If you are looking for an activity or pastime to strengthen the relationship with someone special in your life, you may find that taking up a hobby is the perfect panacea.
Modern lives are increasingly hectic and fragmented, and it is easy to become emotionally separated from the people we love most.
Spending time together on a hobby provides the opportunity to stay connected and involved.
A Hobby is a Wonderful Ingredient for a Great Relationship
Joint endeavors bring out the best in people and by sharing a hobby, your relationship will be strengthened and renewed simply by working together.
Your choice of hobby does not need to be glamorous or romantic, settle on something you will both enjoy and be able to pursue regularly.
Here are Some Great Benefits of Joining Forces on a New Hobby
1. Boost your communication
As you spend time working on your hobby you will be learning, experimenting, problem-solving, and waiting around together.
Use these moments as an opportunity to talk to one another, especially if day-to-day passing interactions are primarily monosyllabic responses.
In the workplace and local community, we often wear many hats, but doing a hobby provides the opportunity to be yourself and speak and share freely.
We are sure that mistakes and epic fails on your hobby will be the perfect ice breakers opening lasting communication channels.
2. Learn to appreciate each other’s qualities and contributions
When you start your hobby together, you will learn so much about one another! Use your hobby to move out of the slow lane of daily chores and routine to experience a different side of life together.
As you take on your shared challenge, you are bound to approach and master aspects of the hobby differently.
Don’t let that be a source of contention, let your hobby make you experts in working together, harnessing individual strengths for maximum joint productivity in your endeavor.
3. Build on a shared vision
A big part of any major relationship is uniting and working together for a reason or purpose that is greater than your individual efforts.
By planning, setting targets, and accomplishing goals as part of your hobby, you are exercising the soft skills you need to build a life together.
Here are 9 of the Best Hobbies for Strengthening Relationships
1. Gardening
Get your green fingers to work by cultivating flowers, plants, and food crops with the hobby of gardening.
You don’t have to have masses of space or be horticulturally inclined to have a go and the experience of planting and tending to your yard, garden patch, and allotment will be very satisfying.
Gardening involves a lot of groundwork, so we are sure that you both will have plenty to do as you compost, weed, water, and prune your vegetation.
If the concept of sticking your hands in the dirt is entirely new to you. Why not get a grasp of the basics with some excellent gardening blogs or videos?
As you and your loved one work together in your garden, we are sure that you will find that it becomes a sanctuary and retreat where you will love to spend time together.
2. Cooking
In an age where heading out to your favorite eatery can no longer be taken for granted, boosting your cookery skills is especially timely.
If you and your mate have a favorite cuisine or dish, make a date night of recreating restaurant-quality meals, complete with exotic ingredients and crisp cool beverages to wash it all down.
As your recipe repertoire becomes more expansive, you may want to sit down to an intimate supper club with friends and relatives where you can work together as caterers extraordinaire!
3. Ballroom Dancing
Dust off your tux and polish up those dancing shoes! Where better to exercise your unity and connection than on the dancefloor?
If you have two left feet, now is the time to transform your skills as you and your partner learn to salsa, quickstep, foxtrot, and waltz with a ballroom dancing hobby.
The structured, step-by-step learning methods used for the more formal dance styles mean that you both have a good chance of mastering the steps, compared to more improvisational types of dance.
You could join a regular class where you can both enjoy the experience of dancing alongside other couples.
4. Hiking
Hiking trails with breathtaking scenery is so much better with someone by your side to share that special view.
Hiking is not only a fantastic aerobic exercise but also delivers a welcome escape from the humdrum of daily life.
Get a regular dose of the great outdoors by researching and planning your routes together, starting locally and perhaps venturing further afield with a bit of overnight primitive camping so you can watch a sunrise together.
5. Paddling
Kayaking is one of the easiest and most accessible types of boating around and once you get the hang of it, you can paddle anywhere where there’s water!
If you want to explore, doing so with your other half or a group is safer, either in individual boats or a double kayak.
You can both enroll in a class where you can learn the basics of kayaking including, keeping upright, the different paddling strokes, and righting the boat if you capsize.
6. Tandem Biking
Tandem biking is a great way of enjoying cycling together and you will both surprise yourselves with how much distance you can cover on these quirky cycles.
Tandems come in a range of designs so you can do the type of cycling you prefer, be it road cycling or touring.
Check out this husband and wife who are one of the world’s fastest tandem cycling teams.
Usually, the heavier and stronger cyclist will be upfront, but the bike is engineered to support your combined bodyweight and remain stable on the road.
This type of cycling allows you and your partner to talk as you cycle. The person riding behind, known as the stoker does have to let the pilot hand the navigation, gears, and braking, which may take some getting used to!
7. Archery
Archery has always had a certain elegance and romantic allure, so becoming a master of the bow and arrow may be an attractive option to a couple looking to do something different with their time.
You will be both physically and mentally exercised by this ancient sport which has its enthusiasts in almost every culture and nation.
US Archery is an excellent resource for everything you need to get started in archery, including finding a club or course and all the guidance and advice need to ensure you keep yourself and others safe when you take on this hobby.
8. Upholstery
If you both appreciate the value of repairing or restoring items, amateur upholstery will exercise your creativity and resourcefulness.
Source old and dilapidated furniture and renew them with beautiful, webbings, stuffings, and fabrics for your own home or to gift to others.
You will both enjoy creating something completely custom and many of the steps involved in reupholstering furniture are a two-person job.
As you develop this hobby together, we are sure that you will find that craft skills like upholstery are always in demand, meaning you may have a new side hustle or business you can run together.
9. Foraging
Foraging is all about finding natural wild-grown edible foods. Think of it as a treasure hunt for the gastronomically inclined.
Once you learn about the safe edible berries, plants, shellfish, and fungi that you can find and harvest, you can grab some containers and a guidebook and see what you can find.
Vital tip: if you are in any doubt about what a foraged food is, do not eat it and be especially careful with mushrooms.
Some Last-Minute Pointers for Strengthening Your Relationship with Your New Hobby
Keep it simple
By starting your hobby with simple projects and goals you both can build in a real commitment to continuing with the hobby and enjoy the early successes that are great for motivation.
Another thing about starting with the basics is that by mastering those, more expansive or complex aspects of the hobby become more manageable, giving you and your partner the best opportunity for sweet success!
Make it easy to say sorry!
Picking up a new hobby by yourself can be difficult at the best of times, more so when more than one person is involved.
Be prepared to make mistakes, laugh with and not at each other, and dust yourselves off, and try again if you need to.
Put one another first
Teamworking does not come naturally to everyone, and you both must make a conscious decision for patience and forbearance as you work on your hobby.
Don’t forget to relax and have fun
It’s understandable to have big plans and aspirations for a new hobby but don’t let that get to you.
Remember that your hobby is all about spending time with your loved one.
Resist the temptation to look good or be overly absorbed in the task.
Unwind, enjoy, and be yourselves!
Rounding Up
We hope that these top picks of hobbies for strengthening relationships have provided you with some great ideas for how you can spend time with that special someone.
The best time to start is always now, so make sure the two of you get out there and start enjoying your new hobby!
