Hobbies and interests do more than give you a break from work. They give you exposure to different ways people measure success, solve problems, think creatively, and structure their efforts.

Here are five under-the-radar ways hobbies build your skills for handling stress.

I occasionally watch professional running races, and it always strikes me how intense it must be to train for decades for races that last seconds or minutes.

That pressure is such a contrast to when I shuffle-jog for health, when it doesn't matter how fast I am or how one day's performance differs from the next.

In any professional sphere, what people value and are judged on is often irrelevant to people outside that world.

Your field might care about sales numbers, thinly-sliced career levels, followers, how your company is ranking next to a competitor, or whatever. Outside your field, those concerns often don't register.

When we engage with one of our interests, it exposes us to a world in which what matters in our professional world doesn't, and something else does. This highlights how work priorities are often constructed and contextual, not absolute truths. This recognition can provide emotional distance that serves to buffer work stress.

When we engage with an interest, we get exposed to novel mental........

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