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Steps to exploring crafts, creating custom crafts, where to sell them in person and online at Etsy or other online shopping sites, etc.

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Covers several aspects of different wellness benefits including improving insomnia, increasing self-esteem,helping with grief, anxiety, stress as well as opportunities for friendships and building a sense of community.

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Crafting for Health | What are the health benefits of crafting?

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by Ashley Foster - January 24, 2019

Why try crafting?

Need a reason to craft more? Or what to tell your family when they ask about the hours you spend making scarves? Crocheting and knitting are good for you! In one study of more than 3,500 knitters, published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81% of respondents with depression reported feeling happy after knitting. More than half reported feeling "very happy.

What are the benefits of crafting?

Reduced stress. Stress is one of our leading health problems. Its effects range from migraines and fatigue to heart failure and early memory loss. Reducing stress reduces disease. Using knitting or crochet as meditation can be a daily way to minimize the effects of stress in your life.

Helps relieve and reduce depression and anxiety. Depression relief is by far the most reported and studied benefit of crochet and knitting. The repetition of the crafts has been shown to release serotonin, a natural anti-depressant.

Projects help build self-esteem. Simply visualizing, working on and then creating a product can make you feel better about yourself. This has helped people with everything from coping with the fear of unemployment to gaining the strength to leave abusive relationships.

Decreased risk of cognitive impairment as you age. Several studies have shown that knitting and crochet can postpone age-related memory loss. The crafts can also be soothing for those people who are already experiencing signs of dementia. Recently, researcher Yonas Geda, MD, a neuropsychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic, completed a study that showed knitting is neuroprotective and may reduce dementia by as much as 50%.

Can help with insomnia. Insomnia is a terrible feeling. You are tired but you can't sleep so then you're frustrated that you can't sleep, which just makes it harder to sleep. Yarncrafts to the rescue! Focus on a soft, soothing, easy, repetitive crochet or knit project and your body and mind can often wind down enough to get to bed. A study by professor Herbert Benson of the Mind/Body Medical Institute found that 100% of insomnia patients reported improved sleep with 90% being able to eliminate medication in a program that included knitting.

Relaxation reduces irritability and restlessness. Crochet and knitting can help you through any times when you feel grumpy, restless, frustrated or bored. This positive outlet preserves your relationships and keeps your mood balanced.

Builds community and friendships. No matter what health issue you are dealing with, it helps to have a community of support around you. Here' an idea. Start a craft group face-to-face or online!

Can help with grief processing. Loss is a horrible thing and none of us escape it. During periods of deep grief it can seem impossible that you'll ever be able to function again. Crochet and knitting can be one of the most comforting things during this time. It's something that you can do without a lot of money or effort. It's something you can do in small bits, when you have the energy. It can, for a moment, take your mind off of your pain. The textures and colors of the yarn, the warmth of the item that you're creating and the beautiful up/down motion of stitch upon stitch can get you one day closer to feeling okay again.

But why do crocheting and knitting help?

Relaxed, repetitive motions can help calm down the body and the brain.

Help with fine motor skills and keeping your fingers and hands feeling good as you age.

Being among friends can help combat loneliness and isolation, which can contribute to health problems.

Builds social skills.

For men and women.

Need some help getting started?

Check out the resources below.

References:
Craft Yarn Council The American Counseling Association www.redheart.com

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Crafting for Health | What are the health benefits of crafting?

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by Ashley Foster - January 24, 2019 Need a reason to craft more? Or what to tell your family when they ask about the hours you spend making scarves? Crocheting and knitting are good for you! In one study of more than 3,500 knitters, published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81% of respondents with depression reported feeling happy after knitting.

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Reviews studies on how brain activity is effected when participating in crafting activities comparing creating complex quilting layours with doing crossword puzzles and also inhibiting cognitive decline as people become older.

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Story highlights

Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say

It may also ease stress, increase happiness by releasing neurotransmitter called dopamine

Leisure activities such as reading and crafting may protect brain from aging, study finds

Her brother's sudden death in 2004 hit Sarah Huerta hard.

In the years that followed, Huerta couldn't leave the house without suffering a panic attack. She hated getting in cars since her brother's body was found in one.She couldn't seem to hold down a job. Every time she stepped outside she felt disaster closing in.

Her physician diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme anxiety.

Her husband gave her knitting needles.

Huerta was skeptical at first. Knitting seemed silly - and difficult for hands she could never seem to keep still. But as she learned to knit and purl, hours melted away. She realized she was no longer focusing on the future, imagining catastrophic things happening to her loved ones.

"That's when I seriously started crafting," Huerta said.

Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say. It may also ease stress, increase happiness and protect the brain from damage caused by aging.

Little research has been done specifically on crafting, but neuroscientists are beginning to see how studies on cognitive activities such as doing crossword puzzles might also apply to someone who does complex quilting patterns. Others are drawing connections between the mental health benefits of meditation and thezen reached while painting or sculpting.

"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."

Effects similar to meditatio n

Even today, years after Huerta first learned to knit, she finds she can lose herself for hours in a tricky pattern.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first described this phenomenon as flow: a few moments in time when you are so completely absorbed by an activity that nothing else seems to matter. Flow, Csikszentmihalyi says, is the secret to happiness - a statement he supports with decades of research.

"When we are involved in (creativity), we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life," 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."

Our nervous system is only capable of processing a certain amount of information at a time, he explains. That's why you can't listen and understand two people who are talking to you at once. So when someone starts creating, his existence outside that activity becomes "temporarily suspended."

"He doesn't have enough attention left over to monitor how his body feels, or his problems at home. He can't feel if he's hungry or tired. His body disappears."

The effects of flow are similar to those of meditation, says occupational therapist Victoria Schindler. Science has shown meditation can, among other things, reduce stress and fight inflammation.

Our bodies are in a constant state of stress because our brain can't tell the difference between an upcoming meeting with the boss and an upcoming bear attack, Schindler says. The repetitive motions of knitting, for example, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which quiets that "fight or flight" response.

In a 2007 paper " The neurological basis of occupation," Schindler and co-author Sharon Gutman argue that patients could learn to use activities such as drawing or painting to elicit flow, which would offer a nonpharmaceutical way to regulate strong emotions such as anger or prevent irrational thoughts.

"Flow could potentially help patients to dampen internal chaos," they write.

The reward center in your brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine when you do something pleasurable. Scientists believe dopamine was originally designed to make us repeat activities that would help the species survive, such as eating and having sex. Over time, we've evolved so that the brain can also release dopamine while we're staining glass or decorating a cake.

No more 'buts': Do what makes you happy

"Dopamine, in and of itself, is our natural anti-depressant," Levisay says. "Any time we can find a nonmedicinal way to stimulate that reward center ... the better off we're going to be."

There's survey evidence to support crafting's dopamine effect. In one study of more than 3,500 knitters, published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81% of respondents with depression reported feeling happy after knitting. More than half reported feeling "very happy."

And crafting's reward goes far beyond creation. Seeing the finished product adorning your walls - or receiving praise from a loved one - can offer repeated hits of that feel-good chemical.

Crafting also improves our self-efficacy, Levisay says, or how we feel about performing particular tasks. Psychologists believe a strong sense of self-efficacy is key to how we approach new challenges and overcome disappointments in life. So realizing you can, in fact, crochet a sweater for your nephew can help you tackle the next big paper your teacher assigns.

Creative a ctivities may protect against aging

More than 35 million people worldwide live with dementia today. By 2050, that number is expected to more than triple, and experts are racing to find ways to protect the brain from this debilitating condition.

Neuroscientists used to believe that the brain was a static organ, says Levisay, and that once it was fully developed in your 20s, all you could do was lose power. But research has shown more recently that our brains are flexible and can adapt to their environment, even in old age - a concept called neuroplasticity.

The aging brain: Why getting older just might be awesome

The evidence to support this concept is overwhelming. Studies have found intellectually stimulating activities, such as learning a new language, can help prevent cerebral atrophy and significantly delay dementia. And a recently published clinical trial shows cognitive training can improve reasoning skills and the brain's processing speed for up to 10 years after said training has been completed.

"The natural next step is to study other activities - not just memory, cognitive tests," Levisay says. "What about crafting activities? Something people do naturally because they're enjoyable."

Crafting is also unique, Levisay says, in its ability to involve many different areas of your brain. It can work your memory and attention span while involving your visuospatial processing, creative side and problem-solving abilities.

Scientists are beginning to study leisure activities' impact on the brain. Playing games, reading books and crafting could reduce your chances of developing mild cognitive impairment by 30% to 50%, according to a 2011 study published in The Journal of Neuropsychiatry.

"The hypothesis is that the more stimulating your environment is ... the more you're increasing the complexity of the brain, the more you can afford to lose," Levisay says. "You're building a buffer."

Related: Why I'm a Pinterest mom | I'm not, and OK

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Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say It may also ease stress, increase happiness by releasing neurotransmitter called dopamine Leisure activities such as reading and crafting may protect brain from aging, study finds Her brother's sudden death in 2004 hit Sarah Huerta hard.

