Craftfulness: Mend Yourself by Making Things

About this book

Integrating mindfulness neuroscience positive psychology and creativity research Craftfulness offers a thought-provoking and surprising reconsideration of craft and how making things with your hands can connect us to our deepest selves and improve our well-being and overall happiness. We should get this out of the way: Craftfulness is not a crafting book. Rather it is an investigation of the wisdom generations of men and women know to be true: that making things is a vital means of self-expression self-realization and self-help that sparks the mind touches the soul and rejuvenates the spirit. Integrating mindfulness neuroscience positive psychology and creativity research Rosemary Davidson and Arzu Tahsin explore how the simple act of making something from scratch impacts mental well-being and offer a brilliantly reasoned argument in favor of craft. Process not product is the soul of a craft practice. Whether you knit crochet sculpt weave quilt tat draw or bind booksworking toward small attainable goals gives us a sense of purpose accomplishment and control that is proven to positively impact our mental health and happiness. Davidson and Tahsin illuminate how craft practice re-introduces balance into our lives and our habits by cultivating creativity carving space for ourselves promoting focus creating a safe space for failure and ultimately how to make peace with imperfection. Like Matthew B. Crawfords Shop Class as Soul Craft Ken Robinsons Out of Our Minds or Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis Flow Craftfulness helps us to see our world in a new way offering opportunities to disconnect from the world and pay attention to ourselves.