Let's be honest. Dental Hygiene can be kind of monotonous and boring. Most, if not all days, our time is blocked out into one -hour increments. Working away in our operators, we gain an inherent feel for time: when we need to move on from the 6-mos chatty update about our patients' grandkids or reviewing their health woes, their pesky neighbor, etc. We start to get a feel for when it's time to call for an exam and wrap up our time so as not to be late for our next patient. Having routine has done this for us and it's helpful! We don't always have to have our eye on the clock, thanks to routine.
When we do the same routine all day, every day, our brain goes numb and we lose the spark of life. We need sparks in life to create joy and well-being. When we have a sense of well-being, our work life and our personal life/family relationships benefit.
Just as having a routine is important, so is having hobbies. Routines bring us predictability and help us with decision overload, or "analysis paralysis." Often we find routines good for our health -it takes the thinking out of decision making. For example, having a routine around exercise is beneficial. Routines rid us of the mind drama -we don't have to worry about when to fit it in, and how to plan around it if we just always do it after work, or before work, or on our lunch hour.
Hobbies provide an outlet from our normal hum-drum, day-in-day-out life. Hobbies can do a lot of things for us including helping us tap into our creative side. When we create things, our brain shifts into a different mode and we operate differently. We get to explore and make choices. Creating things can help us express and connect to parts of ourselves that we've maybe become disconnected with. Hobbies can also present challenges for us to learn and grow. When we learn and grow, we increase our self confidence in all areas.
Hobbies can:
Help with stress relief
Help with mental health, depression/anxiety
Provide life perspective
Help you make new friends and expand your social circle
Generate additional income
Serve as a distraction from work and home
Improve communication skills and relationships
Reduced blood pressure
Improve the quality of your sleep
Increase problem solving ability and decrease cognitive decline or fatigue
Hobbies have so many benefits. Taking ourselves out of our normal routine can bring a sense of freedom.
One of my favorite things to do is to rent AirBNB's with friends and family. I love to see new places and explore new territory in the comfort of a home, surrounded by those I love. Renting AirBNB's doesn't fit in the normal realm of a hobby - thank goodness the hobby police won't be coming after me any time soon. My point is, there are no rules around what a hobby looks like, the only rule is that it benefits your quality of life and that it's something you pursue simply because you enjoy it.
Happy hobby-ing!
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