THIS IS PART 2 IN MY SHARING OF A SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR I WENT TO RECENTLY TITLED: ‘HEALTH, HAPPINESS & HARMONY; THE HOLISITIC ESSENTIALITY OF HOBBIES’.  Presented by a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Jerry V Walker, III

The objectives of the seminar was: 1. Define what constitutes a hobby; 2. Critically examine how hobbies contribute to our physical, mental, emotional and social health; 3. Develop ideas for how to incorporate a variety of personally-relevant hobbies into our regular routine or lifestyle.

WHAT IS A ‘HOBBY’?
According to Dr. Walker a ‘hobby’ is anything that: 1. Requires effort –you actually ‘do’ something; 2. Requires aptitude--for this one I had to look up the definition of ‘aptitude’ and learned that it is the ‘natural ability to do something‘. I’m not sure I totally agree with the word ‘natural’. That means that one must possess an innate ability to do an activity. As we know with tatting and other fiber-art activities, they have a learning curve both physically and mentally; 3. Is something you do for enjoyment.  Tatting definitely fits this category!

WHAT CONSTITUTES AS ‘HOBBY’? 1. Is an Activity–something physical; 2. Has a Purpose–eg. social, productive, time-filling, etc.; 3. Is Voluntary–ie. it is something you want to do; 4. Holds Significance–ie. is meaningful to the person. (In my case 3 of my 4 grandparents tatted, so for me it is a heritage.); 5. Not a Means to an End–it doesn’t have to have a purpose, you can just enjoy it. The presenter also stated on this topic, that a hobby is not a job. If you make money at it, is it still a hobby? I would suppose that would depend upon how much money you make and how well you live.