As a spa owner, health and wellness was an important part of my life. We provided services which produced benefits both physical and psychological to combat daily stressors and produce an elevated sense of well being.
Now that we are operating as a Creative Arts Center, we are still providing many of the same benefits.
Crafting has long been used in Occupational Therapy as a way to work on fine motor skills; but it is also used to work on cognitive skills and has been shown to improve overall mental health.
“There’s promising evidence coming out to support what a lot of crafters have known anecdotally for quite some time,” says Catherine Carey Levisay, a clinical neuropsychologist and wife of Craftsy.com CEO John Levisay. “And that’s that creating — whether it be through art, music, cooking, quilting, sewing, drawing, photography (or) cake decorating — is beneficial to us in a number of important ways.”
In a large scale international survey of knitters, respondents reported psychological benefits including relaxation, reduced anxiety, relief from stress, increased happiness and an improvement in cognitive abilities.
In another study, knitting was found to reduce workplace stress and compassion fatigue among oncology nurses.
Researchers tell us that learning new things and flexing our mental muscles, is one of the best things to protect ourselves from certain types of dementia. It also relieves stress by giving our brains something different to think about, gives us a sense of achievement, and gives us a new way to connect with others.
Crafting creates a sense of belonging and community. “When we are involved in (creativity), we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life,” Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said during a TED talk in 2004. “You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.”
I am a solitary person by nature. But I have found when I craft with a group of others I am uplifted and inspired. I am encouraged, invigorated and enthused! I truly enjoy it and it is one of the few things that will get me out of the house!
I am so excited to be part of a community of crafters! I have spent the last two decades on a quest to learn as many forms of crafting as possible. I am looking forward to sharing this knowledge with and learning from others! You are invited to join me. Lets de-stress, relax, enjoy life and be well together.
Beth