#304 Arts, Crafts and Mental Health

Sogand brings back the joy of school supplies and show how colour, texture, and simple crafts can make your brain feel safer, steadier, and more engaged. In this episode, Sogand connects nostalgia to real psychology and give you a low-cost way to reduce stress and build focus without chasing perfection. 

• Back-to-school supply nostalgia as a doorway to play and comfort 
• Colour psychology and visual novelty that boost attention and motivation 
• Childhood associations through autobiographical memory and sensory cues 
• Distinctive effect and colour-coding for stronger recall and learning 
• Dual coding theory and why visual notes feel more satisfying 
• Neuroplasticity benefits of coordinating hands, senses, and emotion 
• Flow states through creative focus and why time feels different 
• Stress relief through interrupting rumination with 15 to 20 minutes of making 
• Affordable ways to start with supplies you already have or buy second-hand 

Tune in to Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand on The Universal Radio Network, 97.9 FM in Edmonton, or globally at www.theuniversalradio.com.

IG: @theuniversalradio

Transcript

Welcome And Creative Tease

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Good evening listeners. Welcome back to another episode of Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand. It's Sogand. I hope you've been doing okay since we last spoke. Tonight I have a fun, crafty segment for you. We're gonna do some inner child healing and inspire you to embark in some more whimsy in your life. Tonight's episode is gonna involve color, texture, and art. Because honestly, when was the last time you created something with your hands? Painted a picture just for the fun of it, used construction paper for note taking instead of regular paper, took down notes with markers or gel pens instead of a regular pen or pencil? I'm just willing to bet it's been a while. Because it had been a while for me too before I knew the science that I'm gonna share with you, and the benefits of adding stationary arts and crafts into my life. After you hear what I've got for you tonight, I think you'll want to dig out some of your puttaway art supplies and use them, just like I do every day. You know we are all about making magic out of the mundane here at Wellbeing Wednesdays with Silgan. So stay with us and we will begin doing that in just after a quick pause.

Back To School Supply Nostalgia

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Hey! So happy to have you join us again. I want to take you down memory lane real quick. Do you remember when it was back to school shopping time and the teachers would provide you and your family with lists of school supplies? If you grew up in Canada, this may be a core memory. You'd then go to Staples or Michaels or Dollarama, even Toys or Us maybe, and grab yourself the items on the list. You'd look at the price tags and argue with your parents about how necessary it is for you to get every single thing on that list, and then you would be so excited for school to start. You'd likely not be allowed to use those items until school actually started, but you recall the anticipation of wanting to just dig in and start using them right away. If this isn't a memory of yours, but you're a parent or a caregiver, you might experience this in the years to come when your own children go to school. If you work with children, you'd likely also know this excitement that I am referring to. And if you're a millennial like me, you can most likely even remember those trendly art supplies that were must-haves. I'm referring to the markers that had scents when you would use them. They some of them smelled really bad, some of them smelled really good. I'm talking about the erasers that were pretty to look at and pretty useless to use. The gel pens that were gorgeous to purchase and didn't actually write. The number two pencils required for every single school exam. Yeah, why did we stop using all of them? Maybe the profession you're in doesn't really have room for that. Maybe you think it's childish and you think that there's no longer a use. Maybe you think it just won't make you as happy as it once did. But ooh, do I have news for you? The research is pretty clear. It's never too late to bring them back. And our brains are magnificent, and you can bring back what once brought you so much joy. If you were in the studio with us tonight physically, I say this with a smile on my face, because you're with us through the airwaves, and this makes me so happy. But if you were here physically as well, right in front of me, you'd see that my notes today are in different colors and my papers are on different colors too. This is intentional because I like you have lots of regular paper at home. I have so much regular paper that I actually donated a bunch last year to a hurricane relief in Jamaica for students whose lives were unfortunately impacted by natural disasters. I gave away like five or six unopened packs of line paper and like four unopened packs of fine-tip markers with some other stationery that I'd found while decluttering. So why do I choose colored paper instead of the white paper that I give away? And why do I choose markers instead of pens? Because I like making my brain happy. When the brain is happy,

