Rediscovering Hobbies?
 

Has anyone taken up an old hobby once they were sober? Seems I'm having a tough time discovering what I'd like to do.... I recently realized I haven't had a *real* hobby in the past 8 years or so. Liquor took so much from me!

I started my hobby up again, I actually used it to help me quit, keeps me busy! :) I'd stopped doing it as I was too busy, too tired etc - the truth was I preferred to drink.

I started running again- 1 mi races at first, after about 4 mo sobriety; last year my husband and I did a 5K every month, which was awesome for a lot of reasons. I do the occasional 10K on my own and am debating whether to do the 5K or 15K for a run we are doing again this Feb.

I also started writing again, which is my passion - I launched my latest, and best work to date, at 6 mo sober.

I have also developed a new passion- well more than a hobby!- in hot yoga. I go for 60-90 min 5 or 6 times a week. It has been so beneficial to me in every way (and not just looking better in yoga tights ;) )

My now husband, then fiance, and I also started doing meal delivery for a charity long dear to my heart; certainly something I dropped in my heavy drinking, and now something we do once a quarter on a Sat morning.

The cool thing about being sober is that we get to do most anything we want.

August, just reading the energy in your posts make me feel tired :lmao and a little inferior!!

My hobby involves sitting on my bottom, I'm a brass player, brass band/orchestras.

Drinking, drugging, hanging out in bars, partying...those were my "old" hobbies.

I found new hobbies.

Bodybuilding is an old hobby I've rekindled.

Motorcycling is a new one.

I used to enjoy amateur radio (ham radio). I even almost learned morse code to the point I could be proficient. But the booze took away my sharpness to concentrate. Maybe I'll look into that again.... now that I'm not spending hundreds of $$/month on bourbon!!

The sky is the limit so to speak Steve. And don't worry if the first thing you try doesn't work out, just try another. There's no deadline to meet - just opportunity!

My old hobby was alcohol, and not just drinking.. i was a brewer, so it all kind of came together that way... so, not only was i spending money on beer and collecting and cellaring beer. i was also brewing beer, buying new equipment, buying supplies, etc.
now, however, i am back into my old self where i have a zillion hobbies... my wife doesn't fully understand it, but i like to keep myself busy and may drop one for months at a time until i pick it up again, wither it's weather related or something, there is just a time and a place for hobbies for me.

- Roasting coffee
- Rocketry
- Hiking and backpacking
- Running (Developed shin splints, so i had to take a break)
- Getting tattoos
- Home theater
- Tinkering with electronics (Raspberry PI, just built a bluetooth speaker from scratch)
- Making music (electronic, mostly)
- Brewing Kombucha
- working in the garage.. this is pretty much everything from building to tinkering to any kind of projects around the house.

i try to keep myself busy as much as i can, so i develop new hobbies pretty often... next step, finding friends! all my old ones disappeared after i quit drinking.... i still see some, but it's pretty rare

I got (back) into building model cars, motorcycles, airplanes, tanks, etc. when I was in early recovery. I don't do it much anymore, but for years afterwards I had a model in some stage of build in the garage, and even after giving away a bunch and moving some to my office at work, I still have a couple dozen finished models at home. It's great zen work, very detailed and focused, and I can't think about anything else when I'm that focused. I stopped doing it a couple years ago, only because a couple cats adopted us, and they spend most nights in the garage, so my work space became cat space. ;)

Lately I've gotten back into playing guitar, something I lived for 25-40 years ago. Sold some of my old gear, bought some new gear, and working on getting my chops back.

Yes! I have started refinishing antique furniture! It has kept me busy when my thoughts go to drinking. When I was drinking I would start something and never finish it. Now, I'm getting all kinds of stuff done!

My old hobbies were around music, food and woodworking. Six and a half years after giving up alcohol, I now have a paid position in a church choir, I take singing lessons, I direct and conduct a men’s barbershop chorus, I am building an acoustic guitar with a master luthier, I’ve learned to bake artisan bread and make a good Neapolitan style pizza. I swam a kilometre today. I could no more have done any of these things seven years ago than fly to the moon.

I started off by saying yes to new opportunities, things I would have shied away from when drinking as I was afraid or unable to make the commitment. Of course, the commitment meant time away from drinking, or it meant a failure and yet another shameful mess. It took a leap of faith and some rekindled self confidence to start saying yes again, but I am so much happier now than I have been in several decades.

I tell myself since I kicked the booze addiction and I am no longer an alcoholic, I can accomplish just about anything I put my mind to. I am pretty sure you are the same, Steve. What’s it going to be?

I also just dusted off my guitar, but I am seriously looking into getting a drone. I have always been interested in flight and I have a go pro that's been also collecting dust. Just have to be careful to stay out of shotgun range around here.

back in my younger days, i did some boxing, mixed martial arts, motocross, and I loved hiking. Football, ATVs, body building...etc..I broke my back and hip and a few more bones over the years and I just can't do the physical stuff like I used to....yet. I'm learning that just because I'm getting older, I don't have to shut those doors completely anymore.....I just have to be a lot more careful.

hobbies now? yoga to regain flexibility and strength..I really wanna start hiking again. I used to rock climb in Great Falls Va...I really miss that. I'd love to be able to do it again. I'm shooting for a year from now.

restoring cars...it's an obsession..what can i say? I'll try to restore almost anything that catches my eye and I connect with. Finished a Mustang Mach 1 a few months ago.

Painting-mainly what I got paid to do for many years- Illustration. I LOVE doing it...unfortunately, i got burned out and I left the field hating everything about the industry. I'm getting the itch to throw my hat back in the ring though. I'm working on some proposals now, but jumping back in makes me nervous...not sure why except my therapist thinks it has a lot to do with WHO I become when I start getting known again. I was a conceited ba$tard who burned a s#it ton of bridges and smiled while I did it. I can't afford to be that guy again. I've still got some issues to address there.

Building and racing radio control cars, trucks and flying planes. Anything with an engine or motor and I'm hooked. Been doing that in some capacity for over 30 years.

Guns- Love to collect and target shoot.

Movies....I collect or I've managed to accumulate a lot of memorabilia from being around it most of my professional life.

I can lose myself for days in my hobbies. I did it for weeks at a time in early sobriety. sometimes i get in trouble with my wife because she think i'm hiding from the world....it's not that..it's just really quiet where I go and I haven't had or felt much of that in a lot of years. In that respect, i think most of my addiction to alcohol was created from me being equally addicted to the chaos it created.

Now, I've really come to enjoy the peace and quiet.

My "hobby" was pretty much taken from me overnight.


I'll have to find myself a new one.

i was talking a bit in another thread about my rocketry hobby getting fired back up.

Bodybuilding is a hobby of mine too, but it's so important to me I've never actually gotten away from it.

I ride too. Got a Ninja 650.

Training on a Ninja 300. Eyeing a Yamaha R3 when I get licensed.

I used to ride dirt bikes and everyone told me you'll outgrow the 300 real early. Went with the 650 for my first street bike and no regrets.

My passion, which I neglected while drinking, is my critters. I didn't take very good care of them while I was drinking, so now I'm trying to make up for it by taking really good care of them now. :) Their love rewards me for my effort a thousand times over. :)