Arts and crafts that are great for relieving stress focus on soothing repetitive motions and tedium that drowns out the day’s worries. Crafting during your favorite TV show, with some light music on, or while you sit outside on your balcony are all great ways to enhance the experience and forget your anxieties as you create something new.
Clay Sculpting and Molding
Working with clay is a super satisfying art project that any tactile learner will love. Sculpting begins with kneading the clay and working it into a soft, fun consistency so that you can begin to stretch, roll, and shape it into something new. Whether you choose to use tools or your fingers, keeping your hands focused on creating something out of nothing is extremely gratifying for a worried mind.
Coloring With Pencils or Crayons
Detailed coloring books took off in the past few years, and for a good reason. Filling in patterns and gradually completing a picture is a perfect way to distract yourself from stress. Colored pencils and crayons are each great in their own right. Pencils create a soft appearance and perfect lines while crayons build up layers of color over time and leave behind a rewardingly bold appearance.
Quilting and Needlework
Working with thread and fabric can be intimidating at first but setting into a rhythm and emptying your thoughts as you work on every stitch is a fantastic form of meditation. Cross stitching is a well-contained project with hundreds of thousands of designs online for creating a textured piece of art that you’ll love.
Quilting, on the other hand, requires a lot of items to get started. It can be hard for beginners to parse all of the information about making a quilt, such as finding out which batting suits your project or whether you need a machine. However, the satisfaction of bringing many patches together to form one final picture is well worth the time it takes to learn how.
Finding the arts and crafts that are great for relieving stress and suit your tastes is often trial and error. Take the time to ask your inner child which crafts were your favorite back then, or ask your children which ones they love, so you can share in their fun while working through stress!