It’s that time of year when the sparkle of Christmas has faded but the long, dark nights persist. After the excitement of Christmas and Hogmanay parties its naturally to feel a little down at this time of year.
The winter blues can leave us with a low mood, lack of motivation, and we’re more susceptible to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This is particularly challenging when you’re expected to leap back into work mode!
At this time of year, it’s important that we protect our emotional and mental wellbeing. Could slowing down and switching screen time for working with our hands be the answer to soothing busy minds?
Craft has been proven to alleviate symptoms of low mood, including anxiety and depression. There’s also evidence to suggest that crafting can improve signs of dementia.
How the arts improve mental wellbeing
Research has shown that frequent engagement in arts and crafts activities improves mental health, reduces stress, improves brain function, and helps people feel more satisfied with their life overall.
Meeting other makers as part of a craft group also helps reduce loneliness and creates a sense of community. This is particularly beneficial during the dark winter months, when bad weather makes it tempting to close the door on the world.
Gentle, repetitive movement like knitting, crochet or working with clay has also been proven to alleviate rushing thoughts and worrying about the future. Through repetitive movements, makers are able to achieve what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first described as ‘flow’.
Flow is when you become so engrossed in an activity that all thoughts and outside stressors melt away. Csikszentmihalyi described how flow grounds us in the present in his 2004 TED Talk:
“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."
Furthermore, engagement with crafts is linked to dopamine release, the body’s natural anti-depressant, and reduction of the stress hormone cortisol. The repetitive action of most crafts soothes our overloaded nervous systems, which struggle to process the influx of (not always positive) information via social media, work Whats Apps and 24-hour news cycles.
If you’ve ever fallen prey to a “doom-scroll” on dull winter evenings, switching your screen for a pair of knitting needles could have a positive effect. In a study of 3,500 knitters, carried out by The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81% of knitters who suffered from depression reported improved symptoms after knitting.
Medical journal Neurology found that pensioners who spent time quality time crafting reported sharper memory, helping to ward off dementia in later years.
Those in their middle years and younger can also benefit from sharper recall and improved cognition because of craft. In fact, young women can benefit from increased levels of creative satisfaction, and many young textile artists use craft as a means for self-awareness and political engagement.
Overall, craft can help those with anxiety and depression to develop an optimistic attitude regarding their future and increase their enjoyment of the present by accessing “flow” states.
Craft can help process grief
If you’ve experienced loss over the festive season, or found Christmas and New Year tough due to the absence of loved ones, then the winter months can feel even tougher.
“Expressive art therapy integrates all of the arts in a safe, non-judgmental setting to facilitate personal growth and healing. To use the arts expressively means going into our inner realms to discover feelings and to express them through visual art, movement, sound, writing or drama. This process fosters release, self-understanding, insight and awakens creativity and transpersonal states of consciousness,” says practising therapist Natalie Rogers.
Craft can be a useful tool to help children as well as adults deal with overwhelming emotions such as grief and loss.
If you’re grieving the loss of a loved, stitching a ‘memory quilt’ from old clothing or decoupaging a photo frame to fill with memories of precious time spent with a loved one can be a cathartic process.
Arts and crafts provide a safe space for people to process complicated emotions, particularly if they find it difficult to find the right words to express how they feel.
The history of craft helping to ease anxiety
Since the World War 1, crafts have been used to help ease nervous conditions such as PTSD. Just as WW1 soldiers engaged in basket weaving to soothe shattered nerves, charity Combat Stress offers modern veterans pottery classes to help reduce anxiety.
Their PTSD Intensive Treatment programme provided veteran Craig with a healthy alternative to alcohol to help manage his PTSD symptoms.
“Pottery has started to fill my flat,” says Craig, “and I now even have a wheel and kiln at home. I have started to go out more, meeting people who have the same interest in pottery – this prevents me from isolating myself. In fact, I’m about to start a City and Guilds course in ceramics. And I often find myself in weird and wonderful craft shops, hunting down pottery supplies.”
