5 Hobbies You Should Journal For

No matter your hobbies, whether it is physical like yoga or mental like chess, they’re great for your well-being . They can improve your mental health by helping manage your stress and moods.

Learning new skills also improves neuroplasticity, which essentially changes your brain on a structural level. You end up building new connections between different parts of your brain, which can help you respond differently to challenges as well.

If you have a new hobby, a great way to encourage your development is to journal about it. Aside from recording new knowledge and what you felt, journaling your hobby makes you feel that it is really important to you. Here are some new hobbies that are perfect for journaling:

Yoga

Doing yoga relieves stress and it can start a process of introspection as well. You can continue learning more about yourself by starting a yoga journal. Before starting a yoga session, write down your intentions for that practice. Then after the session, write down how you feel physically, emotionally, and mentally both during and after the session. You can also track which poses you were able to do and which ones still need work, allowing you to plan your development better. Journaling your yoga experience is a way of acknowledging and validating your feelings.

Chess

If you want to become a good chess player you need to have a record of every game you play. Chess notation is part of the game and done at every level of tournament. By keeping these records in your journal you can play the match as it happened and examine exactly where you went wrong if you lost, or which moves worked well if you won. ​

Chess is a game where the only way to get truly better is studying your gameplay and that of your opponents. And there is no better way to compile your results, moves, and notes on opponents than in a dedicated journal.

Poker

Like chess, poker is also a sport where continuous learning will dramatically improve your chances of winning. A journal can work on many different levels. For novices it could be a visual reminder of the different rules of poker , which vary depending on the game type. Specific games like Texas Hold’em or Omaha come with their own rules, betting structures, and common terms. On the other hand you can use it to track big wins and losses and keep a record of what went well and what went wrong -- did you play a hand badly or did you bluff too much? Write down any strategies you might come up with then implement them in your next game.

Cooking

Document your kitchen adventures with a cooking journal. Write down your favorite dishes to make, achievements in the kitchen, recipes you want to try, and recipes that you make.

Having a journal makes it easier to experiment with cooking since you can keep track of which parts of the ingredients list or recipe you were tweaking. You should also journal what reactions you received when you served new recipes. All these will help you become a better cook.

Gardening

A gardening journal is where you can record things such as garden layouts, plans you have for the garden, and successes and failures, such as the plants you’re good at taking care of.

If you’re challenging yourself to bring up a plant you’re having difficulty with, write down any tips and tricks you come across. You can also keep your journal creative by inserting seed packets, plant tags, or even garden receipts. A gardening journal gives you a written record of your garden as it grows.