Pursuing arts and crafts is a hobby that is overlooked more than most because individuals refuse to believe that it is beneficial. Students at Harvard-Westlake, strive to do our best at everything, but we tend to overthink what may benefit us.
We as individuals claim that we have no time to do anything besides school and sports. School is a priority for all us and everything else falls behind it. We don’t have much else to think about besides school and extracurriculars. But there is a lot more to pursue that can benefit us greatly.
Arts and crafts are a very large part of my life. I have the ability to knit, sew, emboss, draw, paint and much more. I can create almost anything if you show me what you want me to make. Spending just a few minutes a day creating helps me feel great and helped me develop a love for art. When I do any type of art or craft, a euphoria comes over me and makes me feel at peace.
We played around with crayons and colored pencils in elementary school but it came to a grinding halt once we started middle school. Without understanding the benefits of developing artistic talent, schools systems believe that a love for art is something that we out-grow. This may have contributed to the major stresses of students.
I believe that as students can all set aside a few minutes a day to do some form of arts and crafts. Instead of browsing through social media or watching Netflix for an hour, we can set aside just ten minutes a day to do something that can benefit us greatly in the long run.
Doing a few minutes of art a day is great for our manual dexterity and helps improve coordination. Improving these skills can help us become better in sports and, can help us take longer notes in class without getting tired. Also, for all of us young teenagers dreaming to be doctors, like myself pursuing arts and crafts can build our hand muscles and mold us for our future careers.
Art allows us to be creative. We are able to enjoy ourselves and unleash a part of us that typically never comes out. Our inner creativity can make us feel a type of joy we can never experience through anything else.
One of the biggest incentives of doing arts and crafts is that it relieves stress. Some people make they think that arts and crafts induce stress, but in reality it truly reduces our stress levels. According to the American Journal of Public Health, The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health, “Engagement with creative activities has the potential to contribute toward reducing stress and depression and can serve as a vehicle for alleviating the burden of chronic disease.”
Art in hospitals is used to treat patients but, middle schoolers and high schoolers can learn a thing or two from this concept. Art relieves stress in young patients, therefore, stressed students can be greatly benefited by performing just a few minutes of these beneficial tasks. Wether, it is coloring, knitting, sewing or any other art form, studies show that it benefits us.
When I first started crafting on a regular basis, I was initially stressed because I am the definition of a perfectionist and nothing I made was finished the way I wanted it to look like. With time, every one of my stressful thoughts, whether they were created through school or by my art having a lack of perfection, fell away. At that moment, arts and crafts liberated me from my daily stresses and helped me feel free.
Some forms of arts and crafts that are very easy to learn are knitting, drawing and painting. Another stress relieving method of arts and crafts are coloring books.
Good luck on your arts and crafts journey!
