7 Crafts That Can Calm You Down When You’re Stressed

With everything going on right now, it’s easy to be stressed or filled with anxiety. But we can’t let the stress and anxiety get the best of us. It’s so hard right now to not be stressed, but we can get through this and be better in the end.

Doing crafts has been proven to help relieve stress and anxiety, but only if you have fun. When you stop having fun with one craft, switch to a different one that you haven’t tried yet. You want to relieve the stress, not add to it. So try something that looks interesting to you, not something you’re forced to do. Here are seven crafts you should try next time you’re stressed!

1. Knitting

There is something about the repetitiveness of the stitches and the gentle clicking of the needles that calm you down after a stressful day. I know it seems weird that knitting can calm you down, but it really can. It helps to relieve the stress and anxiety of everyday life.

Learning new stitches can seem confusing and totally stressful, but after a few rows, it will seem like you’ve known the stitch your whole life. Sometimes it can make your stress and anxiety worse, especially if you mess up, but if that happens, just put it down for a little bit and go back to it later. You’ll feel better when you go back to it.

2. Origami

Origami is one of the crafts that requires a lot of patience and focus. Putting all of your attention on folding the piece of paper will help you forget about all of or stress and anxiety. It will help you get rid of the negative energy and thoughts that have built up in your head.

Origami is just folding a piece of paper, though, so if you mess up, don’t stress about it. Just recycle the paper, get a new piece, and try again. Some of the folds can be tricky, so it takes a lot of effort and a lot of messed-up animals before you get them to look right. But that’s what makes it so much fun to do.

3. Slime

Slime is a fantastic thing to play with. It makes you feel like a four-year-old playing with Play-doh again. The squishy feeling and the sound it makes can help you feel so much better. It’s the ASMR effect or the sensory feeling you get when hearing certain sounds.

There are a couple of ways to make slime. The most popular recipe is four ounces of glue, a tablespoon of baking soda, and some contact solution. Or you can oobleck, like from Dr. Suess, and use cornstarch and water. There’s also a recipe for slime that using dish soap instead of glue. You can also add food coloring and glitter to any of those recipes for added effect.

4. Coloring

Coloring is one of the crafts on this list that you can basically do anywhere at anytime. You just need some coloring pages and markers or crayons or colored pencils or even gel pens. Anything you think would be good to get your creative energy flowing again.

Coloring is so much fun, and you probably did it as a kid. You do it just for fun, so there’s no pressure to make it perfect. Coloring outside the lines is just as fun as coloring inside the lines. There are adult coloring books, but you can use the kid ones if you’d rather. Nobody is going to judge you no matter what you choose to use. It’s just a fun way to relieve anxiety and stress.

5. Pottery

Pottery is extremely attentive, so it might help to relieve stress in ways that coloring doesn’t. It is really difficult and takes a lot of strength while being delicate. You want to be able to spin the pottery wheel, but you don’t want to destroy the vase or pot you’re making.

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There is a cathartic relief that comes with pushing, pulling, squishing, and throwing the clay while using the spinning wheel. You can also paint what you make, which is a whole other type of relief. It is a little difficult to get started with pottery, but once you get started, it’s so much fun to do. You won’t want to stop, and it will make you feel so much better in the end.

6. Embroidery

Cross stitch is fairly easy to learn, and it allows you to be as creative as you want. Inside the embroidery hoop, the world is yours. You can make messages, or you can make little patterns, anything you want that can fit inside the hoop. It’s a lot of fun, too.

There are also patterns for you to follow if you aren’t sure what to make. This is also the easiest to bring with you when you leave the house. Depending on the size of the hoop, it can fit right into a gallon-size ziplock bag. You can use whatever colors you want to express whatever you want. You can give these away if you want, or you can keep them and decorate your house with them!

7. Scrapbooking

This is the most useful of the stress-relieving crafts I’ve mentioned so far. You can make a scrapbook of a favorite vacation or a favorite memory. Anything you took pictures of that made you happy can be made into an amazing scrapbook you can look through again and again.

It’s so easy to scrapbook, too. There are books made for scrapbooking, or you can use a photo album as a scrapbook if you want. It doesn’t matter which one you use. You can also decorate the pages with whatever words you want, or you can use stickers or glitter pens. This is a very fun way to be creative and to help you remember an exciting event for a long time to come.