Rejuvenation in the “making”: Lingering mood repair in textile handcrafters.

Abstract

A variety of activities can help people improve their bad moods. We propose activities that are engaging, arousing, and associated with the mental state of flow can be particularly helpful and inspire what we call rejuvenation. Rejuvenation, as we conceive it, is a state of feeling restored, renewed, and ready to start anew, which continues beyond immediate participation in a mood-repair activity. To explore this model, we examined rejuvenation in a sample of 435 women, all experienced in some form of textile handcrafts. Consistent with our model, we found that textile-handcraft activities rated as rejuvenating (i.e., mixed media, surface design, quilting, weaving, spinning, and dyeing) were also rated as arousing and engaging. In fact, higher levels of arousal and higher levels of engagement were associated with higher levels of rejuvenation (hereafter termed textile rejuvenation). Adapting Waterman et al.'s (2003) Personally Expressive Activities Questionnaire (PEAQ), we asked each participant to specify the 1 activity she considered to be most important to her self-definition. Based on the nature of their most self-defining or PEAQ activity, we then categorized participants as an art maker or a nonart maker. Compared to nonart makers, women categorized as art makers (69%) reported greater rejuvenation (hereafter termed PEAQ rejuvenation), flow, personal expressiveness, self-realization of values, and skill and challenge during art-making. For the art-maker group, mood repair during an activity, flow, and self-realization of values predicted PEAQ rejuvenation. These outcomes could not be explained by indicators of well being, age, income, or education. A state of rejuvenation, it seems, may linger after participation in (a) textilehandcraft activities that are arousing and engaging, and (b) PEAQ activities that are high in mood repair, flow, and self-realization of values.

Do-it-Yourself Activities and Subjective Well-Being

“…Interestingly, Feldman Barrett and Russell (1999) have suggested that the dimensions of mood valence and arousal should not be combined, nor should one be emphasized over the other. Consistent with Kuppens et al (2013), Collier and colleagues have reported that high positive mood and high arousal occur together during art-making and crafting (Collier and von Károlyi 2014;Collier et al 2016;Collier and Wayment 2018). Possibly, Maker and DIY activities lend themselves towards enhancing both positive mood and arousal levels, which may help explain the association with increased SWB during Maker activities.…”

“…Flow has been associated with many benefits, including overall happiness and well-being (e.g., Collins et al 2009;Griffiths 2008;Rogatko 2009;Sahoo and Sahu 2009) as well as increased healthrelated quality of life (Hirao et al 2012) and decreased depression (Mosing et al 2018). Engagement, a component of flow, has also been reported as a critical factor that contributes to longer-lasting mood-repair and SWB during maker activities (Collier 2011;Collier and von Károlyi 2014;Collier et al 2016;Collier and Wayment 2018). High engagement and flow during DIY could then lead to greater productivity and success with DIY, which would further enhance SWB.…”

“…DIY Arousal and Mood Items used for the assessment of mood and arousal were based on questions developed from Collier and von Károlyi (2014) and Feldman Barrett and Russell (1999). For mood, participants were asked to consider their experiences while participating in their preferred category of DIY activity, and then rate mood as follows (four items): "My mood always feels more positive during the activity;" "My mood always feels more positive after the activity;" "I feel rejuvenated, e.g., refreshed, restored, and revitalized, during the activity;" and "I feel rejuvenated, e.g., refreshed, restored, and revitalized) after the activity."…”

Creative days: A daily diary study of emotion, personality, and everyday creativity.

“…Future research needs to test whether these emotion-creativity links will be similar in adult or older adult community samples or among working adults expressing creativity at higher levels in their professions ("Pro-c" creativity; Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009). We suspect that patterns will be similar for other forms of "little c" creativity regardless of age given biographical and interview data from older populations showing a link between creativity and high activation and engaged states (e.g., Collier & von Károlyi, 2014). However, we cannot say whether creativity expressed at higher levels of mastery ("Pro-c" or "Big C") would function similarly (Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009).…”

Stories in the Cloth: Art Therapy and Narrative Textiles

“…Collier and von Karolyi (2014) were interested in seeing if working with textiles could be a way to alter a negative mood long-term, rather than just in the moment. They used the term rejuvenation, and specifically textile rejuvenation, to identify improved mood that continued after participation in textile work (Collier & von Karolyi, 2014, p. 1).…”