Dr. Shadé Zahrai

You might identify so closely with being a parent if you are a full-time carer.

And so getting a hobby gives you that separation.

It activates different parts of the brain.

There was a study with over 93,000 people in 16 different countries, and they found that people who have hobbies accept themselves more.

They have higher self-esteem.

So there's that evidence.

There's also another super interesting study of Nobel Prize-winning scientists.

They found that those Nobel Prize-winning scientists were three times more likely than regular scientists to have a hobby and 22 times more likely to have a creative hobby.

It tells us that, well, what these actual scientists told the researchers, which then leads into what that tells us, they said that having those hobbies gave them something outside of work to make connections.

It gave them an outlet when they were having a bad day at work, and it allowed them to realize that their identity is not just what they're doing in the lab.

They actually can go and have fun and give themselves permission to play and be a beginner.

Because hobbies are a form of recovery and they remind you that you're important too.

And when you give yourself the permission to recover and go and have fun and play, it allows you to be a better carer, to be a better parent, to be a better whatever it is in your life.

You give yourself that permission.

You're honoring the fact that you accept who you are and that you need these things.

We know, the research tells us that play is important.

Hobbies are important.

And honoring that can be one of the most powerful things that you do.

This is a big one.

So we see all the time online that we should use positive affirmations.