Engaging in personal passions lowers stress and boosts overall happiness, yet finding time remains a common challenge. Research shows that treating personal fulfillment as a priority through small, consistent weekly habits can transform daily well-being.
“A 2015 study published in The Annals of Behavioural Medicine found that pursuing your passion both lowers stress and contributes to greater happiness over all.
Researchers found that participants who engaged in hobbies were 34 per cent less stressed and 18 per cent less sad during the activities, as well as for some time after.
Laura Vanderkam, a productivity expert, advocates finding time for yourself as a means to greater happiness overall. “Life just feels better when you have things in your hours that you want to do,” Ms. Vanderkam said. “There’s moments where time almost has no meaning because we’re so happy about what we’re doing. The more time you can spend in that zone, the better life feels.”
We’re all busy. Most of us feel as if we can’t cram anything more into our schedules. But Ms. Vanderkam wants to dispel that idea. “When you say you don’t have time, what you’re really saying is, it’s not a priority,” she said.
To figure out where extra time lives in your schedule, she recommends thinking of time in weeks, rather than days. A week “is really the cycle of life as people actually live it,” she said.
If you’re prone to procrastination, start small and specific. Procrastination often happens when we get overwhelmed and stall before we even start.
“Taking very small steps is key,” Ms. Vanderkam said. “If you take small steps repeatedly, they really do add up. Say, I’m going to do just three things today. That’s 15 things per workweek; that’s 750 things in a year. If you do 750 important things in a year, that’s a pretty good year.”
New York Times, Oct. 10, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/smarter-living/follow-your-passion-hobbies…
Source: https://www.weboflove.org/
Sept. 2026 update: Subsequent research in occupational psychology and behavioral neuroscience reinforces these findings, particularly through the study of the “flow state”—a mental condition where deep immersion in an activity calms the amygdala and reduces cortisol. Modern time-use studies also highlight that passive consumption (such as aimless screen time) often masquerades as rest while contributing to mental fatigue, whereas active leisure and creative hobbies foster genuine psychological detachment and energy restoration.
The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped cluster of neurons located deep inside the brain’s temporal lobe that processes emotions and survival responses like fear. Humans have two amygdalae, with one on each side of the brain. They act as the brain’s emotional processing centre.
Cortisol is our body’s main natural “stress hormone” made by our adrenal glands (two small organs sitting right above our kidneys).