Creative incentive

Do you want to know an easy way to enrich your life, feel happier and reduce stress? Pick up a hobby

- ELEANOR CRIPPS Home wellness expert

There was a moment last week when I looked around my house, baby attached to my hip like a barnacle, the older kids asking for snacks (for the umpteenth time), emails pinging, mess somehow multiplying in dark corners, and I thought: I need something just for me. Not something productive, but something that lifts me out of the everyday and reminds me I'm a human being with passions, not just a task-ticking mother with very tired eyes.

So, I went for a surf. The baby had just been fed to sleep (yes, again), and I tiptoed out the door with my wetsuit in hand, barely letting myself think. Just go. The ocean was cold, wild, honest. And somewhere between paddling out and the first wave that sent me tumbling, I remembered who I was.

I laughed. I felt alive despite the endless lack of sleep, I stopped obsessing over all the things I couldn't fix at home. And when I came back, I saw it all differently. Calmer. Lighter. Like I'd come home to myself again.

You see, this is the magic of having a hobby.