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Crafting helps our social health in many ways. We can bond with people through crafts we make. JC

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Surgical Students Loosing Dexterity to Stitch Patients

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Surgical Students Loosing Dexterity to Stitch Patients

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A professor in London suggests that medical students need more "rounded" education so when they get to medical school they can perform basic practical skills easier

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A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients.

Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical.

"It is important and an increasingly urgent issue," says Prof Kneebone, who warns medical students might have high academic grades but cannot cut or sew.

"It is a concern of mine and my scientific colleagues that whereas in the past you could make the assumption that students would leave school able to do certain practical things - cutting things out, making things - that is no longer the case," says Prof Kneebone.

Stitched up

The professor, who teaches surgery to medical students, says young people need to have a more rounded education, including creative and artistic subjects, where they learn to use their hands.

Prof Kneebone says he has seen a decline in the manual dexterity of students over the past decade - which he says is a problem for surgeons, who need craftsmanship as well as academic knowledge.

"An obvious example is of a surgeon needing some dexterity and skill in sewing or stitching," he says.

"A lot of things are reduced to swiping on a two-dimensional flat screen," he says, which he argues takes away the experience of handling materials and developing physical skills.

Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument.

Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says.

"We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.

Stay ahead of the robots

Prof Kneebone will be speaking on Tuesday at the V&A Museum of Childhood in east London, at the launch of a report, published by the Edge Foundation, calling for more creativity in the curriculum.

Alice Barnard, chief executive of the Edge education charity, says: "The government pays lip service by saying creative subjects are important, but its policies demonstrate otherwise."

She says the way school performance is measured tends to push schools to focus on core academic subjects, to the detriment of arts and creative subjects.

The report warns that entries to creative subjects have fallen by 20% since 2010, including a 57% fall in design and technology GCSE.

Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, will be speaking alongside Prof Kneebone.

"Creativity is not just for artists. Subjects like design and technology, music, art and drama are vitally important for children to develop imagination and resourcefulness, resilience, problem-solving, team-working and technical skills," says Mr Hunt.

"These are the skills which will enable young people to navigate the changing workplace of the future and stay ahead of the robots, not exam grades."

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Surgery students 'losing dexterity to stitch patients'

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A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients. Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical.

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Teens and children learn critical skills such as problem solving, teamwork and adapting patterns. Research shows it helps teens and children focus as well as learn basid skills such as colors, patterns, etc. Research has indicated knitting helps build or maintain cognitive skills.

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When I was young my mother taught me to knit. A few years later a friend acquired the skill of crochet and passed it along to me. After high school I took a hiatus from both, but about seven years ago came back to knitting. In this revival of my craftiness, knitting (and more recently also crochet) has become an essential part of my life - being a knitter is a part of my identity, and it is a rare day that I don't spend at least an hour knitting.

With baby number one on the way, I know time available for knitting will become more precious and rare, but this has also gotten me thinking about one day teaching my own children to knit. The benefits of hobbies like knitting and crocheting are numerous, and potentially even more so for the youth who partake.

Benefits of knitting

Knitting and crochet have become popular again in the past several years, crossing all generations. While working at a yarn store in Toronto last year, I noticed the regular client-base ranged in age widely, from the very young all the way up to the elderly.

There are a lot of reasons for this resurgence in popularity, not the least of which is that yarn has come a long way; there are hundreds of beautiful and amazing options out there and a wide range of price points. Research is also starting to clearly point out the perks of these fibre crafts. Most studies look at the benefits for adults, so let's quickly run through why knitting is great for adults.

Fibre arts are productive and creative, and, after the initial learning curve, are often very calming and meditative. Knitting and crochet often also include a social component. Social knitting impacts perceived happiness, communication and social contact. Social ties are incredibly important for community building, which is particularly significant for young families, newcomers, and the elderly.

Many local yarn stores become hubs of activity, with social bonds being made and strengthened through afternoons spent at the shop, knit-nights, and workshops. People help each other learn new skills, troubleshoot problems and mistakes, pick new patterns, and select yarns and colours. The knit community is a strong and wonderful community to belong to.

Research shows that craft activities, such as knitting and quilting, help to decrease the odds of cognitive impairment while aging. Knitters also commonly report that this hobby helps them keep calm and happy, and people who knit frequently report higher cognitive functioning.

Knitting also plays a role in helping to manage chronic pain, in part through its meditative rhythmic movements, and also through building support networks when done socially. There is also early research that shows knitting many be helpful in the clinical management of specific anxieties.

So, in a nutshell, knitting and crochet are productive, creative, and calming, and can also help to reduce stress and anxiety while positively impacting mental functioning. Fibre arts also help people build their community and create stronger social bonds. It helps you and the people around you.

