Many of us are finding that we have more time on our hands, during the current pandemic-related restrictions. Sometimes, it can be tempting to default to our guilty pleasures – eating unhealthy snacks, drinking alcohol, smoking, watching too much TV or snoozing. Instead, we could be honing our skills in being creative and reaping many benefits.

Have you tried knitting a scarf? Painting a portrait of a loved one? Sketching something you can see from your window? Re-purposing an old skirt, to make something new to wear? Baking an unusual cake? Making a Scrapbook Journal of your life during the lockdown? The list of possibilities is almost endless.

This time can provide you with an opportunity in which a crafts-related hobby is definitely something that can lift your mood, create something beautiful or useful and boost self-confidence too. Here are lots of reasons why crafts can save your day!

12 Benefits of Being Crafty

1. Learning and developing a new interest can provide a productive and interesting way of filling the time previously taken up by a bad habit such as overeating or drinking.

2. Crafty projects can be very simple, especially if you choose some easy projects to start with. If you immediately think that you ‘can’t’ do something, just check out the videos on YouTube! It seems that there is a demonstration of just about every craft known to mankind. Talented people share their skills, hints and tips. All for free!

3. Crafting supports mindful meditation: the repetitive movement of the hands and the concentration on what is happening as you go can bring a sense of peace, calm – and living in the present, rather than agonising over past events and worrying about the future. Crafting can offer the sanctuary of a quiet mind away from negative thoughts

4. Occupy the mind and the hands. If you worry about problems, stitching can distract and remove you from a cycle of worry and guilt – and prevent boredom

5. Help you relax. Not just your body… your mind is rested too. Being crafty allows us to enter a state of relaxation and well-being. As you get further involved in your project, time flies by, while you are absorbed in what you are creating with your hands. You reach the so-called “steady-flow”. This is where worries are forgotten and the mind focuses on the activity of creativity.

6. Being creative can provide an alternative purpose and agenda for each day, enabling you to regain feelings of control over life – where you can make creative decisions, exercise self-control and discipline. Being crafty brings back forgotten emotions such as excitement, anticipation, fun and enjoyment.

7. Being creative can help to save money (Most craft items are cheaper than a cigarette, alcohol or sweet habit!) You can make a cake rather than buying one. Or knit gloves instead of shopping for them.

8. Trying a crafty activity can reinforce neglected skills such as planning and goal-setting – looking forward to future gains. Crafting for adults facilitates creative and decisive thinking, which will help you to make better decisions in all areas of your life. It is said to stimulate the creation of new brain connections, which can make a person smarter.

9. There is an immense sense of satisfaction that creativity brings, through the use of colour combinations and texture. When you create something in which we have invested time and dedication, you feel a sense of satisfaction and pride. When you are working on a project, you see the evolution of your creativity. As the craft takes shape and looks nearer to what you have planned, you feel excitement and anticipation.

10. Creating something can be an excellent way to express yourself. For example, if you choose and create shapes, colours, sizes and textures, you are expressing an important part of yourself, showing your aesthetic sense, and even revealing your emotions.

11. What you create could be a great gift you can make for a friend or relative. When you give something done with your hands, it always (and immediately) becomes a wonderful gift of expression of the relationship between you and that person. This is because you have put your time, care and dedication into this project. Such a gift is likely to be better appreciated and valued over one that you simply buy and give away.

12. Brings back forgotten emotions such as excitement, anticipation, fun and enjoyment.

So, what are you waiting for? – grab those needles – or paintbrushes, pencils, crayons and crochet hooks – and get crafty…

Happy crafting!