Colour Psychology And Brain Rewards

SPEAKER_00 4:30

it rewards us. Research shows that using color for things like doing homework, studying, note-taking, etc., can trigger some of the same positive feelings that we experienced as children. Color is not only processed visually, but also affects our attention, our emotion, and our motivation. Additionally, color psychology is its own field of study. It shows that colors affect our mood, our cognitive performance, and our engagement. So using things like construction paper with Crayola markers makes adulting feel less boring. Novelty and visually stimulating experiences increase activity in our brain's reward systems. And they make the work that we're doing feel better and it often looks better too. What's that saying when you look good, you feel good? Cognitive psychology shows us that attention is drawn towards visual features. So when you do things like add color, add sparkles, it literally reduces boredom because your attentional system has more cues to work with. Isn't that so cool? I have many, many more cool things to share with you. So earlier in our conversation, I asked you to recall, if you were able to, of course, memories that included early childhood or adolescence experiences using color and making art. Why did I do this? To demonstrate that art and concepts like colored pencils, crayons, stickers are able to take us back to fond memories. The research is called autobiographical memory and associative learning, and actually portrays this very well. Sensory cues can reactivate emotional memories stored alongside them. These memories are often involving more carefree times of our lives where there were rewards, happiness, and child or youth innocence. The feeling that arises is one of nostalgia, and this enhances our mood and gives us psychological comfort. Even for those of us who had difficult childhoods and early adulthoods, this can be effective. You can test it out. Go to your nearest dollar store or stationery store and just walk through the crafts and arts aisle. See if you feel a change in your affect. If you take away budget constraints that so many of us are feeling these days, could you see yourself reaching out and using these supplies to spice up your life? It's likely that your answer is yes. See, while our adult lives have become super serious, super mundane, super professional, our brain has not lost its capacity for play. It's actually really yearning for it. Research in educational psychology suggests that intrinsic motivation increases when tasks include creativity, autonomy, and exploration. Choosing color and textures makes learning and takes it to just the next level. It takes learning and transforms it into creation. I often see this quote on social media. I'd like to pose it to you as a question for you to really marinate on. Are you creating as much as you consume? If not, here's your permission to do so. Did you ever use a highlighter? What about those colorful sticky notes? A fun bookmark, perhaps? If you are nodding yes to any of these, then you'd know that these little additions for work, chores, responsibilities as adults help you with your memory. This is called distinctive effect. So it means that information that stands out is easier to remember. Researchers have found that using colored educational material can improve our recall when compared to black and white materials. They also note that doing this creates visual signs of accomplishment for the brain. Our brains are always busy working and we have multiple tabs open simultaneously. Our brain likes it when we signal to it that there's progress being made and a task is finished. We can do this by using highlighters, color-coded topics, and different inks for different topics. The research on motivation also shows us that visible signs of progress and accomplishment increase our satisfaction and persistence. A colorful page looks more worked on than a monochromic page. Some say this is because the brain gets a stronger sense that effort is being produced and that is producing more results. This is backed up by dual coding theory developed by Alan Pineio, where it is suggested that verbal information with visual information creates stronger mental representations and often enhances learning outcomes. That was a mouthful. The brain finds richer, more meaningful processing to be much more satisfying to look at than just passive processing. So far, we've discussed that color, texture, and stationary are able to give us childhood associations, reduce boredom through visual stimulation, increase dopamine from novelty and engagement, create greater playfulness, improve memory and comprehension, and make learning easier and more rewarding, as they provide us with a stronger sense of progress and accomplishment.

Neuroplasticity Through Hands On Making

SPEAKER_00 9:56

But did you know that this can also help us with neuroplasticity? One of the biggest discoveries of the 20th century has been that the brain does not stop changing. We used to believe that our brain stopped changing significantly after childhood, but this is simply not the case. When we learn new concepts, solve problems, practice skills, or study repeatedly, we engage neurons in our brains that become active together. The connections between these neurons then strengthen, and the brain becomes more efficient at activating these networks, making information easier to recall. You probably heard the saying neurons that fire together wire together. How is this relevant to arts and crafts, you might ask? Well, when you're doing arts and crafts, many of the brain regions that are active are active at the same time, creating dense networks of neural activity. This supports learning and adaptation, and it's like a workout for your brain. So when you're doing things like coloring, drawing, painting, scrapbooking, taking notes in different colors, and also creating visual notes, you're not just making something, you're actually coordinating perception, movement, memory, attention, emotion, and reward networks. I hope you're excited to create following this segment. So I don't know about you, but when I reflect on my years of being a student, and I'm a lifelong student, so it's many, many years. I feel like my focus has been the strongest in classes like art class, or classes where I was able to express myself through creativity. Do you remember, if you're a millennial, when you'd have those classes like science class, social studies class, where they would dim the lights, and you'd have movie night or movie day, and it typically happened right before something like spring break or March break or right before December holidays. You probably remember that. Do you also remember where they would bring the trolley and the trolley would have markers and stickers and arts, and you knew it was gonna be a class where you could just express yourself. That's what I'm talking about. I wonder if you can relate to this. And if you can, it's because these classes allowed for us to activate motor control circuits and sensory feedback systems. They involved our executive functioning parts of the brain, particularly the frontal cortex, which helps us regulate attention and goal-directed behavior. Psychologist

