A couple of months ago, I became obsessed with collaging. There was something about the soothing snipping of scissors and its repetitive nature that calmed me. Gluing down the pieces and creating something beautiful was inspiring, and it made me feel proud and accomplished to see the finished pieces. 

“Collages can help us externalize our anxiety, feel a sense of control, and gain new perspectives. It made me wonder, what are the other benefits of crafting?”

I was talking to my mom, an occupational therapist, the other day about how much I love working on collages, and she said paper cutting is a common thing that therapists have people do to help them think about their lives and what they want to achieve (and it’s also great for developing fine motor skills!). She also sent me this article, which explains how collages can help us externalize our anxiety, feel a sense of control, and gain new perspectives. It made me wonder, what are the other benefits of crafting? 

There’s a crafting renaissance happening right now, from viral knitting projects to community craft nights to creative third spaces. It makes sense — there’s a lot going on in the world, and crafting is a way to cope and lean into something good when a lot of things feel bad. It’s also a low-stakes, fairly accessible form of creative expression with many positive benefits. 

Seeing so many people — including myself — turn to crafting as a way to feel better and find joy has me asking: Can crafting help us heal? 

What are the psychological benefits of crafting?

1. Crafting helps us be present and mindful.

“Crafting is akin to a meditative activity. You’re engaged in it, you are really focusing on the task, which means you’re very present,” says Elise Robinson, LCSW, a New Jersey and Massachusetts-based psychotherapist and founder of Mindful Care Therapy. “The more we focus on simply being with our craft, the more we are being mindful.”

“The more we focus on simply being with our craft, the more we are being mindful.”

– Elise Robinson, LCSW

When we are focused on the present, we are able to slow down and relax. “Being an adult in the 21st century means that our bodies are pretty much always in a stress response,” Robinson says. The stress response increases our cortisol (stress hormone) levels. Crafting is a way for us to reduce those cortisol levels and stimulate the production of dopamine (feel good hormone), she says. 

Another way to look at it: When you’re anxious, stressed, or have racing or intrusive thoughts, it’s helpful to shift your focus elsewhere. “If instead of forcing yourself to meditate when it’s not working, you pick up a pen and do a five-minute doodle — even if it’s just scribbling — what’s happening is that your brain is busy thinking about the movement of your pen and what you’re creating, so it has less power or time to give to your symptoms of anxiety,” says Meagan Mahaffy, an artist and the founder and director of Art Gurl, a creative collective focused on the intersection of art and wellness.

Crafting allows us to take a step outside of our crazy lives, leaving our stress, anxiety, and other problems to the side while we work on our project, perhaps even entering a flow state.

2. Crafting builds confidence, self-compassion, and resilience.

When we work on a craft, we are creating something out of virtually nothing. For example, you might knit a sweater out of a skein of yarn, draw a picture on a blank page, or sculpt a mug out of a blob of clay. Creating something from nothing helps us build self-efficacy, or our belief in our ability to do things, says Robinson. “Generally, the more we believe in ourselves and our abilities, we don’t give as much credence to things we might view as weaknesses or flaws or areas of improvement, and the less stress we’re going to carry overall,” she says.

“Creating something from nothing helps us build self-efficacy, or our belief in our ability to do things.”

This builds our confidence because we approach life with more self-compassion and fewer stress responses, Robinson explains. Studies show that engaging in creative activities like crafting provide us with a “valuable outlet for emotional expression and regulation, which can enhance response flexibility in stressful situations.” 

“We’ll have increased tolerance for messing up, and life is messy, so that’s a wonderful thing. We’ll take things a little less seriously,” Robinson says. “Crafting is a really great way of wiring all of those things in our brain in a very low-risk way.”

Crafting also helps us build confidence because it literally helps us practice problem solving. We might have to figure out a new stitch or determine how to adjust a sewing pattern, for example. “By doing something to strengthen your sense of creativity, you are actually strengthening your problem-solving skills, your self-trust capacity, your self-esteem,” says Mahaffy. 

3. Crafting opens the doors for community and connection. 

Crafting is a great way to find community. Perhaps it’s through a knitting circle, an open craft night, or a ceramics class. This helps us build connections and relationships. 

“Feeling a sense of community helps us in many ways, including giving us a sense of belonging, purpose, and support.”

“If you’re at an event where you are creating art, especially in response to prompts that are introspective in some way, then it’s easy to build connections between you and other people there,” says Mahaffy, who regularly runs community art events through Art Gurl. “You’ll inevitably find something to talk about in what you’ve created… leading to deeper, more fulfilling connections.” 

Feeling a sense of community helps us in many ways, including giving us a sense of belonging, purpose, and support. And finding community isn’t alway easy, but having a shared interest like crafting can be a great place to start. 

All in all, crafting is inherently good for us: It allows us to slow down, empowers us to love and trust ourselves, and helps us find community. And it’s fun! All of these things contribute to a healthy and happy life, one filled with creativity and self-expression. 

“Crafting is inherently good for us: It allows us to slow down, empowers us to love and trust ourselves, and help us find community.”

Like most things, it takes time to see the benefits. “We’re not necessarily going to be able to pinpoint and say, ‘Oh well, I started crafting last week, and now I have all of these things,’ but in time, we will become more self-confident, we’ll have higher self-esteem and self-efficacy,” Robinson says.

Mahaffy likes to look at creativity and crafting as something we practice as part of our daily wellness. It takes consistency. Through Art Gurl, she shares daily doodle prompts with the community to encourage folks to practice creativity. But any kind of crafting works. It doesn’t require any special skills or tools to build a crafting practice; here are some ideas to get started. 

“Every single person deserves to feel happy and confident in themselves,” Robinson says. “They deserve to feel worthwhile. And crafting can really bring that to light.”

Brianna Schubert is a Contributing Editor at The Good Trade and the Digital Editor at Milwaukee Magazine. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Since 2023, Brianna has combined her expertise and investigative skills to deliver thoughtful reviews of sustainable products and home goods, helping readers make informed, eco-conscious choices. Brianna is also the writer behind The Mood Board, a Substack newsletter for creativity and inspiration. When she’s not writing, you can find her cooking up a new recipe, reading and recommending books, cuddling with her cat, or finding hidden gems at vintage and thrift stores. Say hi on Instagram!