In the Flow, or, How Crafts Improve my Psychological Health

Throughout adulthood I have found visits to various psychiatric institutions most helpful. Some visits have been a lot more life changing than others. I’ve had the privilege (and cynical me actually means this earnestly) to visit Addington and Parklands in Durban, St Marks in East London, The Crescent in Cape Town.

Allow me to go hopelessly off the topic and share with you that, although I was held up during an armed robbery at the sweet shop of one of these hospitals,  the legal drugs in my system helped to ensure I suffered no added psychological damage. My poor Best Friend was more traumatised, not having the drug induced cotton wool feeling to cushion the experience. However you will be glad to know she is progressing nicely in her therapy sessions and can almost go out in public again.

I find that the establishments which impact most positively in my life are those that include an Arts & Craft section. These occupational therapy sessions allow you to drift into a state of contentment. And it turns out that it is not just the drugs – although they help too! On the “outside” world – the chaotic and unpredictable world – craft work still lulls me into a peaceful place. For me, meditation just does not achieve the same results.

So it has been an ongoing preoccupation ... what happens to my mind (or is it my soul? Or both? Or neither?) when I spend time playing with my threads and fabrics? And do other people experience this same state?

It seems that this feeling IS known to other people. I have actually found a description of the zone; an explanation of the zone, all sorts of interesting studies surrounding the zone. Google Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theories and studies on FLOW if this interests you at all.

For the purposes of these musings it is enough to quote from Ted Talks: “Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: "When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." He is the architect of the notion of "flow" -- the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.”

Interestingly to me, to enter flow, one must be competent in the task at hand. It seems you can only lose your identity, sense of time, and so on – when you do not have to concentrate on learning a new skill. That could explain why I find some lessons exhausting and in no way relaxing, although they are most valuable.

It is NOT just me who enters a different “head space” when I get to play with my fabrics and threads. Occupational therapists offer arts & crafts for a very good reason. They dont mind that we emerge with paintings which could have been done better by three year olds. These lessons don’t only help to pass the patients’ days, they are psychologically healthy. And I already believe that there are links between psychological health and physical health. So it would stand to reason that there must be a positive link between flow (which promotes psycological health) and physical health.

If you spot something wrong with my reasoning, or if you have any comments please post them here. I’ll be back next Sunday to begin investigating “In the flow, or, How Crafts Improve my Physical health”, in the hopes that someone, somewhere, will benefit from these posts.