10 Reasons Why Crafting Improves My Mental Health
We know that keeping an eye on our mental health is crucial. Letting things slide just because we’re busy or we think we shouldn’t talk about our issues isn’t going to help; in fact, it will make things much, much worse.
Everyone will find a different way to improve their mental health on days they are feeling down, and it’s important to think about what that special thing might be. For me, it’s crafting. I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it forever; crafting has been a life saver for me. It’s enabled me to focus and deal with my mental health whilst at the same time being able to look at everything going on around me objectively.
Your ‘thing’ might not be crafting. It might be your family, it might be your dog, it might be walking in nature or yoga or a long soak in the bath or music or baking or pretty much anything else you can think of. Let me give you my reasons for finding crafting so good for mental health and how it improves how I am feeling.
Satisfaction
There is something intensely satisfying about making something out of nothing, or out of things that might have been useless to someone else. There is something even more satisfying about given that thing you have made out of nothing to someone as a gift – their pleasure and surprise is a real balm to the soul. It lifts my sprits like nothing else.
A Busy Mind
When you are making something, when you are crafting, and particularly, I find, when I am pattern reading, my mind is busy. It doesn’t have time to think about frightening things or stressful things or tell me what’s wrong. All it can do is what I’m telling it to focus on, and everything else just fades away. When you have a mental health issue these few quiet moments are so very important.
Self Appreciation
You’re allowed to be proud. In fact, it’s good for your mental health. When you have created something, when you have been crafting and you place that item somewhere in your home to look at – hung on a wall or sitting on a mantlepiece, for example – you can remember how good you felt when you made it. You can have a great sense of self appreciation, knowing that you are good at something and achieved something unique. This is one of the things I find most remarkable about crafting; it’s a way to remember just how good you are.
Better Sleep
Strange as it may seem, crafting helps me to sleep better, and when I sleep better I am happier, my mind is quieter, and I can see things in perspective rather than through the distorted lens of mental illness. It might be that I have been so focused during my crafting time that I have exhausted myself so that sleep comes more easily. Alternatively, it might be that crafting gives me something to latch onto at night. Bedtime is a time when my mind can wander and it doesn’t always wander to nice places. So if it can let it think about patterns and ideas that I want to get on with – something like counting sheep – I can keep it in check.
Busy Hands
Sometimes people with mental health issues have a problem with not knowing what to do with their hands. That can get them into trouble, they can make mistakes, or they can become extremely frustrated. Put simply, crafting keeps my hands busy.
Portable Help
No matter where I go, I can take my crafting with me, and that’s handy. After all, a mental health problem won’t usually confine itself to one place (although there are some, like PTSD, that can, of course).
If I can take my crafting with me everywhere, I know I can calm myself if I need to. Sometimes I think my crochet project is a bit like a comfort blanket, and that’s all right with me.
Connections
Connections are essential for good mental health. I can share what I’ve made online on social media, for example, and find support from the crafting community who have always been a great help to me. At those times when I’ve found it difficult or even impossible to go outside, this has been a lifeline. We have something in common so starting a conversation is not as difficult as it might otherwise be.
Joy
Crafting brings me joy. There’s not too much more I can say about that! And it doesn’t even have to be actual crafting in the physical sense; watching a YouTube video also makes me happy. It’s all about doing what you can.
Motivation
A half finished project is a massive motivator for me. So is a project I want to start but haven’t yet. It’s easier to find motivation in these things and persuade myself to get up and get started when it’s crafting. Once I’ve begun a project or continued with one, I am motivated to do other things too.
Colour Therapy
Colour therapy is a huge part of my own mental wellbeing. Colours lift my mood considerably, and I can use my crafting to help me with this at any time I want.