Flow States And Creative Focus

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Mahesi, it's a long name and I don't want to butcher it, so I'm just gonna say Mahasi. This person describes this mental state as a state called flow. Flow states are powerful because we experience less awareness of time, less self-consciousness when in a state environment, of course, and greater enjoyment and increased motivation. Artists often refer to flow states when they are in the zone and they create some of their best work. Some of your favorite artists might have attributed their flow state for their lyricism or for making beats or producing one of your favorite songs. But even if you're not an artist or aspiring to be one, this information is relevant to you, as arts and crafts can create conditions of flow state too. So I really hope you'll try it out. The research states that creative activities can lower our physiological markers of stress. You're likely then to experience benefits from this, and it's also fun. I encourage you to try it. Thus far in our segment, you might be thinking to yourself, Sogan, this all sounds great, but I'm way too stressed and way too pressed for time to even consider making arts and crafts.

Stress Relief In 20 Minutes

SPEAKER_00 13:52

And my answer to you would be absolutely. That's exactly why I'd like you to consider making time for arts and crafts. Because if you're going through a tribulant time of your life right now, this is gonna help you. And you're gonna be going through the tribulant time anyways, might as well make it a little bit better, right? See, when people engage in enjoyable activities, focused creative work, they experience reduced rumination, perceived lower stress, improved mood, and greater emotional regulation. The attention is that shifted from worry to sensory and expression. And no, this is not going to solve all your problems, but it will give your mind and body a break from being in a state of chronic stress, anxiety, and worry. See, creative activities provide us with an outlet to organize and express our emotions. Neuroscientists believe that putting experiences into visual, symbolic, or creative forms can help integrate emotional experiences with higher level thinking processes. Hence, it's common to find people turning to drawing, crafting, and journaling during stressful times. Researchers have found that even 15 to 20 minutes of focus activity, such as the artsy ones that I've already mentioned, can provide some relief, leading to greater positive emotions, more energy, and overall better well-being. The goal here is not to achieve a skill of a professional artist. I know so many of us measure success in terms of our productivity, but I really ask you to challenge yourself if this is what is taking place mentally. The intention and invitation here is to solely create for the sake of creation. Being in a state of stress traps the brain into cycles of monitoring, worry, and rumination. Art, though, makes you focus on colors, shapes, textures, and hand movements. This is going to take you away from those repetitive cycles, even momentarily. It's going to take you away from repetitive negative loops also, and it's going to shift your energy into the present moment. You might even find that you're able to make more sound decisions when you return to the problems or the scenarios at hand. The brain is thus allocating resources towards curiosity and creative processing than towards problems. So if you have some coloring books lying around, use them. If you want to get into scrapbooking and never really started, start now. Thrift stores often have super cheap bundles of this for sale. I've bought some myself. This does not have to be an expensive pursuit nor a time-consuming one. But when done often, your brain is gonna thank you. You know how the news has a way to capture our attention and not let it go? Well, how about I tell you that art can do the same? Yes, indeed. Art pulls our attention back to direct sensory experiences through seeing colors, feeling textures, using our hands, observing details. The brain then becomes occupied with immediate experiences rather than hypothetical problems. We have a negativity bias and fixate on the negative more often than the positive. We've explored this in depth on previous episodes of Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand, all of which are on Spotify if you'd like to learn more and re-listen. But yes, this negativity bias is there to protect us, scanning for threats. But art interrupts the cycle. It allows our emotions to be expressed through images, symbols, colors, designs, movement. Stress narrows our attention around problems, and art expands our attention through creation. So we go from thinking things like, what if something bad happens? to what should I create next? Worries become less intrusive, time feels different, and our brain's reward system responds to achievement, progress, novelty, and creativity.

Low Cost Ideas And Final Push

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So what are you waiting for, friends? Make art today. We really hope you enjoyed tonight's show as much as we did. We hope you're able to apply these findings into your life and use those art supplies you have unboxed to stored away. Or maybe go on Facebook Marketplace to buy some cheap ones. You know, during the lockdown in 2020, I bought a box full of markers from a senior on Marketplace for $15 and I'm still using them. What, five, six years later? Still going strong? Remember, doing things for your brain does not have to be an elite activity. It doesn't have to be earned. It is not reserved for when life stops lifing and your stresses come to an end. Your brain deserves rest, and as we covered tonight, making arts and crafts gives your mental state some much-needed breaks. It does not need to take too much of your time, it does not need to break your wallet. So, yes, apply this information in whatever way you see fit. But please don't ignore it. Bring the play back into your life like we did when you know life was just so much more simple and we were kids. Even if your childhood was rough like mine, you can still bring back some of that innocent, playful energy back. Thank you for being with us, and I'll catch you next time. Good night for now. Bye.