A while back I saw this Instagram post from NPR with the needlepoint “get a hobby” and the subsequent explanation that research shows that providing opportunities for meaningful hobbies improves mental health including “strengthening our sense of connection, identity, and our autonomy.” I saved it because I knew I wanted to address this in a post.

It also goes hand-in-hand with one particular professional book study I’m running at my high school for staff using Sir Ken Robinson’s The Element, which discusses finding your passions and your tribes of people within these passions whether they end up being something you get paid to do or that are simply hobbies or intelligences you have and use.

While some of my hobbies are quite evident (reading, for instance) others are generally traditional like baking. I also carve out time to visit old cemeteries for the history and information they provide about the past. And I’ll always return to what Professor Iwasaki shared in that Instagram post about how it strengthens our sense of identity.

I am a reader.

I am a baker.

I am a cemetery-enthusiast.

And in plenty of reading I’ve done lately about being less distractible or creating new/better habits or any of the other myriad of social psychology and self-help that I enjoy learning from, usually also goes back to identity. What are you? I am…

And I can show you the ways that I am a reader based on my holds list at the library, my TBR pile sitting behind me, my accoutrements for reading including book weights and page holders for my thumb, plus accessories like my “reading is sexy” button and t-shirts. It is because I carve out time every day to read. My social media handle is related to books and I have a public Instagram just for sharing about books (and dresses). I am dress-obsessed, too. But back to books, it’s that I have a ready-made book recommendation should someone need one, always. And I can always talk about them. Simply, it is part of my identity.

I’d love to know from readers, what identities do you have built from the hobbies you love?