Hobbies make you happier and healthier, Dr. Sam Mathis tells patients and writes in his regular column for The Galveston County Daily News.
And in the spirit of “practice what you preach,” the doctor has several hobbies himself.
“The issue is always that there's never enough hours in the day, and then there's always more activities to pursue than there's time to do them all,” Mathis said. “I sometimes jump back and forth between some different ones.”
One of the hobbies he always jumps back to is camping. He’s been doing that since childhood, and now he tries to camp a couple of times a year. He especially likes primitive camping.
“We cook everything over an open fire,” he said. “We have canvas tents or even make our own shelter using the native trees and brush. And we even make our own clothing while we're camping.”
Mathis has been involved in primitive camping for more than 20 years. He’s learned leathercraft skills and how to make pouches. He’s learned to weave. In his spare time, he learns new skills to use on a primitive campsite.
“Individuals prior to the modern era had to deal with just the simple basics—how to process their own meat, how to make their own clothes, how to weave their own belts or sashes,” he said. “And that's just been such a fun experience learning to do it.”
Mathis goes on camping trips with a youth mentoring organization. The picture of him tending a bonfire (shown here) was on one of those large camping trips.
“The normal campfire is much smaller than that. It was a big
event, and I was responsible for creating the bonfire,” he said.
He also takes small, short camping trips, even just by himself overnight.
“There are times that I'll go just for a simple day. I've gone out to Galveston Island State Park and hung out a hammock. I come back the next morning, and I'm home in time for breakfast. Sometimes you just need to get out and go sleep outside. “
But typically, he usually goes camping for a long weekend. Other times he has gone for a week. Those longer trips take a lot of planning, but they can be restorative.
"In health care, our job is a 24/7 activity,” he said. “We're always required to be on call answering questions, responding to patients and whatever the most pressing issue is. When you purposely take time to separate yourself and go camping somewhere that there's not a great cell signal, you force yourself to unplug from the constant pull of the cell phone, the computer or the tablet that constantly drives your attention away from just being present in the moment.
“That’s the beauty of what a campfire does for you. It forces you to become present in the moment, watching the flames, monitoring, making sure it doesn't go out, making sure it doesn't spread,” he said. “If you do a good job building your fire, you don't have to worry too much about those things. But your attention has to remain on that for a little bit longer than the constant every 20 seconds getting a new text or tweet.”
Using his leathercraft skills, Mathis makes leather book covers that come in handy with one of his other favorite hobbies: reading.
Bedside books
On his nightstand is a tall stack of nonfiction books from “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” to “Make Your Bed.”
"My reading habits have definitely changed over the past few years,” Mathis said. “I've started leaning much more toward nonfiction than fiction books. That's not to say I don't have fiction books I'm reading.”
One of the fiction books he plans to pick back up soon is Brandon Sanderson’s “Words of Radiance” series.
“I really enjoy science fiction,” he said. “It is an incredibly thick book. I mean, we're talking a couple thousand pages per book. There are four of these books. I've read a couple. I'm working through those, but I just haven't picked up the courage to pick the next book.”
He has another book on hold at Rosenberg Library from a different science fiction series, “Expanse” by James S.A. Corey.
“Reading is a wonderful hobby because it forces you to have a somewhat one-way interaction with an author, which is completely different from the way that most of us interact with new ideas,” Mathis said.
“When you read a new book, you're having to see what that author has to say about a topic, but you can't respond to them the same way you could on somebody's Facebook feed or post. Instead, you have to have an internal dialogue and conversation with yourself about how well this person is arguing their point—especially if you're reading nonfiction. It's so important to read as much as possible if you can, because it really does expand the way that we think about things.”
Getting caught up in a good book is a good way to create and nurture a work-life balance.
“You're not thinking about the job. You're not thinking about what you did or didn't do well that day. You really are just immersed in the story, immersed in those ideas or the thoughts and the writing.”
And other hobbies can also bring balance to busy professionals. It’s not a one-size-fits-all option.
“The important thing to remember is finding what works for us,” Mathis said. “My wife has recently taken up gardening. One of my colleagues raises chickens and knits. My daughter's newest hobby right now seems to be birdwatching.
“You're never too young or even too old to pick up a hobby.”