Crafting has long been regarded as a well-loved pastime. However, it has a reputation for being only enjoyable for people who are good at the arts. This is not true, as you don’t have to be a professional at crafting to like making things with your hands.
From knitting to quilting to beading to simply making random objects from things you find around the house, the possibilities when it comes to crafting are quite endless. Though everyone knows crafting is an enjoyable hobby, there are other benefits as to why you should make crafts in your free time. Read on to learn why you should make the most of this creative pastime.
Enhances Your Memory
It seems like your Nana was on to something when she spent all those evenings knitting your scarves! This is because crafting has been found to improve your memory and also prevent cognitive deterioration in old age. Studies have proven that practicing this hobby can decrease your chances of suffering from a cognitive impairment by fifty percent. Creative activities like arts and crafts can fight memory loss and reduce the chance that you will get various disorders common in old age such as dementia or Alzheimers.
Makes You More Patient
Another reason why practicing crafting is a good idea is that it can help you work on cultivating your patience. This is especially important in a day and age where things provoke you all the time and test your patience. Working on a craft project can help you recharge and reset. Moreover, you are forced to directly work on being more patient when crafting as you sometimes need to go over your project and repeat or replace parts of it if something somehow goes wrong.
Reduces Stress Levels
Because crafting is a repetitive activity that you focus on, your mind can be sent into a calming state very similar to the one achieved through yoga or meditation. Crafting can clear your mind and take your mind off of whatever is worrying you. You should read more about how arts and crafts hobbies such as knitting, beading, and quilting can help wash away tension and stress. Money can’t buy you happiness but it can surely buy you craft supplies which can be the definition of stress relief that can make you happy!
Boosts Self Esteem
Crafting can also boost your self-esteem as creating something using your hands on your own can greatly affect your self-esteem, sending it to new highs. Finishing a new, beautiful project where you had to use your imagination gives you a sense of purpose outside of your daily responsibilities. Creating crafts is a hobby that reminds you exactly what you can be capable of constructing if you just set your mind to it.
Increases Social Connections
Although this might seem unlikely for a hobby where you need to mostly turn inward and create something on your own, arts and crafts can help you increase your social skills and build social connections. You can meet people through creative communities and bond over your love for whatever craft you pursue. Also, if you are looking to learn a new craft, you can join a creative class or workshop that focuses on the skill. In the class, you have the chance to socialize and build some new friendships.
Improves Sleep Quality
Yet another way you can benefit from crafting is that it can improve the quality of sleep you have at night. This might seem pretty unlikely because what connection could there be between crafting and improved sleep quality?
However, this is explained by the fact that creating a craft often has a repetitive nature that can lull your brain into relaxation, especially if you do it before you go to sleep. Getting engrossed in a creative task and repeating the same steps several times can help calm your mind and body which can help you drift off to sleep more easily.
Helps You Express Yourself
A pretty obvious, but nevertheless, important, benefit of crafting as a hobby is that it helps you to express yourself. Whatever you choose to create is typically based on the mood you are in. People usually choose shapes, colours, and creations based on how they are feeling and their tastes. Emotions tend to bleed out of creative works, making them a unique and accurate outlet of self-expression. You can always gift someone with a craft you have made to express exactly how you feel to them.
Crafting is a fun hobby that brings out the creative side you might never know you had! It has also been proven to improve mental health disorders like anxiety and depression, transporting you to a blissful new world. But even if you don’t suffer from a mental health issue and just need that extra boost of dopamine, you should consider taking up this hobby as the benefits of pursuing it are unlimited.