Mental Health benefit of woodwork

[Blackswanwood]

I spotted an article in the local BBC news about The Viking Boat Company.

In short they offer support to ex servicemen and women with mental health by teaching/involving them in woodwork.

It made me think about how woodwork has probably been a counter balance to the pressures of life for me over the years. We often discuss how the education system has dumbed down woodworking and similar subjects and the impact on trades/ability to do DIY. I wonder if it also contributes to the increase in mental health that we have seen over the last couple of decades?

Here’s the article from the BBC and website for the organisation. A very worthwhile endeavour in my opinion.

Veterans build Viking boat to boost mental health https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgxyex781jo

https://planesailing.org/

 

[Chris152]

I think anything that allows you to focus down on something to the exclusion of much of the nonsense that goes on in the world, that allows you to be in the moment, can have that effect. Woodworking, gardening, making model airoplanes, repairing a clock - whatever. But I also think wood's natural beauty adds to the effect.

 

[Jacob]

I think the physical activity itself is healthy; woodwork, gardening, moving, lifting.....etc
I've recently taken up running which is very physical, but also very sociable. Can really feel the benefits!
Get started with C25K and go on to park-runs

 

[Yojevol]

I can thoroughly recommend Peter Korn's book Why We Make Things & Why It Matters

 

[Eshmiel]

Part of the reason I took up woodworking some decades ago was to employ its calming and generally positive effects as a counter and antidote to working in a large bureaucratic organisation. The work there was interesting and varied but the "management" of the whole enterprise was frustrating in the extreme, with many who worked there having their efforts wasted or damaged by greasy pole climbers and lookatme persons.

Not such a trauma as those suffered by ex-servicemen and others exposed to the extreme nastiness of human behaviours. Still.

The only slight issue with using woodwork as an antidote (in which the shed is an inviolate domain controlled only by moi) was that it contained tools such as axes and large chisels. These could easily serve as the essential accoutrement should one snap in that frustrating workplace then run amok until the angsts subside. It could have resulted in a bluddy mess! And no more shed visiting for some years!!

************
The shed is certainly a retreat and the woodworking therein an antidote to all sorts of madworld stuff. Add Radio 3 as you work, which makes the whole shed experience even more other-worldly. Far from the madding crowd, even if they are just the other side of the shed door.

 

[Cabinetman]

I have always known that it’s been beneficial for me to go into my workshop and make things, stretches the mind as you are always thinking of the design and how to accomplish it. Plus the sense of achievement in making something to be proud of.

 

[Kittyhawk]

60 years ago I knew an old man and his mantra was 'if I can afford it, I'll buy it. If I can't afford it, I'll make it. If I can't make it, I'll do without.'
The thing that immediately stood out was 'I'll borrow to get it' was not part of the equation. I adopted his maxim to save money and over the years 'I'll make it' displaced 'I'll buy it' as the preferred option. In every way, developing skills and creating something beats store bought every time. It took a little time to kick in but it's a great joy to me that my sons have adopted the same philosophy.

 

[Gary B]

The main reason I took up woodworking was as an aid to mental health due to a demanding day job. It’s worked wonders for me

 

[Ollie78]

It is a bit of a double edged sword for me. I really do enjoy making things and to work with your hands and mind is basically what humans are all about.
However, having to try and make money while doing it adds to the stress it is supposedly alleviating.

Still better than working in any of the thankless and totally unrewarding jobs I have had in the past.
I guess mental health wise it breaks even.

 

[Fred48]

I can thoroughly recommend Peter Korn's book Why We Make Things & Why It Matters

Thanks for that recommendation. I've just downloaded a copy
Fred

 

[Mike Fletcher]

Men's mental health is primary reason Men's Sheds exist. There are approx. 1000 Men's Sheds in the UK. I am a committee member of a Shed and can see the benefit the Shed provides. We do woodwork primarily but also have an electronics group, computer group and a 3D printing group. I could go on about the benefits of a Shed but best you have a look at the UKMSA web site.

 

[Doris]

I think anything that allows you to focus down on something to the exclusion of much of the nonsense that goes on in the world, that allows you to be in the moment, can have that effect.

AKA Mindfulness

I've been diagnosed with C-PTSD, BPD and OCD. Mindfulness is key to managing all of these problems I was advised but it ain't easy. To physically do something with your hands for me far outweighs the counting of breaths etc.

