Gardening and hiking - both get you out into nature and are good for your mental health.

You could check out this thread for inspiration

I do martial arts, play (and think about designing) boardgames and ttrpgs, historical reenactment, crafting (mostly sewing and leatherwork but I’ve been branching out into chainmail), play video games and poi. But all of these come in waves where I’m more active, I don’t do everything on a weekly basis. But I still try to remain active in the communities I’m part of. It is a lot, but I’ve landed more in “I can’t stop myself” over “I have to do this”.

Playing guitar, cooking and recently started to learn chinese as a challenge to an aging mind.

Been playing video games pretty much all my life. Like with all forms of popular entertainment, there are so many genres that I’m sure there’s something out there for you. If you want, I can offer some suggestions based on what devices you own and what you’re interested in.

Other than that, learning to cook new recipes is always fun and pretty much essential to live haha. I’ve tried a few Ina Garten recipes and they’ve been relatively easy and tasty.

I paint minis, focusing mostly on Warhammer right now and I’m telling myself I’m going to start playing.

I started with the Reaper minis learn to paint sets, they do a pretty good job of teaching you the basics, give you a couple minis to start with and a workable if somewhat limited set of paints and brushes.

It sounds a lot harder than it actually is. If you dilute your paints down right it kind of tends to flow exactly where you want it to.

Sourcing minis to paint can get pricey depending on what you like and where you get them from. To support that hobby I’ve also taken up 4d printing, if you hunt around a bit you should be able to get a used resin printer for pretty cheap (but don’t skimp on proper PPE and ventilation, liquid resin is pretty nasty stuff)

I dabble in a little bit of woodworking. Nothing too fancy, I’m not doing intricate carving or anything, but once in a while I find a problem in need of a solution and think of a way I could build that solution myself from some boards and hardware and while I may not be saving any money over buying some off-the-shelf solution to that problem, I do think a lot of those thing I’ve made have ended up being better than anything I could have bought and they are certainly more satisfying to use knowing I made them myself.

I camp, hike, and fish a lot. These can get pricey if you let them, but you can probably get enough fishing gear to go catch some fish for like $50. Depending on where you live, you can hit a lot of trails with just a sturdy pair of sneakers, a water bottle, and maybe a pocket full of snacks. And you can probably outfit yourself for some decent weekend at a state park campground for about $100 worth of Walmart gear (tento sleeping bag sleeping pad,) and some stuff you probably already have at home (flashlight, matches/lighter, first aid kit, some pots and pans)

Reading of course is always a worthy hobby, and you can pair it with some of the others. (I sometimes joke that the reason I fish is because it sounds better than saying ”I’m going to go off into the woods alone to sit on a bucket by a stream and read a book”)

I also enjoy cooking, trying out new recipes and such.

I’ve dabbled in a little ham radio. It didn’t particularly hold my interest, I liked tinkering with radios and it’s cool being able to talk to people far away with your equipment, but that equipment can get really pricey (there are often good deals on used stuff but you need to know where to look for them and be patient) and at the end of the day you can really only talk to other hams, and they mostly fall into 3 main categories.

1. Radio nerds- all they want to talk about is ham radio.
2. Old guys who want to talk about their medical issues.
3. Weird paranoid prepper types.

And since the whole point of radios is to talk to other people, and I don’t particularly enjoy the kinds of conversations those people want to have, I never really got too into it.

Repairing distressed audio equipment. I’m particular to early 80’s to mid 90’s gear.

Role Playing Games: I have three groups, two virtual and one in person that I play a variety of RPG’s with.

Hiking: Mainly for health reasons, but I’ve always loved going out on a new trail and exploring. My days of backpacking are behind me, as I have a back injury now, but I’m still able to do day hikes.

Here is my latest electronics repair. It’s a Carver TFM-15CB stereo amplifier. The power supply filter caps (two black with silver top cylinders in the middle of the photo) went bad. Which is just something electrolytic capacitors do when they get old. So I replaced all the electrolytics (13 in all) and replaced the meter’s lights with LED units. The amp is 40 years old and is probably good for another 40 years. I’m actually listening to it as I write this post. As far as how I learned to do this, I’m self taught. Just read a lot of books and then started working on things that I didn’t care if I blew up, or fixed. Then moved onto things I wanted to keep as my confidence and skills grew.

Rhythm games, both in general and in terms of my main game. Don’t think I can recommend it to most people though

Got into it… partly because osu was popular when I grew up, partly because I listened to a lot of “rhythm game music” growing up. This video game genre also always resonated with me quite well, I love extremely challenging video games so there’s that

Reason I couldn’t recommend it… First of all it is not an easy hobby to get into outside of Asia, and because of this finding a community (even for really popular games like maimai/CHUNITHM) will be tough. Secondly because of the first reason, getting into rhythm games outside of Asia can get expensive, between arcade visits and homecabs and all. It’s also somewhat of an extremely all-encompassing hobby that leaves little room for one to do anything else. Finally there’s a pretty significant risk of injury especially at higher levels, I’ve had a bone fracture before and several ppl I know have had serious injuries, despite the fact that there’s little to no “payoff” (such as for-profit tournaments) like most sports

On the plus side, stomping it out on DDR/ITG (the latter much more accessible) is a really fun way to do cardio!

Crochet, cross stitch, reading, video games

Textile work! Could be sewing, weaving, dying, etc. I love working with fabrics and making them into usable 3D objects. Recently, as in the last two weeks, I’ve started working with wool felt with the vague idea of making insect brooches but I ended up making a cat toy instead lol.

Pyrography. Starter kit costs about $20. My favourite tool is still my cheapest one!

Music production, drumming, learning guitar, Sim racing, going for a motorcycle ride, homelab/self hosting stuff, capture the flag (cybersecurity challenges), woodworking, rock carving, listening to a record, 3D printing (I’m building an R2-D2), building something with electronics (I recently built a shifter knob for euro truck sim).

In the depths of my depression I had no hobbies and my psychologist said I should try everything, so I did, and continue to do so. You’ll be surprised what sticks.

I’ve dabbled in wood carving. Stuff like whittling, relief carving, and my favorite kind was chip carving.

I also enjoyed doing some wildlife photography.

Maybe the weirdest hobby I ever tried was when I made a home-made furnace for melting aluminum.

But the thing I spend most of my spare time on by far is video game development (everything from the coding to the 3D modelling and animation and a little bit of sound design).

I have a ton of abandoned or occasional hobbies but the main one I have atm is leatherwork.

Honestly I don’t fully understand what lead me to it but I saw some videos and it was like, not only do I want to do this but I want to do it properly.

So I didn’t do my normal thing of buying a ton of equipment, getting in way over my head and abandoning to the pile of failed hobbies. I booked a beginner course at a place near me and the rest is history. Been slowly building up my skills and techniques and getting really good feedback from people. Some of my recent items even have people saying that if I was to open a shop then they would be interested in buying or commissioning…

If you want to see my stuff then just have look at my post history, I should really just make a site or something at this point… Most of my stuff is small goods, accessories etc. but be warned I’ve just created a new community to have somewhere for the darker side of crafts (mildly NSFW) - but if anyone is interested in the spicier side of crafting then come join me there!

Baking. It can be as simple and inexpensive, or as elaborate and costly as you want. It’s very beginner friendly. And even most of your failures end up delicious.