Finding hobbies that aid our mental health is becoming more and more popular, particularly as more and more of us are struggling with it.

Visit any health centre around any major city and you’ll see more of us seeking help. Whether it be a facility specialising in mental wellbeing and alcohol addiction recovery in Essex, Lisbon, Prague or Barcelona, each professional outlet will be helping patients find healthy ways to ease it.

Often people turn to exercise, painting, photography, yoga and the more traditional “relaxing” hobbies. But there are so many more too, including web design. Yes, you may not think so, but web design can be a great hobby to ease mental health. But why exactly is that?

It Offers a Calm and Focused Escape

One of the beauties of web design is that it requires a lot of focus and occupies your brain in many ways. It requires concentration, creative thinking and problem solving skills, often working together, all drawing you away from any stress you may be feeling.

Your mind becomes completely absorbed in the task at hand, whether it be creating the layout, choosing the fonts or any of the other tweaks you need to be making. It’s a deep focus, or flow, that can help you lose yourself in a project and become a welcome escape from the other things going on in your life.

It Combines Logic with Creativity

What makes web design unique from other hobbies is that it combines creative and analytical skills. One minute you’re looking at visual elements and the next you’re having to debug a line of HTML, keeping the brain engaged in ways that many other hobbies can’t.

The creative elements of web design can improve mood and reduce depression, while the problem solving elements can provide you with that real sense of achievement when you figure out the answers.

It Builds a Sense of Purpose and Achievement

Sense of achievement is a big part of dealing with low mood or anxiety. You need to find motivation or a purpose. Web design can certainly provide that. It requires you to progress and the payoff, from fixing a bit of code to the finished product can give you thse wins.

It doesn’t matter what type of page you’re designing, there are checkpoints along the way that can provide you with those small moments of success that can improve mood and self-esteem and keep our mental health on track.

It Encourages Lifelong Learning and Growth

Web design is an ever-evolving field, which means there’s always something new to learn. Whether it’s a new design trend, coding technique, or accessibility standard, this constant development keeps the brain active and curious.

Learning something new, particularly when it’s driven by your own interest, is linked to better mental resilience and emotional wellbeing. It helps break the monotony of daily routines and gives you a sense of momentum, especially during challenging times.

It Can Connect You to a Supportive Community

Finally, you may not realise but there’s a fantastic supportive community associated with web design. While it’s not physical human-to-human connection like joining a sports team might be, online forums, social media and YouTube channels can be great places to share ideas, ask questions and connect with those that are also doing the exact same as you.

Being in a community can provide a real sense of belonging, which is so important for mental health. And there are few hobbies better for that than web design, whether you’re a beginner or an expert.