It is a bit of a double edged sword for me. I really do enjoy making things and to work with your hands and mind is basically what humans are all about.
However, having to try and make money while doing it adds to the stress it is supposedly alleviating.

This is why I have taken a break from selling commercially. Far too much pressure on me just being a factory, producing it yesterday and for nothing.
I had someone contact me 8 days before Christmas 24 wanting me to "make them something" and for virtually no money too.
I took up another line of work mid last year so I can enjoy creating once again and tell these people where to go.

It's funny that by someone wanting to buy your work they can also make you feel worthless with their expectations. Anyone else felt that?

 

[Chubber]

I think anything that allows you to focus down on something to the exclusion of much of the nonsense that goes on in the world, that allows you to be in the moment, can have that effect.

I agree completely. You don't need lots of space or expensive tools. Here I have built a bench, oh, and an outhouse.

It's 2 1/2" long and just paper and card (1/76th) .

The basis is a Scalescenes.com free download, the bench is made from coffee stirrers and the leg vice is scrap material.

Hours of escape from modern life for less than £1.

 

[Mike Fletcher]

Very cool. Excellent detail.

 

[johnnyb]

As ollie suggests using your hand and brain to make something is what separates humans from most animals. Every step has involved manufacture, activity and skill, result from hunter to mesopotamian farmer. The inner Internet existence whilst being highly fulfilling in many ways doesn't scratch that innate itch.
The film the matrix it's central concept was of humans living an inner life but actually being physically held in stasis(as a foodstuff) this to me speaks of the issues of not fulfilling our instinctive requirements.
I know many craftsmen/ladies and all speak about the stress of doing your thing whilst making a living. Success (in that normal financial sense)is almost impossible. I've had tiny slices of success tossed my way but I know,deep down there's no mechanism for it to happen.
As a hobby woodworker I tended to gain more mental health benefits by being less productive! Just meandering through projects over many months has much to commend it. As does taking a side road that may not involve woodwork at all, just following what's feels good.

 

[Eshmiel]

As ollie suggests using your hand and brain to make something is what separates humans from most animals. Every step has involved manufacture, activity and skill, result from hunter to mesopotamian farmer. The inner Internet existence whilst being highly fulfilling in many ways doesn't scratch that innate itch.
The film the matrix it's central concept was of humans living an inner life but actually being physically held in stasis(as a foodstuff) this to me speaks of the issues of not fulfilling our instinctive requirements.
I know many craftsmen/ladies and all speak about the stress of doing your thing whilst making a living. Success (in that normal financial sense)is almost impossible. I've had tiny slices of success tossed my way but I know,deep down there's no mechanism for it to happen.
As a hobby woodworker I tended to gain more mental health benefits by being less productive! Just meandering through projects over many months has much to commend it. As does taking a side road that may not involve woodwork at all, just following what's feels good.

Our "being separate" from other beasts is a bit of a myth, really. What's "separate" is our behaviour. But is it really ours or the the behaviour of the metaphysical beings infesting our brains, AKA "ideas", small and very, very large (e.g. as in destructive ideologies)? We're still just mammals like all the others, genetically.

But this to the side.

It's regrettable that our current human world is infested top-to-tail by what's come to be known as neoliberalism. This seems to encompass large dollops of laissez-faire and finance capitalism, both of which have the effect of reducing all human values to cash value. It becomes quite difficult to avoid the syndrome you describe, in which creative efforts and enterprises are sucked down to a base and often demeaning level by reducing all the values created to a financial worth that excludes all other kinds of worth.

One way out is to find a means to get cash-to-live whilst putting our creative efforts into a cash-proof domain, rather as you describe - the hobby-maker and other such modes of life. One tends to remain something of a consumer, going about Cashland to buy tools and materials - although Cashland generates a ton of free "rubbish" which often makes good materiel for scavenging creatives.

The means to get cash-to-live are becoming more scarce and less ethical. Once we could just save for a pension but now we are encouraged to practice usury on others via renting property or buying shares. Jobs too often involve acting as agents for predatory greedy-humans, intent on having everything which means everyone else must have nothing.

I've never sold any of my wooden makings. I give most of them away to make room for making the next one and as a nose-thumb to that neoliberalism (not that it notices). It does seem to improve me mental health.