Benefits for kids

There are many ways that kids can benefit from knitting and crochet. In addition to all the ways it will be good for them as adults, when it is learned young it helps build all sorts of skills they are already working on. Math is an inherent part of knitting, as patterns often including counting stitches and rows, as well as figuring out pattern repeats and multiples.

It also requires reading and following instructions, as well as problem solving and troubleshooting. Mistakes happen, and they are a great opportunity to look back at how the error occurred and figure out how to fix it. As a skill that includes both hands and follows a particular rhythmic pattern, it also helps with developing fine motor skills. Once the basic steps are mastered, the repetitive nature of knitting and crochet helps to make it a meditative and calming activity.

It is also a creative hobby, allowing your child to select colours and patterns, and maybe even adapting the pattern to suit their own ideas or needs. Because knitting includes a finished object that your child can use or wear (or gift to somebody), it has its own built-in reward system.

There is so much that can be made with knitting and crochet. It is a hobby that can start very simple and grow and change in complexity as your child masters new skills one at a time. It is also an activity that can be done together and be equally satisfying for both adult and child!

How to teach kids to knit

As all teachers know, the first step is always patience. Learning the initial basic skills can feel awkward and even frustrating. However, as complex as knitting can get, it is all built on just a few basic stitches and skills that are relatively easy to learn and master.

Start with a small project, like a dish cloth. It's functional and a good size for a first attempt - children (and adults!) can learn the basics and finish the project relatively fast, and hopefully before they get too bored with it.

If you don't know how to knit yourself, local yarn shops are a great place to start. Most have beginner classes that may be appropriate for children (but check first with the store). You can get private lessons, either one-on-one or with a group of interested friends. It could be a great start for a small birthday party, or an interesting and unique way to spend a PA day afternoon!

In terms of age, it really depends on the kid - their level of interest, ability to concentrate, and relative fine motor skills will determine when it's best for them to start. Some teachers may have a specific age when they will start giving lessons, so check around.

The knitting world has a serious online presence, so you can get lots of guidance and ideas from knitting parents teaching their kids to knit. There are many very helpful sites (such as Tin Can Knits, TECHknitting, and Purl Soho), and also great large-scale gathering points like Ravelry.com. Here you can find patterns (for free and for purchase) and connect with the online knitting and crochet community, who are a great resource for getting help with any questions you have.

Local yarn shops are also a great place to go for advice and ideas. The people who work at these stores generally love to knit and are excited to help people learn. They can help you with pattern and yarn selections, and get you started with the gear you need.

Knitting is an excellent hobby that comes with so many benefits for adults and children alike. If you and your kids are crafty, or want to be, and are looking for a new past-time, knitting should definitely be on your radar!

Happy Crafting!

Jen Vander Vecht is a writer and soon to be full-time mom. When not crafting four different knitting projects at once, she can be found dumping ingredients into her slow-cooker, walking the dog, watching Doctor Who, or researching cloth diapers.

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The Benefits of Knitting for Kids - Help! We've Got Kids

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There are many ways that kids (and adults!) can benefit from knitting and crochet. In addition to all the ways it will be good for them as adults, when it is learned young it helps build all sorts of skills they are already working on.

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https://www.uaex.edu/life-skills-wellness/personal-family-well-being/navigating-life-blog/crafting_for_health.aspx Crafting helps with fine motor skills and with some health conditions such as insomnia

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(MW) Crafting helps with cognitive health and is proven to help those that are suffering from chronic illnesses!

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At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by the 24/7 demands of the digital world, craft practices, alongside other activities such as colouring books for grown-ups and the up-surge of interest in cooking from scratch and productive home gardens, are being looked to as something of an antidote to the stresses and pressures of modern living.

Crafts such as knitting, crochet, weaving, ceramics, needlework and woodwork focus on repetitive actions and a skill level that can always be improved upon. According to the famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi this allows us to enter a "flow" state, a perfect immersive state of balance between skill and challenge.

With what is increasingly referred to today as "mindfulness" being a much-desired quality for many people, it's not surprising crafts are being sought out for their mental and even physical benefits.

Read more: Knitting your way to a healthier, happier mind

Craft as therapy

For over a century, arts and craft-based activity have been a core part of occupational therapy that emerged as a distinct health field around the end of the first world war in response to the needs of returned soldiers. This includes many suffering from what we now refer to as post-traumatic stress disorder, but then referred to as "shell shock".

Knitting, basket weaving, and other craft activities were commonplace in the repatriation support offered throughout much of the English-speaking world to the returned veterans of the two world wars. This was as both diversional therapy (taking your mind off pain and negative thoughts), as well as skills-development geared towards re-entering the civilian workforce.

