Why Making Art Is Good for You: The Joy of Creative Hobbies

There’s something wonderfully satisfying about making something with your own hands. In a world where so much of our time is spent consuming, scrolling, watching, reading, listening, replying, working, there is something different about sitting down and creating. You start with a blank piece of paper, an empty canvas or a collection of materials and, slowly, something begins to appear. For me, making art is one of those rare things that can completely transport me somewhere else. I can sit down feeling distracted or preoccupied and, before I know it, I’m completely absorbed in what I’m doing. The rest of the world seems to fade into the background and I’m simply there, playing with colour, texture, shape and ideas. That feeling of being completely immersed in something is one of the reasons I think creative hobbies can be such a lovely part of our wellbeing.

Making something just for the joy of it

As adults, I think we can sometimes forget what it feels like to do something simply because we enjoy it. So much of life has a purpose attached to it. We work to earn money, exercise to stay healthy, cook to feed ourselves, tidy because the house needs tidying. Even our hobbies can sometimes become another thing to be good at. We want to improve, learn, achieve or produce something that looks impressive. But creativity doesn’t have to work that way. You don’t need to become an artist, learn a particular technique or create something worthy of hanging on your wall. You can simply make something because you enjoy making it. For me, that is where so much of the joy comes from. Art is my time. It is a little pocket of the day that belongs entirely to me, and I always seem to come away from it feeling like my cup has been filled up a little.

The feeling of getting into a flow

One of my favourite things about creating is that feeling of getting completely lost in it. You might start painting and suddenly realise you’ve been there for two hours. You’re not thinking about the emails you need to answer or what you’re having for dinner. You’re not worrying about what happened earlier or what might happen tomorrow. You’re simply focused on what is in front of you. This is often described as being in a state of flow, that lovely feeling of becoming so absorbed in an activity that you lose track of time. I think we could all do with more experiences like this. Not necessarily because we need to be more productive, but because it feels good to have moments where our attention isn’t being pulled in ten different directions. Creativity gives us a reason to slow down and stay with one thing for a while.

You don’t have to be good at art

This is probably the biggest thing I have to remind myself of whenever I start something new: it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it can’t really be wrong. I often feel a little apprehensive at the beginning of a piece. I have an idea of how I want it to look and that familiar part of me starts wondering whether I’ll actually be able to make it happen. But then I begin, and somewhere along the way I stop worrying about the finished result. I start experimenting instead. A colour might be different to what I imagined, a line might go slightly wonky or something might not turn out how I expected, but rather than seeing those things as mistakes, I start to see them as part of the piece. Sometimes the imperfections are the very things that make it feel special. They give it character. They’re a reminder that a real person made it, rather than something being produced to look perfectly polished.

Exploring, experimenting and being inspired

I also love that there isn’t just one way to be creative. There are so many different mediums to explore, and each one feels like opening a new door. Painting feels different to drawing, collage feels different to working with texture, and sometimes simply experimenting with materials can lead somewhere completely unexpected. I love discovering new artists too, whether that’s someone whose work I’ve stumbled across online, an artist I’ve found in a gallery or somebody whose style I’ve never seen before. There is so much inspiration everywhere if we take the time to notice it. One artist might inspire a colour combination, another might make you want to try a completely different medium, and something else might simply make you look at the world a little differently. I think creativity grows when we allow ourselves to be curious rather than constantly looking for the right answer.

The satisfaction of making something

And then there is that moment when you step back and look at what you’ve created. I love that feeling. There is something deeply satisfying about being able to say, I made that. It doesn’t matter whether it is perfect, whether anyone else understands it or whether it looks exactly how you imagined it would. It exists because you sat down and gave your time and attention to it. There is something quite grounding about having something tangible at the end of an experience. 

Creativity as a way of coming back to yourself

Perhaps that’s why I keep coming back to art. It isn’t really about the finished painting or the perfect drawing. It’s about how I feel while I’m making it. It’s about having somewhere to put my attention, giving myself permission to play and remembering that I don’t always have to be productive. Sometimes I can simply make something because it brings me joy. For me, that fits so naturally with the idea behind Savasanna, creating little moments that help us slow down, reconnect with ourselves and notice the things that make life feel good. Sometimes that might be yoga, sometimes it might be watching the sunset, and sometimes it might be sitting at a table covered in paint and letting yourself get completely lost in the process.

So, if you’ve been telling yourself that you’re not artistic, that you don’t have enough time for a hobby or that you wouldn’t know where to start, perhaps give yourself permission to forget all of that. You don’t need to be good at it. You don’t need the perfect materials and you certainly don’t need to know what you’re going to make before you begin. Pick up a pencil, buy a little pot of paint, tear up some old magazines or try a medium you’ve never used before. Give yourself an hour where the only purpose is to see what happens. You might make something you love, you might make something you never want to look at again, or you might simply enjoy the feeling of being completely present for a little while. And perhaps that is the real beauty of a creative hobby, not what you produce at the end, but how good it feels to make something along the way.