When thinking about how to live your best life, it’s common to think about exercise, diet, and mental health. All incredibly valuable pieces to the puzzle, and topics the Project Best Life team loves to talk about. Another important topic to overall wellness is creativity!
Being creative gives you a positive outlet to process emotions, and reduce symptoms of stress. In this episode, the Project Best Life team met with our friends at The Foundry to discuss how being creative, and learning to work with tools can offer benefits to your life that you didn’t even know were possible.
The Foundry is an active, community-based makerspace committed to regularly programming after school arts, STEAM and entrepreneurship sessions for youth; workforce development opportunities for young adults; hands-on classes for adults; makerspaces; and ultimately a “place of possibilities”
Whether you have experience as a creative maker, or have never touched a tool before, The Foundry offers a safe place to learn the importance of making things yourself. “We have all sorts of adults who are like, ‘I never got to do this in school,’ or ‘I just need a hobby,’ or ‘I need to decompress and learn something new.’ There’s all sorts of opportunities for folks to do that, but also walk away with something super cool,” says executive Director Megan McNally.
Learning how to make something and seeing the finished results not only gives you a feeling of accomplishment, but also can save you money when doing DIY projects.
“When you start thinking about if you had to hire a professional to make all this stuff, the costs suddenly skyrockets,” shares McNally.
Whether it be making a new cutting board, or spice rack, or even something bigger like a kitchen table, learning how to use tools can ease your life in a multitude of ways, and maybe open the door to a hobby you didn’t know you loved!
“It’s a really formative experience because this contributes to their self-esteem and their feelings of worth. A lot of folks that we work with may have been told in school or may have been told in other settings in their lives that they just aren’t quite worth somebody else’s worth. Through making they’re able to say, ‘No, I’m super awesome. I am super capable of making these things and no one can take that physical object that I made away from me.” shares McNally
If you need to be reminded just what you are capable of, give making or creating a try. It may be just the confidence boost you need to keep you on track toward living your best life!
This series is sponsored by Project Best Life. Buffalo Rising and Project Best Life have teamed up to produce a series on wellness inspiration and advice to direct readers to the people, places, and experiences in Buffalo and beyond that will help them fulfill their health, nutrition, and wellness goals. For more information on how you can live your best life, subscribe to the Project Best Life newsletter.
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In tough times, our efforts to maintain fitness, healthy nutrition, and personal wellness can fall by the wayside as we direct all our energy into navigating our individual storm. Yet, in the face of what’s happening in the world around us, it is essential to make space for self-care and experiences that fortify our physical and mental wellbeing.
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Listen to the Happy & Health Podcast
Trying to manage a proper work-life balance, saving for your future while paying all your bills, all while keeping strong relationships with friends and family… We know that life can get pretty stressful, and it’s easy to forget what’s best for your health both physically and mentally. Project Best Life is here to help with our podcast: Happy and Healthy. We provide tips from experts and share stories that will inspire you to live your best life, whatever that means to you. Listen now on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google
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