Mindfulness via craft can help reduce anxiety-related symptoms like hypervigilance and racing thoughts as participants can lose themselves in a project. Meanwhile the satisfaction of learning a new skill and completing a project releases happy chemicals in the brain and boosts mood.
Craft creates community
A Baring Foundation report found the arts essential in combatting loneliness amongst the elderly, which can become more marked at Christmas.
They believe that craft tackles the ‘five ways to wellbeing’:
* Connect
* Be active
* Keep learning
* Take notice
* Give
By taking part in an organised craft group, older people can make friends, keep their hands and brain active and learn new skills. Then there’s the opportunity to gift what they make to friends, family, and their community.
Creativity brings communities together. Wild and Kind, a Glasgow-based social enterprise, has a mission to reduce isolation and loneliness for people with marginalised gender identities.
Founder, Trudi Donahue, started Wild and Kind by running free craft workshops. She quickly realised how many women craved a safe, creative and non-judgemental space in which to express themselves.
She says, “we aim to be running free workshops and hangouts every day of the week for women and people outwith the gender binary. We’re also working on a few projects that will drastically impact the lives of people in the local community; a counselling service and a program to help support women from areas of deprivation into the creative industry. We will continue to raise funds through direct to garment printing, but we will also soon offer Risograph printing and eco friendly screen printing. All of our equipment is also accessible to members of our creative community.”
Picking up a craft hobby can improve cognitive function
Raigmore Hospital in Inverness has been the subject of a study by anthropologist Stephanie Bunn.
She’s discovered that the skill and dexterity learned in basket-making promotes cognitive development. For those recovering from a stroke, basket-making has helped to “re-establish neural pathways and improve brain plasticity” and basketwork can “trigger hand memories” in patients with dementia.
As the positive link between the arts and improved mental wellbeing becomes more obvious and NHS waiting lists for mental health services grow longer, craft offers an immediate, low-cost mental health boost for those struggling with anxiety and mood disorders.
How to get started with craft
Thankfully, it seems that the public have already cottoned on to the soothing benefits of crafts. In a survey of 50,000 people, the BBC discovered that 23.9% of respondents cited ‘making’ as their favourite hobby and 76% used crafts to manage emotional distress.
If you’re looking to start a craft hobby to boost your mental health, here are a few ways Nest can help.
Join a workshop
Ever wanted to try making your own jewellery or felt purse?
Nest run regular workshops and CrAfternoons where you can meet like-minded creatives and learn new skills.
We aim to be as environmentally friendly as possible, therefore all materials and fabric used in our workshop come from donations that have been diverted from landfill.
Once a month we also run a Frenchic paint clinic where you can drop in for advice on how to paint and upcycle furniture.
Crafty Café
If you’re looking to build connections within Blairgowrie, every Monday we hold our crafter’s social “Crafty Cafe” from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm.
It’s a chance to connect with a craft group and work on your latest project over some company and a cup of tea.
We also have a Woolly Makers group that runs every Wednesday. See our Events page for details.
Community Craft Room
Our Community Craft Room is open to any group or individual looking to escape the kitchen table.
Each Wednesday we have Community Crafting in our downstairs Craft Room providing space and materials for local community groups to create items they need to help fundraise or promote their work.
All last month various members of the Blairgowrie community worked together to create selfie frames and crowns for the Jubilee celebrations in the Wellmeadow. We also made banners for some of the groups that took part in the Jubilee Parade.
If your group needs to make something for an event or to promote your group, then you can use our space. Just get in touch to book it for free and you can then invite the community to come and help!
Sell Your Art
We are passionate about supporting local makers and being able to show the wealth of talent there is in the local area.
Our gift shop area sells a wide range of items made by our studio residents and local creatives. We are currently supporting over 40 makers by providing space for them to sell to our local community and visitors to Blairgowrie.
Nest is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 2pm. We hope you’ll take time out of the hustle and bustle of your daily schedule to join us at a workshop or event and discover the healing benefits of craft. Plus, it’s really good fun!
Whether you decide to join in a workshop or get ideas for a new hobby, craft can bring light and calm to the dark months. And who knows, by spring you might have a completed project to show off!