In today’s post, we want to show you a side of crafting you may never have considered, one that has a lot to do with some of the effects creative and artistic activities have on people. Maybe one of your hobbies is creative: drawing, design, photography… If so, it’s very likely that when you’re focused on creating something, the rest of the world seems to disappear. Your mind sets aside the worries of everyday life and, for a moment… it’s just you and whatever you’re making.
Suddenly, all that exists are fabrics, colors, shapes, threads, stitches… You concentrate on each step of the creative process so everything turns out well.
Normally, we don’t give it too much importance. It’s a distraction, something we enjoy that helps us “kill” time. But when we go through periods of intense stress or difficult situations in life, giving our minds a “vacation” from time to time is essential. And this is where crafting as therapy emerges as a real alternative: a moment of creation in which we give our brains—and ourselves—the chance to focus intensely on a task that requires our full attention and care, allowing the tension to ease.
Blanca’s story.
We realized just how true this was when we heard the story of Blanca, a young woman who loved dancing but suddenly, because of an illness, found herself bedridden for a long period, barely able to move because of the pain.
During that extremely difficult time in her life, instead of letting herself get discouraged, Blanca developed her passion for photography and crafting. She began using those hours of forced immobility to experiment with scrapbooking, making personalized notebooks where she poured all her creativity and that became an outlet for negative thoughts.
This made us realize that our passion for do-it-yourself projects isn’t accidental and that it also has a lot to do with our optimistic, positive way of seeing the world. That’s why today’s post is an invitation to look at it differently. In another post, we told you how beneficial crafting was for your brain, but through Blanca, we’ve also seen how good it can be for your mood and emotional well-being in general.
Not only because of all the distraction and relaxation you can find in the process, but also because of the feeling of holding a finished project in your hands: the pride of seeing what you’re capable of creating and the desire to keep experimenting so you can improve.
Crafting as therapy.
Crafting as therapy is especially interesting for people who are recovering, like Blanca, who may come to feel useless because they can’t do any of the things they normally do in their daily lives. It’s the leap from “forced unproductivity” to “free creativity”—moving from feeling like you can’t do anything to realizing that there are many beautiful things you can create with your own hands.
And you know what? Today, Blanca not only continues to intensely enjoy every moment she gets to do what she loves most, but she has turned it into her way of life by working professionally in photography, selling her notebooks and creations, and teaching others how to make them.
Of course, you don’t have to be sick or bedridden for crafting to have a very positive influence on you and give you a high degree of balance that will then be reflected in every other area of your life. You only have to choose your “weapons,” get to work, and give your mind the space to relax and escape that it needs so much.
And, of course, keep us posted on your creations!
We’ll keep giving you lots of ideas and advice so you can enjoy it as much as possible.