Crafting for Better Health

Anxiety, stress and mental health all go hand-in-hand. The three terms are often used interchangeably to describe the difficulties that we face on a day-to-day basis when dealing with unpleasant or even traumatic life events. Those life events have a way of pushing our minds to the brink, and cause us to feel overly worried and anxious during everyday tasks that wouldn't have been an issue otherwise.

Not only that, but going through a traumatic event in life can often lead to a chronic and constant state of anxiety, where even the simplest daily activities, like eating or leaving the house, can cause us to feel stressed or anxious.

It’s not so much that we’re worried about anything anymore, or that there’s any real imminent threat-- it’s more an issue of our bodies being conditioned to respond a certain way, and then having trouble reconditioning itself to go back to the normal response.

The severity of this varies from person to person, but it’s still a fairly typical occurrence and is almost always an accompanying symptom of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

We end up getting anxious and stressed, because we’re anxious and stressed, and thus the cycle begins.

Dealing and Coping

Whether you just have some typical fears (spiders, heights) that seem to have gotten out of control at some point, or whether you’re dealing with a more severe form of PTSD as a result of a traumatic life event, living that way isn’t a great option, and you need to seek relief and help.

Sometimes the best way to relieve stress, instead of taking pills or medication,  is to focus your mind on other things. There are a variety of methods for doing this, including meditation, cooking, and all manner of social and physical exercising, a solution that might be overlooked happens to be one of the most simple and enjoyable hobbies available: crafting.

Crafting and Art Therapy

Crafting is generally thought of as a more child-friendly activity, especially in terms of preoccupation, yet, that’s not the case in our day. Think about how popular Pinterest has become. Why? Largely because of the high volume of crafty and artsy projects that it showcases.

In our day, DIY and craft projects are probably more popular than they have been in recent decades and we have the internet (along with a highly creative generation) to thank for that.

Since that’s the case, nobody needs to feel like crafting has to be this childish pastime that they engage in as a way of resetting their warped way of thinking-- quite the contrary. Crafting is just fun, and it’s proven to be an extremely relaxing and rewarding activity.

Even to the point of being therapeutic, arts and crafts are becoming a regular part of the program for hospitals and psychiatric clinics, not just for keeping patients occupied, but for helping them to improve and actually heal.

There’s just something about doing things with your hands and working through a project where you come out on the other side with something beautiful and unique, which came from the thoughts of your mind and the movement of your own two hands. That process is extremely rewarding and it has a way of taking your mind off of the stress of life, regardless of how reasonable or viable that stress might or might not be.

Many health organizations are even beginning to make room in their budget for an “Art Director”, who is basically someone who organizes arts and crafts for patients or residents who could benefit from that kind of activity.

Having a Hobby

Now, chances are that you might not feel like you’re at the “patient” status yet. After all, people who deal with anxiety disorders or even PTSD don’t usually end up hospitalized (at least, not typically).

So, the way you should think about this on a more basic level is that you just need to have a hobby.

In this case, we’re obviously referring to arts and crafts-related hobbies specifically.

A hobby can have the following immediate benefits:

• Distracting -- Engaging in something that interests you will have an immediate ability to distract you from your more unpleasant thoughts.

• Fulfilling -- Hobbies are often goal or task-oriented, therefore, when you accomplish something during that hobby, it creates a sense of fulfillment.

• Calming -- Going through the process of creating something or doing something with your own hands settles your mind and has a calming effect on your body.

• Familiarity -- Over time, the enjoyment and routine of practicing a hobby on a regular basis will generate a peaceful familiarity.

As a hobby, arts and crafts can potentially deliver on all of these positive outcomes. While it’s certainly not a silver bullet, arts and crafts certainly won’t hurt, and the odds of them having a positive impact on your mental health and overall quality of life are high, if not certain.

Why Crafting in Particular?

There are a few reasons that crafting takes precedence here, as one of the best hobbies with which to improve your mental health and/or state of mind.

First, crafting is a cheap and easy solution.

There are a lot of hobbies out there that will cost you a ton of money, and many of them aren’t what you would consider “stress-free”. For example, you probably wouldn’t want to spend $2,000 on hunting gear to settle your mind down. Now, to be fair, there are people who find hunting relaxing and enjoyable; however, it would be safe to assume that most of those people didn’t start hunting as a result of stress or anxiety-- they just wanted to hunt.

Instead, you need something that’s inexpensive and easy to do (preferably easy enough to do in your own home within a short period of time).

Second, crafting allows you to build something with your own hands.

There’s something about working with your hands and creating something that has a genuinely positive impact on a person’s state of mind. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why this is, but somehow, we were just created to, well, create.

Crafting allows you to do that in small bursts, in a big way.

Third, crafting affords you a wide variety of options.

Whether you do it in the form of painting, beads, DIY projects, jewelry making or even woodworking, crafts can take a lot of different forms, thereby satisfying a variety of style preferences and skill levels.

You don’t have to be a world class artist to be crafty, and you can be certain that a lot of what you see on Pinterest didn't come from tremendously artistic minds. Sure, you have to exercise some creativity, but that’s part of the process, and everyone can do that.

Being able to be creative is the only real requirement for crafting, and the result isn’t even the most important part. Exercising that creativity is an element of crafting that can have a therapeutic and soothing effect on your mind, so in the process of working with beads, painting or any other craft, you shouldn’t be so worried about the outcome that you miss out on the simple enjoyment of being creative and working through the process.