Read more: Stitching lives back together: men's rehabilitation embroidery in WWI

More recently, research is seeking to better understand just how craft is so beneficial for the body and mind. Interestingly, much of the focus has been on the mental health and well-being brought about by knitting.

rocknwool unsplash

The benefits of craft according to science

A large-scale international online survey of knitters found respondents reported they derived a wide range of perceived psychological benefits from the practice: relaxation; relief from stress; a sense of accomplishment; connection to tradition; increased happiness; reduced anxiety; enhanced confidence, as well as cognitive abilities (improved memory, concentration and ability to think through problems).

In more clinical contexts, introducing knitting into the lives of hospital patients with anorexia nervosa led to a self-reported reduction in anxious preoccupation with eating disorder thoughts and feelings.

Some 74% of research participants described feeling "distracted" or "distanced" from these negative emotional and cognitive states, as well as more relaxed and comfortable. Over half said they felt less stressed, a feeling of accomplishment, and less likely to act on their "ruminating thoughts".

In another study, knitting was found to reduce workplace stress and compassion fatigue experienced by oncology nurses.

Quilting has been found to enhance participant's experiences of well-being as they move into older age. Research reports quilters find the work challenging, cognitively demanding, it helps to maintain or generate new skills, and working with colour was found to be uplifting, especially in winter.

In studies of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME), depression and other long-term health problems, textile crafts were found to increase sufferers' self-esteem, their engagement with the wider world, and increase their personal sense of well-being and their ability to live positively with their condition.

While knitting and other textile-based activities tend to be female-dominated, similar benefits have been found for men in the collective woodworking, repair and other productive tinkering activities of the Men's Sheds movement. Participants reported reduced levels of depression.

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Why does craft make us feel good?

What unites almost all of these studies, is that while the practice of craft, especially those such as knitting, quilting, needlework and woodworking, may at first appear to be relatively private activities, the benefits also substantially arise from the social connections craft enables.

These have even been reported across whole communities impacted by disaster, such as the recovery following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

One of the strengths of craft practice, especially as a contributor to well-being, is precisely that it can be both solitary and collective, and it's up to the individual to decide.

For the shy, the ill, or those suffering from various forms of social anxiety, this control, as well as the capacity to draw away any uncomfortable focus upon themselves and instead channel this into the process of making, is a much valued quality of their craft practice.

The research into the physical and mental health benefits of craft remains largely qualitative and based on self-reporting. And it especially explores its capacity to generate positive health outcomes through positive mental health. While there's much more work to be done here, it's clear craft continues to play a key role in enhancing the quality of life of those who participate in its practices.

Read more: Craft in Australia: let's not forget the real value of the handmade

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At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by the 24/7 demands of the digital world, craft practices, alongside other activities such as colouring books for grown-ups and the up-surge of interest in cooking from scratch and productive home gardens, are being looked to as something of an antidote to the stresses and pressures of modern living.

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https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/stories/4-reasons-craft-good-your-mental-health  Ej

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https://www.craftcourses.com/blog/the-health-benefits-of-craft
https://www.healthline.com/health/diy-depression-therapy-how-the-arts-can-heal
Crafting is proven to help mental health and overall wellness. One of these articles explains that it helped a grandmother handle her depression. (LM)

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(MW) Crafting can increase your happiness and emotional wellness!

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Story highlights

Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say

It may also ease stress, increase happiness by releasing neurotransmitter called dopamine

Leisure activities such as reading and crafting may protect brain from aging, study finds

Her brother's sudden death in 2004 hit Sarah Huerta hard.

In the years that followed, Huerta couldn't leave the house without suffering a panic attack. She hated getting in cars since her brother's body was found in one.She couldn't seem to hold down a job. Every time she stepped outside she felt disaster closing in.

Her physician diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme anxiety.

Her husband gave her knitting needles.

Huerta was skeptical at first. Knitting seemed silly - and difficult for hands she could never seem to keep still. But as she learned to knit and purl, hours melted away. She realized she was no longer focusing on the future, imagining catastrophic things happening to her loved ones.

"That's when I seriously started crafting," Huerta said.

Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say. It may also ease stress, increase happiness and protect the brain from damage caused by aging.

Little research has been done specifically on crafting, but neuroscientists are beginning to see how studies on cognitive activities such as doing crossword puzzles might also apply to someone who does complex quilting patterns. Others are drawing connections between the mental health benefits of meditation and thezen reached while painting or sculpting.

"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."

