do you prefer nonfiction? Why not learn about the fall of the Roman empire or the best way to build a birdhouse?
Here are the 18 best books to read for beginners.
5. Knitting
Here’s a mindful, screen-free hobby that keeps your hands busy. That makes knitting the ideal pastime if you tend to graze while you watch TV and want something to occupy your fingers beside a salty bag of chips.
This hobby also has practical benefits.
A sweater, hat or blanket can help keep you warm in the winter. Yarn doesn’t cost too much and you can create custom gifts your recipients will never find on store shelves.
6. Gardening
Gardening was perhaps the most popular pandemic pastime — but that’s because it provides so many perks. It helps you become more self-sufficient, contributing to feeding your family while providing a bit of extra for canning or freezing.
It gets your body moving and provides oodles of mental health benefits, soothing depression and anxiety symptoms.
You can also get started on the cheap. Why not learn to save the seeds from easy-to-grow veggies like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers?
You can replenish your stash using repurposed containers to create a patio garden even urban dwellers can maintain.
7. Yoga
Yoga is the ultimate mindful, screen-free hobby and there’s a style for everyone of every fitness level. Athletic, energetic types might gravitate to vinyasa or Ashtanga.
Those looking to wind down at day’s end or cultivate inner peace may find their groove in restorative or Yin classes. You don’t even have to join a studio — you can easily practice simple moves at home.
8. Hiking
Hiking gets you moving in the great outdoors. Immersing yourself in nature has countless mental, physical and emotional benefits.
It can remind you of the important things in life, like growth and harmony.
Instead of listening to music while you hike, pay attention to the sounds of nature – birds chirping, water running, leaves crunching under your feet. Truly feel present as you wander and appreciate the natural world.
9. Stargazing
Humans have looked to the sky with wonder since time immemorial.
You don’t have to have a telescope to start stargazing, although it helps to move away from light pollution for an unfettered view of the stars.
If you fall in love with your new pastime, you might even try to convince others in your community to go for an International Dark Skies designation.
While you look up at the sky, think about your place in the world. You may feel small in comparison to the universe, but that’s okay. It can remind you that everyday challenges and frustrations won’t be the end of the world.
10. Martial Arts
Do you want to burn calories while meeting new friends and learning to defend yourself? Why not take up martial arts in the new year? You have dozens of styles from which to choose:
- Muay Thai
- Jiu-Jitsu
- Krav Maga
- Taekwondo
- Judo
- Mixed martial arts
Practising martial arts can be a great way to engage in mindfulness. Many of these arts have both physical and mental components that really help you strengthen the connection between body and mind.
11. Scrapbooking
Are your most precious baby photos and mementoes still languishing in shoeboxes?
Pull them out and use them to create a masterpiece you’re proud to display on your coffee table. Scrapbooking is a relaxing hobby that lets you preserve memories of your heritage, creating priceless heirlooms to leave to your children someday.
While you make your scrapbook, reflect on the memories that these photos hold. Whether they spark happy or sad feelings, taking time to meditate on your memories can bring you peace and healing.
12. Journaling
Journaling can be an incredibly cathartic experience, as well as a fun, creative hobby.
Rather than letting your worries and anxieties swim around in your head, try putting them down on paper. You can take as much or as little time as you want to write out your thoughts and feelings.
Even five minutes of journaling can bring you a sense of relief.
I have a 21-day Gratitude Journaling challenge where you’ll get a journal prompt, a gratitude challenge and a quote to keep you inspired.
Subscribe below to take the challenge
You can also try bullet journaling
Bullet journals have bullet points on the pages rather than lines, allowing for more creative freedom to design the pages however you like.
You can make boxes to check off items on a to-do list or create habit trackers. Or you can use the dots to make lists – such as listing things you’re grateful for or the high and low points of each day.
13. Volunteering
Spending time serving others has countless benefits, both for you and the people you’re serving.
Helping others can boost your mood and self-esteem, as the action of doing something good will fill you with positive feelings.
Making a difference in the world in your free time is often much more fulfilling than watching TV or scrolling through social media.
Volunteering gives you the opportunity to connect with people in your community, which can give you a sense of belonging.
It’s easy to feel disconnected from the world around you when you spend most of your time inside and online.
Whether you serve food at a homeless shelter or join a beautification group, you’ll have the chance to socialize, get to know your neighbourhood and put positive energy into the world.
So these were some screen-free hobbies you can try.
Screen-free Hobbies to Get You Off the Screen
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Whether you work on a computer all day or spend your free time scrolling on your phone, you can benefit from screen-free activities.
Sitting in front of the TV or other devices can often be a mindless pastime that does little to benefit your body and mind.
Leave the computer and phone in your home office. Instead, adopt one of these mindful hobbies to get you off the screen in the new year and enjoy fun in real life.
P.S. This was a guest post from Cora Gold. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the women’s lifestyle magazine, Revivalist, where she writes about living a happy, healthy and mindful life. Follow Cora on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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These are such great ideas! We have been remodeling the upper level of our home and when the long days of construction and flipping are done, all we have wanted to do is turn on the TV or go on our phones. It’s so easy when you have spent the whole day throwing things in a dumpster rental, ha! I am going to give these a try and hopefully get my kids involved too. Thanks!