Discover the Power of Creating with Your Hands

Think back to how you approached creativity as a child. Most of us can relate to the experience of being strapped into some kind of apron and let loose on an array of felt-tip pens, paints, plasticine blobs and pipe cleaners. Our minds – and hands – were free to roam and create instinctively, free from inhibitions. The end result might have looked like a chaotic, scribbled mess, but the process was king – and it was one in which we had been utterly absorbed.

But there comes a point when we stop being children, and with it, the playful experimentation that allowed us to create without boundaries. Rediscovering our hands as a means to create can bring not just joy-in-the-process but also wonderful, creativity-expanding results – as well as a shedload of mindfulness.

Read on to open your mind and reconnect to the benefits of creating with your hands.

Ever found yourself doodling through a conference call? Though it’s often frowned upon, doodling is actually a subconscious thinking tool that can help us process information and problem solve. The results of a 2009 study by John Wiley & Sons Ltd showed that participants were able to recall 29% more information if they were doodling. This is a great example of how creating with our hands can improve focus during the working process, however subconscious it may feel at the time.

When we create with our hands, we should learn to love the process – not just the end result. “The sweet spot is in the process, that moment of ‘flow’ and the art-making journey,” says art therapy practitioner Sandra Keating. What is meant by ‘flow’? Essentially, it is a state of being completely immersed in what we are doing. It’s an energised focus, a feeling of being utterly ‘in the zone’.

Collagist and photographer, Rosanna Jones is celebrated for her signature hand-assembled approach. After being tasked with a school project to ‘destroy’ her photos a decade ago, Rosanna has based her work aesthetic on applying analogue collage techniques – think rips, scissor-cuts and painting – to flat images, in order to push the physical possibilities far beyond the two-dimensional.

“When I’m working with my hands and not confined to a digital workspace, I find myself so much more inspired and excited. I find it much easier to experiment and let the work flow. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of an idea coming together organically, when I’m working physically.”

Furthermore, Rosanna believes a digital approach is less likely to produce something that is authentic and unique: “I think creating with your hands is one of the best ways to create art that hasn’t been seen before. It makes my work feel like a real extension of me – it feels like nobody could do it in quite the same way.”

Cast your mind back to the last time you made something with your hands: How did you feel? Now think about how you felt, holding the final result in your hands. Did you feel a rush of satisfaction at bringing something tangible into the world? Perhaps you felt calmer than you were before you started. And how about that bonus screen-break… heady stuff.

It’s scientifically proven that creating with your hands can ease anxiety. When we use our hands to make, serotonin and endorphins are released into our bloodstream, which work to reduce our cortisol (stress) levels. The neural networks in our brain are rewired, causing them to function differently from how they functioned before using our hands, a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity.

Once we use our hands to create, it activates an ‘effort-driven reward circuit’ in our brain, which helps us to navigate emotional challenges and can even alleviate a depressive state. All of this science builds a pretty compelling case for art therapy. According to art therapist Sandra Keating, art therapy can be accessed by anyone, on any scale, at any time.

Sandra set up Project Wonderlands in 2015. The organisation hosts participatory projects and workshops that aim to reconnect people living in urban areas to nature, through conceptual art exercises. Through the work she’s done so far, Sandra has witnessed how making and creating with our hands presents a way to ease anxiety and, in some cases, even help people to process trauma.

“Art therapy engages the mind, body and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal articulation alone. It can work beyond the limitations of language. Art therapy keeps the mind engaged in creative action, which can help facilitate and make space for people to open up freely and in their own time. The symbolism in the art we create can help bring unconscious or repressed thoughts, feelings and emotions to light, too.”

Though swapping the office for a forest may not be plausible, regaining a sense of community is. Rejoining your colleagues in the office, arranging a team away-day or – beyond work – joining a creative community are all ways in which we can regain a sense of community.

For illustrator Gregory Lewis, being part of multiple creative communities is integral to both his creative practice and his mindset: “I participate in oil painting and live model classes, which keeps my hand and eye brushed up. Being a part of these creative communities also gives me much-needed communication. Even the conversations I have with the other people in my studio inform my work – and they make me laugh all day!”

Creating with our hands creates a sense of play, which can aid our connection to the work itself and the possible outcomes seem gloriously endless.

Multidisciplinary artist, Mae Chan, is a huge advocate for creating with as much freedom as possible. “Being a multidisciplinary artist means I don’t need to put myself in any particular genre box, which eliminates boundaries,” she says. “I can jump between different mediums, techniques, and materials to honestly express the essence of my practice. Moreover, I think multidisciplinary artists are like octopuses somehow; our tentacles can reach more expansive fields, and our ‘soft round body’ can fit more contexts, bringing us more opportunities.”

“It’s about that mind-body connection but the main benefit comes from ultimately bringing the focus out of the mind, into the hands,” says Sandra Keating. “I’ve read extensively about how hands-on work satisfies our primal need to make things and could also be an antidote for our ‘cultural malaise’. The main point here is that we are living in a technology-saturated culture, always absorbing through our eyes. Why not let our hands do some of this absorbing instead!”

• Join a creative community – from life-drawing classes to knitting clubs, creating alongside others feeds our primal need for interaction and community.
• Embrace an analogue approach – ditch the screen and reclaim your paintbrush/pencil/scissors to reconnect to a more instinctive, childlike approach to creativity.
• When all else fails, collage – utilise whatever you have around you and get creative. Improvisation can spark creativity.