Effects similar to meditatio n

Even today, years after Huerta first learned to knit, she finds she can lose herself for hours in a tricky pattern.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first described this phenomenon as flow: a few moments in time when you are so completely absorbed by an activity that nothing else seems to matter. Flow, Csikszentmihalyi says, is the secret to happiness - a statement he supports with decades of research.

"When we are involved in (creativity), we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life," 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."

Our nervous system is only capable of processing a certain amount of information at a time, he explains. That's why you can't listen and understand two people who are talking to you at once. So when someone starts creating, his existence outside that activity becomes "temporarily suspended."

"He doesn't have enough attention left over to monitor how his body feels, or his problems at home. He can't feel if he's hungry or tired. His body disappears."

The effects of flow are similar to those of meditation, says occupational therapist Victoria Schindler. Science has shown meditation can, among other things, reduce stress and fight inflammation.

Our bodies are in a constant state of stress because our brain can't tell the difference between an upcoming meeting with the boss and an upcoming bear attack, Schindler says. The repetitive motions of knitting, for example, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which quiets that "fight or flight" response.

In a 2007 paper " The neurological basis of occupation," Schindler and co-author Sharon Gutman argue that patients could learn to use activities such as drawing or painting to elicit flow, which would offer a nonpharmaceutical way to regulate strong emotions such as anger or prevent irrational thoughts.

"Flow could potentially help patients to dampen internal chaos," they write.

The reward center in your brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine when you do something pleasurable. Scientists believe dopamine was originally designed to make us repeat activities that would help the species survive, such as eating and having sex. Over time, we've evolved so that the brain can also release dopamine while we're staining glass or decorating a cake.

No more 'buts': Do what makes you happy

"Dopamine, in and of itself, is our natural anti-depressant," Levisay says. "Any time we can find a nonmedicinal way to stimulate that reward center ... the better off we're going to be."

There's survey evidence to support crafting's dopamine effect. In one study of more than 3,500 knitters, published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81% of respondents with depression reported feeling happy after knitting. More than half reported feeling "very happy."

And crafting's reward goes far beyond creation. Seeing the finished product adorning your walls - or receiving praise from a loved one - can offer repeated hits of that feel-good chemical.

Crafting also improves our self-efficacy, Levisay says, or how we feel about performing particular tasks. Psychologists believe a strong sense of self-efficacy is key to how we approach new challenges and overcome disappointments in life. So realizing you can, in fact, crochet a sweater for your nephew can help you tackle the next big paper your teacher assigns.

Creative a ctivities may protect against aging

More than 35 million people worldwide live with dementia today. By 2050, that number is expected to more than triple, and experts are racing to find ways to protect the brain from this debilitating condition.

Neuroscientists used to believe that the brain was a static organ, says Levisay, and that once it was fully developed in your 20s, all you could do was lose power. But research has shown more recently that our brains are flexible and can adapt to their environment, even in old age - a concept called neuroplasticity.

The aging brain: Why getting older just might be awesome

The evidence to support this concept is overwhelming. Studies have found intellectually stimulating activities, such as learning a new language, can help prevent cerebral atrophy and significantly delay dementia. And a recently published clinical trial shows cognitive training can improve reasoning skills and the brain's processing speed for up to 10 years after said training has been completed.

"The natural next step is to study other activities - not just memory, cognitive tests," Levisay says. "What about crafting activities? Something people do naturally because they're enjoyable."

Crafting is also unique, Levisay says, in its ability to involve many different areas of your brain. It can work your memory and attention span while involving your visuospatial processing, creative side and problem-solving abilities.

Scientists are beginning to study leisure activities' impact on the brain. Playing games, reading books and crafting could reduce your chances of developing mild cognitive impairment by 30% to 50%, according to a 2011 study published in The Journal of Neuropsychiatry.

"The hypothesis is that the more stimulating your environment is ... the more you're increasing the complexity of the brain, the more you can afford to lose," Levisay says. "You're building a buffer."

Related: Why I'm a Pinterest mom | I'm not, and OK

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Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say It may also ease stress, increase happiness by releasing neurotransmitter called dopamine Leisure activities such as reading and crafting may protect brain from aging, study finds Her brother's sudden death in 2004 hit Sarah Huerta hard.

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Crafts help you express what is inside you!

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by Nancy Monson

Read the first chapter below:

The Surprising Connection Between Crafts, Creativity, and Healing

"Some of us feel bad about [taking] time for creative expression. One would think that we'd view creativity as 'more productive' and hence less guilt-producing than leisure, yet we still seem to believe that self-expression is less of a priority than satisfying the needs of others."

