After scrolling on your phone for a long time or doing a long reading for one of your modules, your brain begins to fog up and needs mental rest. Eating a snack, drinking some tea, or just lying down on your bed is a nice way to rejuvenate yourself, but I think doing something creative has a similar effect. When I procrastinate a lot or feel really low, making something out of paper has the impact of refocusing my energy on something that is non-academic and improves my mood. When researching the impact of creativity on the mind, I came across a study that was conducted on university students who were asked to keep a diary for 13 days. They used this to report how much time they spent on creative activities and on their emotional state. It was found that those who engaged in creative activities felt more enthusiastic and experienced a greater sense of flourishing after doing it. This study shows how being creative not only has immediate positive effects on your mental health as it helps you get into a state of “flow”, which can make you feel alive and proud, but it also leaves a positive feeling in you which impacts your future mood.
- Make a chatterbox. Remember making this as a kid and playing with it on the playground with your friends, with the silly messages written on the inside of it? (https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cha4yJZp8pz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
- Make paper flowers of different colours using lolly sticks as stems, placing them in a pot on your windowsill
- Build an art exhibition of your mini drawings or paintings by splitting a piece of A4 piece in half horizontally and then gluing it together on the shorter side. Then stick your drawings inside of it with a little description on the bottom of each one. (https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ce1UVQSoGTK/?utm_source=ig_)
- Make bookmarks in the shape of butterflies and hearts (https://youtu.be/yibyFp5Si1Q)
- Make a paper camera with a drawer in the inside where you can store your polaroid photos (https://petapixel.com/2012/10/15/a-clever-polaroid-camera-promo-mailer-made-with-card-stock/)
- Make an origami lotus flower (https://youtu.be/LWsL-_pgmTc)
- Make a paper ring for yourself and your friends as a gift
(https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ciu5o3FoH_6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
- Make a photo frame out of lolly sticks. This is something I also remember making at school as a kid and re-discovering it as an adult was so nice.
(http://krokotak.com/2013/12/lolly-stick-crafts/)
- Practice calligraphy by writing down your fancy quotes from movies or tv-shows on paper
(https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/373798837813996477/)
- Because Christmas is coming up, try making a snow globe for yourself by finding an empty jar in your house and purchasing some figurines and fake snow from Amazon. I made this last year for Christmas and I still have kept it to this today, with the cute little snowman figurine holding a bell in his left hand in front of a green and gold Christmas tree.