You woke up this morning with a pit in your stomach. No, it’s not the hangover, although that will hit in a few moments, but this is guilt. That dumb thing you did last night may not have seemed like a big deal at the time, but it might just ruin your whole life. By taking up a hobby, you can start focusing your energy on the hobby as opposed to the impending demise of your social life.
1. Baking
The best part about baking is sharing your creations with others, especially friends and family. While baking your mom a delicious angel food cake won’t erase that 7 minute long, butt dialed voicemail that you left on her phone at 1:37 a.m., but the taste may be so good that she will forget about the slurred details of last week’s hookup. Can iPhones even butt dial? Apparently they can. But you won’t have time to worry about how you shattered your mother’s perfect image of you when you are worried about whether or not your pie crust is perfectly golden brown yet.
2. Painting
Painting is a great way to keep your imagination keen and wild. Imagine a world where you didn’t take that last shot of tequila and climb up on the bar to hump the air slowly until you were dragged down by a bouncer. Use all of the colors of the rainbow, from red to orange to yellow to that strange shade of green that you threw up on the sidewalk outside of the bar. Hang up your masterpieces in your apartment to detract from the trash can that is perpetually left right next to your bed.
3. Reading
Reading can take you places far, far away. Places where you can’t storm up to the girl who was in the background of your ex-boyfriends Instagram and call her a cunt to her face, even if she is one. You can travel far away in your mind, and it will be almost as if you didn’t throw a punch that somehow didn’t land on anyone and instead threw off your balance and sent you face first into the floor. The power of literature is incredible.
4. Photography
Take pictures of the beautiful world around you. Not like that Snapchat that you took of yourself half naked and laying on the bathroom floor that you put on your story instead of sending to your best friend. 13 people may have taken screenshots of it, but they will delete it in a second to make room for the beautiful landscapes you will capture with your way too expensive camera.
5. Gardening
Growing a garden of beautiful flowers will give you a great sense of pride. A sense of pride that will cancel out your feeling of disappointment in yourself for making out with that guy you swore you would never hook up with again. Right in front of the guy you have a huge crush on. But just think of all the beauty that a garden will bring into your life. Beauty that will distract you from the fact that you may have blown your only chance of being with your dream guy.
6. Light Exercise
Run away from your problems. Or at least jog away from them. Take a yoga class. Breathe in good karma, and breathe out the pain in your left ankle. You have no idea what happened, but all you know is the pain is excruciating. The scuff marks on the side of your left wedge suggest an ankle twist or foul play of some sort, but since you wandered off and walked home alone by yourself, there are no witnesses to tell you what happened. Just put a bag of ice on it and hop on your bike for a cruise around your neighborhood. It’s almost like it never happened..