Skip to main content

Subscribe to my blog here

Name

Email *

Message *

Make hobbies a conversation starter



Image by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay

This is how I start a conversation with a person I sort of know, or have never spoken to ... after the initial... Hi, I am Mel... etc etc. 

"Do you have a hobby?" I ask.

It is a simply question and one that generally sparks a surprisingly response. It honestly surprises me when people say, they don't have a hobby. This is intriguing to me. Because, if you don't have a hobby (and absolutely no judgement here) but if you don't have a hobby ... what do you do with your spare time? 

I also find it interesting, reading in retirement Facebook groups (and no, at this stage I am not retired) ... but so many people say... I don't have a hobby. I am extremely bored. I don't know what to do with my time. And this is the case for many people. Many people just do not have a hobby.

A hobby can be anything, I wrote a blog post, about what is a hobby. Have a read after you read this blog post to spark some ideas, if you don't have a hobby and would like to start one. A hobby doesn't have to be arts or craft. It can literally be anything that sparks you joy. Read my what is a hobby blog post for some inspiration. 

So when I hear, "I don't have a hobby." I find that if I just mention one hobby of mine and explain that it's me time and how much joy I get from it, you can see the other person's mind ticking ... You might move the conversation over and move on. Then a week or two goes by and they come up to me... "Mel, I have been meaning to tell you. I started this hobby..." The light shines bright through their eyes as they share what they are working on. What resources they bought to support it or changed their room to make room for it. They start to share with me, everything that I love about the healing and relaxation of hobbies and how it makes you feel good for even trying something new.

 I smile in happiness for them. Because I know that hobbies are filled with excitement, challenges and creativity. It can be about problem-solving. It can be about relaxing. It can just be what you want it to be in that moment. 

And if at the end you are able to gift something you made from your hobby to someone ... then that feels even greater.

So yes, I do make hobbies a conversation starter ... One because I love talking about hobbies. So if we share a common interest, we have so much to talk about. But also, I love to help other people who don't have a hobby think about ... should I get a hobby? What hobby will I choose? What will I gain from doing a hobby? And then over time, watch that person grow in their hobby, talk about their hobby more in conversations and just find who they are. To me this is special and I want meaningful conversations with people. 

I hope you enjoy reading my blog posts and look at my Etsy store for some inspiration. 



Check out my Etsy store for heaps of digital products
To see all of my ebooks available for purchase
Follow me on Pinterest at: @melanietoye

Follow me on LinkedIn

Join my hobbies Facebook group 

If you liked reading this post, please share it and buy me a coffee.



#aboutme #melanietoye #hobbies #meltoye





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reshuffling my craft space for scrapbooking

When you feel uninspired change up your craft space  So I haven’t been scrapbooking as much because I have a set of drawers with stickers, washi tape and other cool stationery and then I have my tub of scrapbooking paper in my cupboard.  I was thinking about what I could do to bring my scrapbooking closer. Here’s a photo of my tub of scrapbooking paper. Look how undesirable it looks. Inside I have large paper about A4 size and A3. Then I have 12x12 inch paper. Plus an ice cream tub full of scrap paper.  It just made me feel unsatisfied and what makes me excited to work on a hobby is that I can see the resources and get excited to get started. But this set-up was not empowering me. I started brainstorming about maybe making a craft space. I found a table from IKEA with draws on both sides that I could put my scrapbooking paper and accessories in as well as my diamond painting. I also found a desk backing which is like a three level high shelving that attaches to the table....
Post a Comment
Read more

My new crocheting for beginners eBook is for sale now

I’m excited to let you know that my new crocheting eBook, “The journey of crocheting for beginners” is now available online. I will submit the links below of where you can purchase it from. Honestly, it’s a pretty cool eBook and it made me realise how much I have learned from crocheting and now I am into the world of crocheting, I thought I would share my advice and tips for those new to crocheting to bring something new to the hobbies / crocheting world. Please note this eBook doesn’t contain patterns but may be in the future I may share my own crochet patterns.  If you love crocheting, please buy this eBook and please tell others about it and share the links of where to buy. I would appreciate it greatly!  Ok without further wait, please see the links to my latest eBook:  Amazon -  The journey of crocheting for beginners eBook : Toye, Melanie: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store Smashwords -  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1808619 Apple -  https://books.ap...
Post a Comment
Read more

Crocheting my first blanket and how you can to

Finding a relaxing crochet project for beginners So I decided that crocheting animals etc. is pretty stressful. Not really stressful but not relaxing. A cool end result but I wanted to find something to crochet where I didn’t have to count the stitches or focus on the different type of stitches. So I decided to crochet a simple blanket.  I just wanted to use a small amount of stitches and not count them. I didn’t want to do anything fancy. But I still wanted to crochet. I believe if I could find something to stitch that I could just relax doing it than it was worth it. I started googling a simply blanket planet using single crochet stitch. It’s simple start off with the first row with a chain stitch and then turn it over and do the rest with a single crochet stitch. Brilliant.  Why single crochet blankets don't work without a chain stitch So I started crocheting a baby blanket. It didn’t work out. The sides were uneven and the blanket was all different lengths. So I googled an...
Post a Comment
Read more