Alice Domar, Ph.D., Self-Nurture

Time heals all wounds. But until time kicks in, what do you do while you're waiting? How do you relieve stress and decompress from everyday pressures? How do you ease the pain, distract your mind, soothe your soul? If you're like me-and I suspect you are-you craft.

I've been a crafter for as long as I can remember. I quilt. I sew. I collage. I paint. I make wreaths. I design note cards. I love to create something out of nothing and put my personal stamp on it. I love the process, and I love the product. The creative arts, my crafts, keep my hands, heart, and mind busy, and sometimes I think they're the only things that keep me sane. And I'm not alone. Far from it. In fact, from the time that man began recording time, the creative arts have been used as unique forms of expression, communication, and release. Just think of the stick figures found on the cave walls of our earliest ancestors, the decorative vases molded by ancient Chinese cultures, or the ornate tombs of the early Egyptians. Now, in the twenty-first century, these arts have been elevated from mere crafts to important components of healing therapies for people with illnesses, both physical and psychological. Patients with cancer, for instance, are encouraged to paint, to visualize their bodies fighting off malignant cells, and to pour their thoughts and emotions into journals. Likewise, abused children are asked to draw pictures to help therapists gain access to their feelings and fears. Arts and crafts are even used as part of the therapeutic rehabilitation of the disabled, the mentally disadvantaged, and those with substance abuse problems, and to engage the elderly.

But the best news is that you don't have to be ill to benefit. "We're now finding that crafts are beneficial for healthy people, too," says Gail McMeekin, M.S.W., a career coach in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and the author of the inspiring books The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women and The Power of Positive Choices. "Thanks to their ability to tune you into yourself and your feelings, crafts clearly have physical, psychological, and spiritual powers." Adds Diane Ericson, a California fabric artist, teacher, and pattern designer, "Crafts are a way of valuing yourself and giving to yourself. They allow you to express what's inside."

America's Most Popular Pastimes

1. Cross-stitch/embroidery

2. Crocheting

3. Apparel/fashion sewing

4. Home décor painting/accessories

5. Craft sewing

6. Cake decorating/cake making

7. Needlepoint/plastic canvas

8. Art/drawing

9. Floral arranging

10. Home décor sewing

11. Scrapbooking/memory crafts

Source: Hobby Industry Association

The Study of Crafting

Crafting is a multibillion-dollar business in America, and over three-quarters of American households have at least one family member who spends an average of 7.5 hours weekly engaged in crafting or hobbies. But despite crafting's popularity, researchers haven't spent much time exploring its benefits.

The Stats on Crafts

Number of households that participate in crafts

76%

Average number of crafts/hobbies engaged in per household

4.7

Average number of hours spent on a craft or hobby

7.5 hours per week

Most popular craft

Cross-stitch/embroidery

Most popular craft group activity

Scrapbooking/memory crafts

Average amount spent on a craft

$1,230 a year

What people do with their crafts

Give them away, decorate their homes, or use themselves

Sources: Various surveys conducted by the Hobby Industry Association

Luckily, there is one landmark study-one that was deemed important enough to be mentioned in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association. In the study, which was sponsored by the Home Sewing Association, researchers took 30 women (15 experienced sewers and 15 novice sewers) and measured their blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration rate, and skin temperature-all gauges of stress-via biofeedback before and after they performed five leisure activities that required similar eye-hand movements. The pastimes included sewing a simple project, playing a card game, painting at an easel, playing a hand-held video game, and reading a newspaper. The results showed that sewing was the most relaxing activity of the five studied: It produced drops in heart rate, blood pressure, and perspiration. In contrast, stress measures increased after the women performed the other tasks, especially after playing a card or video game.

According to Robert Reiner, Ph.D., a New York University psychologist and the study's author, the findings prove what crafters already know: Crafts de-stress. "The act of performing a craft is incompatible with worry, anger, obsession, and anxiety," he says. "Crafts make you concentrate and focus on the here and now and distract you from everyday pressures and problems. They're stress-busters in the same way that meditation, deep breathing, visual imagery, and watching fish are."

Harvard University's world-renowned mind/body expert, Herbert Benson, M.D., says that repetitive and rhythmic crafts such as knitting may even evoke what he calls the relaxation response-a feeling of bodily and mental calm that's been scientifically proven to enhance health and reduce the risk of heart disease, anxiety, and depression. "You can induce the relaxation response through any type of repetition, whether it's repeating a word, prayer, or action, such as knitting or sewing," he notes. "The act of doing a task over and over again breaks the train of everyday thought, and that's what releases stress."

