the Creative Arts and Wellbeing

Creative arts holds multiple, impressive benefits for our brain and our mood, and this is a boon for our elder years.

Painting does this for me, as well as gardening. More recently while up-cycling a piece of clothing I experienced an ‘at home’ feeling that took me out of my mind, and settled my heart. It felt so comforting that I set out to research how others felt - the effects that 'crafting' had on them, at whatever age and stage of life.

“Crafting is unique,” said Catherine Carey Levisay, a clinical Neuropsychologist, “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.”

Decreased risk of cognitive impairment as you age
Many studies have shown how crafting and leisure activities can aid in slowing down age-related memory loss. These crafts are also beneficial for soothing individuals who are already experiencing signs of dementia. Other benefits include stress relief, self-esteem enhancement, and community building. In older adults, added benefits include improved cognitive health, physical health, and emotional wellness.

Apparently sewing is increasingly becoming recognised as an effective way to combat depression. The absorption demanded by needlework – its flow – calms the mind, reduces stress, and boosts mental health and our immune system.

In Australia we have the CWA (Country Women’s Association) groups that meet weekly for morning tea where women socialise and do craft together. Apart from the health and social benefits the women experience, since its inception in 1922, the camaraderie of women has acted as a catalyst for change and social justice in Australia and overseas. As well as creating and selling a ton of craft items, they’ve cooked and served tea and scones for over 100 years!

In the largest study of its kind, with almost 50,000 people taking part, the Great British Creativity Test - in partnership with UCL - explored for the first time how creative activities can help us manage our mood and boost wellbeing. The Test findings are being used to help people identify which of the three coping mechanisms they use, and it gives participants a Feel Good Formula to re-boot their creative habits - maximising the potential for each individual to improve wellbeing.

So here, take the test and see how you cope.

In another article on Quilting, research published in a Journal of Public Health, showed that making quilts helps people’s cognitive and emotional well-being, and improves fine motor skills, particularly among older adults. I've been fascinated by quilters and their patience.

Apparently the selecting and combining colors and shapes, as does the practice of coloring mandalas, has a beneficial, cognitive effect. Selecting colors for specific shapes taps into the analytical part of the brain, while creating the overall color mix uses the brain’s creative side. This exercises the brain in a unique way, by activating areas of the cerebral cortex that control vision and guide fine motor skills.

Sewing and other crafts also help people of all ages and walks of life. A Glaswegian researcher, Clare Hunter, Community Artist, Exhibition Curator and Banner Maker, came across many fascinating, forgotten, little known and overlooked stories of sewing in her research for her book “Threads of Life “and you can buy it from here.

Clare shared that she cannot pass a display of embroidery threads without her heart missing a beat. She even dreams about textiles, trailing her hand through long-forgotten fabrics – crepe de chine, duchess satin, tulle net – grazing her knuckles on a crust of beading, smoothing down lengths of fringing and stroking the braille of lace. I have this same experience of viewing or touching beautiful cloth and textiles, and have also dreamt about beautiful, encrusted clothes.

SEWING BRINGS TOGETHER CALD WOMEN

The Sew, Create and Make Together project at Canterbury City Community Centre in Sydney, provides a safe space for CALD women to learn to sew, share their sewing skills and knowledge, as well as socialise with other women. “It’s always hard transplanting yourself from your home country and then coming into a new community where you don’t have as many social connections. Local projects like this which bring together a group of people with similar interests or even shared cultures and languages are a great starting point to involve yourself in your local community and can help reduce social isolation,” said Peter Winchester, Chairman of Canterbury League Club.

Victoria Brittain, activist, writer and journalist, mentions Ruth First, the late investigative journalist and anti-apartheid campaigner in South Africa, who, faced with long-term imprisonment in solitary confinement, took up needlework to take control of her time. On the back of her lapel she stitched seven black lines to mark her days, but then would unpick one or two as if to gain time, or go forward at her own pace by sewing down the days that lay ahead. Hers was an act of both rebellion and self-preservation.

(Ruth First in 1966, a promotional image for the film about her detention, South Africa)

I was also blown away by what is happening in some prisons in the UK. The organisation, Fine Cell Work involves hundreds of inmates who embroider items to sell online, or make to commission. They’re the only UK-based charity providing social enterprise and earned income for prisoners on such a wide scale. These men also stitch alone in their cells. They find the rhythmic, repetitive act of sewing is respite from the clang and boom of prison life.

You can read about Lewis here as he shares how he got into stitching, and how his time in prison was spent with his needle and thread that kept him calm and gave him focus.

I have to agree with Clare when she says that “in our social media age, as we become more physically distanced from each other, sewing is a safeguard to isolation, a way to stay in touch with each other: hand and mind working in harmony to convey what lies in our hearts. For me and others, it sustains not just a sense of self, but of belonging”.