Art, Craft and Needlework, May, 2017
Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 2:49 pm
Here are 10 ways crafting with friends may improve mind and brain wellness:
Mental challenge and problem solving
Social connection
Mindfulness
Development of hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and fine motor dexterity
Learning and teaching
Focusing attention and thoughts on a task
Encouraging active creativity
Gives a sense of pride and achievement
Teaches patience and perseverance
Facilitates memory formation and retrieval
- Sarah McKay, PhD (neuroscience) Oxford
It's interesting to me that she wrote "with others" here in her heading for her list, since having others involved wasn't really part of the question or other parts of what she was saying. But I did want to quote her list exactly. I guess she couldn't have listed "social connection" or included "teaching" with "learning" otherwise, and perhaps those impress her a lot.
At any rate, this is all good news.
Do any of these 10 ideas from Dr. McKay spark an opinion or experience from us? I like the mention of fine motor dexterity, which I believe is SO true of hand-sewing, and of course I love her inclusion of memory retrieval. I want to keep my mind sharp.
. There was none - just the impression of the teacher, no particular criteria he didn't meet. If his project was not too ambitious, and that's all, then I'm happy - the worst thing he could have done would have been to try perfectionism with his first sewing.