New Year, New Hobby

By: Emily King

Every year, many of us make New Years resolutions, and so many of them are restrictive: spend less time on your phone, eat less takeout, drink less wine. But what if we decided to add something to our lives, instead of depriving ourselves of something? Here’s my suggestion: take up a hobby. 

I wasn’t sure if old-fashioned hobbies were coming back into popularity, or if I’m just at the age when embroidery is starting to sound strangely exciting, but I Googled it and it turns out I’m not imagining it. Hobbies like yarn crafts, bread baking, model trains (check out the latest issue of Westmoreland 55+, the cover story is all about model trains!), and other crafts are surging, partly due to social media. The trend is even being dubbed “grandmacore” (or “grandpa core” for the men.) 

These hobbies are experiencing comebacks as modern life becomes more digital, with apps, AI, clouds, smart everything. The benefit of hands-on hobbies isn’t just having more potholders and sourdough bread around the house. They ground us in physical sensation and sensory detail. The slow, repetitive movements are soothing to the sympathetic nervous system; your brain registers this as safety, rather than a threat. Your body systems slow down, heart rate slows, cortisol drops, breathing is deeper, similar to the effects of yoga or meditation. 

The best hobbies will put you in a “flow state”. A flow state is that feeling when you’re completely absorbed in an activity, with intense focus and enjoyment, when time seems to disappear. The more often we can get in this mental state, the more mental and physical benefits we can reap. We get the reward of a tangible product we can touch, not a file or bit of data on a cloud somewhere.

I happen to collect hobbies: my home office looks like a defunct Joann liquidation sale, with the excess spilling into a basement storage room. My most recent obsession is miniatures and doll houses. I’ve been through woodworking, bread baking, painting, drawing, and too many others to list. With three sons, I have a lot of cortisol to lower. You could probably just start with one. 

From Northern Connection to you, happy new year! We wish you a beautiful 2026, with good health, prosperity, and maybe a new knitting or model-making hobby.