Creativity and Cognitive Ability: How Your Hobby is Making You Smarter

According to science, creativity is linked with cognitive ability. It turns out our art and craft hobbies do not only make us feel happy and relaxed, but they also enhance our thinking capacity. Putting together shapes and colors is fun, but the benefit goes beyond feeling good. Creative exercises are known to strengthen the mind, too.

American psychologist and educator Ellis P. Torrance helps break down creativity for us and shows how each aspect fosters intelligence in different ways. Torrance is called “The Father of Modern Creativity.” According to him, there are four components of creativity. These are fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.

Fluency is the capacity of an individual to generate various ideas. It involves having different perspectives and approaches that present several possibilities.   

Flexibility is the aptitude to come up with various categories of ideas.

Originality is the ability to produce new and unique ideas independent from others.

Elaboration is the ability to expand and enhance an idea with details and complex plans.

Getting your hands on a hobby stretches your mind in different ways, from conceptualization to execution. It helps enhance mental abilities in more ways than we realize.

Creativity and Critical Thinking

Neurobiologist and Professor Semir Zeki theorizes that even merely looking at art can already improve critical thinking skills. And when you actually engage in a creative hobby, your mind gets to conceptualize, analyze, associate, and assess to form a judgment. This helps your brain reach its potential and enhances your analytical skill. Whether you’re beading, painting, scrapbooking, or writing poetry, your mind’s ability to think goes on a higher plane. When you practice your hobby regularly, you exercise your mind muscles, and your critical thinking improves over time.

So keep working with your hands, and your head will benefit, too.

Psychological Resilience

When you do DIY art and craft activities, your body releases dopamine which drives the generation of new neurons. This enhances your mind’s ability to focus and primes it for learning. In the process, it boosts your mental resilience and efficiency.

As you concentrate on your craft, you make room in your brain for more information and find which one is valuable for you. You become a learner, and you’ll find you are better able to store useful information when your mind is immersed in creative work.  A strong mind is alert and receptive, and a creative hobby helps you achieve that.

Reduced Psychiatric Symptoms

Art therapy is also widely used in treating patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Studies show that art and craft activities help facilitate mental functions by aiding the mind to remember buried abilities, pushing it to bring up forgotten skills of an individual.

It seems our creative hobbies, through regular practice, have the power to remind us of what we can do, even if we barely remember it ourselves.  It’s a tragedy how the disease can deprive us of enjoying the very activities we used to enjoy, like our hobbies. It’s good to know that creativity acts like a memory retrieval exercise. Our know-how and talents do not have to get locked in the recesses of our minds; we can bring them slowly to the fore. So if you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, incorporating some DIY arts and crafts into their routine may help them remember how to do the things they used to be good at.

Improved Psychological Well-being

Ever wonder why hobbies can be addicting? It’s because the sense of joy and confidence it brings makes a person want to do it again and again. It affirms a person's sense of being, which results in an enhanced quality of living. That feel-good emotion eases and uplifts our minds. That’s why, even after hours or days of doing a DIY project, we don’t feel tired. It is the experience that makes it worth it, and our work output is its own reward.

Improving Smarts Through Arts

Albert Einstein once said that creativity is intelligence having fun. Well, science definitely agrees. Improving a person’s intelligence isn’t only done by reading books, devouring lectures, or mastering IQ tests. It can also be done by picking a subject for your painting and deciding which colors and strokes will work best for your project. Or by stringing together words that flow lyrically, as in writing poetry. Or by placing pieces of fabric and stitching them together in a way that makes a beautiful tapestry.

Creativity is not limited to aesthetics and emotions; it also helps shape the mind and enhance thinking.

Fusing the Beads, Fueling the Brain

Artkal Beads is one of the ways you can develop a hobby and improve your mind. This fun activity lets you follow an image pattern, combine beads of various colors, sizes, and elasticity, and fuse the beads by applying heat. Also called pixel art, this DIY craft is a good way to turn any image you want into a fused beads artwork.

Using your hands to turn loose beads into graphic art is not only fun but therapeutic. You can also create intricate images like a portrait of your child, your pet, or a company logo. Your finished products make perfect personalized gifts, display items, or collectibles. You can also turn it into a business.

It takes concentration, patience, and meticulous care to ensure that nothing is put out of place that could ruin the image, and the efforts are worth it.

Artkal Beads also lets you create necklaces and other fashion accents. This creative activity makes for a good bonding activity with your kids or as a kids' party kit or art project.

With each bead forming part of a whole, your mind flexes its neurons and sharpens itself. It’s a multi-sensory activity that activates your brain and a good way to get your children to try their hand at something new and get them away from their screens.

It’s a fun, engaging and brain-enhancing activity for adults especially. So get your hands on this wonderful DIY art activity now and help your mind reach its potential at any age.

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