Unfortunately, many of us push crafting and creativity to the bottom of our To Do list. Maybe we feel guilty for doing something for ourselves-women, of course, are taught that everyone else's needs should come first-or maybe we feel that even when we're relaxing, we should be doing something productive (that old multitasking thing). But now that research is showing the creative arts are good for our health and relationships, we no longer need to view leisure pursuits as self-indulgences. We can recast them in a new light: Crafts aren't just enjoyable, they're downright therapeutic.

Letting in the Power of Crafts

In interviewing creative women for her first book, Gail McMeekin learned that there are no mistakes in creating, only lessons. "Many inventions are the result of so-called errors," she says. "When you suspend judgment about what is and what isn't a mistake, you open your mind to creating extraordinary things and to receiving extraordinary things too. You let in the healing power of crafts."

I've experienced this power first hand on many occasions, but especially when I began making a quilt that I ended up calling "My Divorce Quilt" in the summer of 2000. I was taking a workshop that explored the use of decorative threads on quilt tops. I don't know why-perhaps because the technique of embellishing was so new to me-but I decided to give myself permission to make up the quilt as I went along. I had no real plan, which is not the way I usually work at all. Most of my quilts follow a pattern and are somewhat uniform and regimented, and I'm hounded by a desire for perfection. But this time, I didn't try to make all of the elements work together. I just did what I wanted, spontaneously sewing this way and that according to whim, ignoring the usual conventions and restraints, and letting errors become planned eccentricities instead.

First, I pieced together 200 small batik squares into a larger square shape. Then I applied the thread, creating, over hours and days, geometric shapes across the quilt top. Next, I highlighted the shapes with variegated yarns. Finally, I began to machine quilt in a most verboten way: putting flowers and curly-cues next to squares, triangles, and other angular shapes. I even used whatever color thread I picked up first, without caring if it matched the fabric or not.

I was bold and in the process, I was unconcerned about the end result and often put aside the quilt to look at it and search for inspiration while I worked on other pieces. This, too, was unusual for me, since I typically rush to finish one project and start another on my ever-expanding list of quilts I want to make. I was moving beyond the constraints of doing things "the right way," which I applied to my life and my quilting, to just seeing where the project would take me. Suddenly, screwing up was just a way of discovering something new.

As I worked on the quilt over several weeks, I began to see that the evolving design was expressing some of the chaos and confusion I was feeling as I went through my divorce. And as I neared the end of the project, I was overwhelmed (or perhaps underwhelmed) by the finished product. The quilt was a busy and disheartening mishmash. I entertained the idea of slicing it up and repiecing it. Unable to bring myself to actually cut into a piece I'd spent so many hours sewing, I was inspired instead to fold it several times on the diagonal and tack it down. And I loved the way it looked-it now has a kind of mangled, arrow shape to it, which is entirely appropriate to its purpose. It looks like it has been through an antique washing machine-just as I felt I, as a human being, had been-so I renamed it "My Divorce Quilt: Through the Wringer."

My Divorce Quilt: Through the Wringer

Of all of my quilts-and I've made over 100-this one has elicited the biggest and most dramatic response from people who view it. When I hung it in my guild's quilt show, it created a buzz among the attendees. One woman told me that she thought the folds were my way of trying to tuck away memories of my marriage. She even suggested that I might feel compelled to fold it further as time passed, signifying my healing from the divorce and my moving on to a new life. I was fascinated by this insight, and suddenly realized that I had created my first art quilt! Whatever I had made-and it certainly wasn't a typical quilt or even one that I particularly liked-expressed something deep inside of me. And this quilt definitely says something, not only to me, but also to others. Making it and showing it has helped me to heal the chasm in my life and to feel whole again, this time as a single person. And it turned out to be a message to myself that it was time for me to pursue life without a strict adherence to a plan. Since that time, I've opened up creatively and emotionally to exploring life in general as more of a process, and enjoying the twists and turns, rather than just rushing to the goal.

That is the gift of crafts. They can transport us to another place and help us in our journey through life. They can heal our souls, if we allow them to. All we need is permission from ourselves to spend time creating and the courage to push beyond our comfort zone so our projects truly express what's inside and help us to unblock, purge, and transform our feelings. And if I can do it, you can, too.

Healing Lesson: Scientific research is beginning to reveal what crafters have intuitively known all along-that crafts have mental, physical, and spiritual benefits.

Purchase Craft to Heal When I'm not writing and editing, I'm quilting and creating. Click here for a sampling of my work: View my art quilts "

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by Nancy Monson Read the first chapter below: "Some of us feel bad about [taking] time for creative expression. One would think that we'd view creativity as 'more productive' and hence less guilt-producing than leisure, yet we still seem to believe that self-expression is less of a priority than satisfying the needs of others."