Not Worrying About the Result

In fact, the more you tend to worry about the result, the more difficult it will be for you to get any real benefit out of doing the craft in the first place. Make sure that when you’re engaging in a craft for the purpose of relaxing and improving your mental health, you do not to get preoccupied with the result.

If you do focus too much on the result, this can actually create anxiety and stress, which are the very things we’re trying to avoid in the first place!

So, don’t worry about how it looks, especially at first, because in all honesty, it could take you a lot of time and practice before what you’re working on looks like the stuff you see on Pinterest. Do yourself a favor and avoid comparing what you’re creating to what other people have done. It’s a guarantee that the people who create great looking crafts and artsy things don’t get there by being perfect on the first try.

If those crafty people constantly worried about comparing their work to what other people were doing, they would likely be be stressed out at all times with little or no creative energy.

So, the morale of the story is, don’t worry about the results.

Practical Application: Projects versus Quick Crafts

Now, let’s shift into discussing some aspects of practical application, where we’ll answer the question: What exactly should I do?

It’s quite clear at this point that crafts are a good thing for our brains, self-worth and peace of mind, but how can it be implemented in our daily lives? The easiest first step is to break things up into two different categories:

• Quick Crafts

• Large Projects

To be clear, both of these things are good and have their place, but we should recognize the helpfulness and potential of each one, so that we can engage in them at the proper time and in the proper context so that they’ll be the most helpful.

Quick Crafts

Brief 30 minute or one hour crafting sessions are better suited for you when you first start out. You might also just have precious little time to spare during the week. If that’s your situation, limit your crafting goals to small projects and short sessions during the day or in the evening.

You’ll need to take the time to set up a crafting area so that you can quickly access supplies and items that you might need. What you keep there will depend on your craft of choice, but whatever you do, just make sure that it is accessible and easy to get to in a short amount of time.

As you get more comfortable with your craft and have more time to devote to it, you can start expanding your projects and increase the amount of time you spend on it.

It’s also worth considering that certain crafts can be done while watching TV, so don’t be shy about working on something while you’re watching your favorite show, if for nothing else to assess what kind of progress you can make and whether or not you can divide up your attention that way.

So, to summarize, quick crafts are best under these circumstances:

• When you start out

• In the early stages of trying to relieve stress and anxiety

• If you’re pressed for time

Also keep in mind that a lot of crafts are less time-consuming, which means you won’t have to devote as much time to them. Some of these crafts would include the following:

• Beads

• Tissue paper crafts

• Small scale painting/coloring

• Making candy gift bags

These would all be considered simpler and quicker crafts, which would be better to start out with, as opposed to what we’ll talk about below:

Large Projects

Your larger craft projects are going to work better if you've got a more substantial amount of time to devote to them. Now, it’s worth mentioning that more time isn’t always better, but if you want to spend more time on your crafts, there are certain kinds of projects that would be better suited for that to happen. The main reason is that a lot of crafts just take a long time-- plain and simple.

You also need to keep in mind that these crafts do have the potential to be a bit more tedious and frustrating than the ones mentioned above, and are thereby better suited for someone who is more familiar with crafting.

All that means is that you should start out with the simple stuff first. When you get more comfortable and you can enjoy the more time-consuming crafting projects, move on to them at that point, once the crafting has become a source of fun and relaxation for you.

Once again, we’ll summarize the ideal circumstances:

• After you’ve been crafting for a while

• If and when you want to spend more time crafting

• If and when you have more free time for crafting

If this is the situation you find yourself in, having a craft that you can devote a lot of time to is probably the crescendo of crafting for relaxation and art therapy. There’s just nothing more rewarding than being able to spend a few hours in your craft room working on something that you’re truly excited about.

Here are a few craft projects that fit the larger scale categories:

• Knitting and crocheting

• Refinishing furniture and woodworking

• Jewelry making

Know that these crafts can be therapeutic (as long as you don’t get crunched for time or get caught up in the difficulty of a results-based mindset). Wait until you start to see that crafting is helping your mental state in a positive way, and only move on to these bigger projects if you know that your anxiety and stress will be decreased as a result.

Crafts Can Help

Suffering through unwarranted stress or anxiety can be an extremely frustrating and unpleasant experience. In fact, stress and anxiety tend to compound themselves without any external forces coming into play. When you’re anxious, you get stressed and upset about being anxious, which leads to more stress and anxiety!

It’s a vicious and very real cycle that millions of people get caught up in, and it can happen to anyone.

What we need to do is to break that cycle, and stop the revolving door of anxiety that robs us of the enjoyment of our day-to-day lives.

Arts and crafting are simply one of the best ways to break that cycle. With so many options for implementing them, and so many different ways that you can make it work in your situation, there’s just no better and simpler method for helping your mind to settle down and get distracted with something fun.

You also have the added benefit of it being doctor and psychiatrist-recommended.

If anything, crafting will definitely help you relax and it will get you away from the typical smartphone screen time, busy commute and office chaos that chokes out so many lives. We need to have a place where we can go every day and just be creative, and enjoy working with our hands.

Those kinds of activities have been lost in large parts of our society and culture-- a phenomenon which has likely played a large role in our mental and psychological detriment. We weren't made to be glued to a screen all day long; our minds are much more creative and dynamic than that lifestyle allows them to be.

If you’re stressed and anxious, take the time to sit down and be crafty for an hour or so. You've certainly got nothing to lose by doing it, and the results might be far beyond anything you could have hoped for.