Crafts & mindfulness: creative ways to switch off

Making, with others, heals

Recently, Sol and I joined a pottery painting class. Not as hosts or curating for next season.. this time we decided to sign up as participants, to step away from so much work and get back into making ourselves.

I arrived with my head full, after a pretty stressful week of endless hours on the laptop. And once again it felt almost surreal how completely I switched off after those two hours of making. The walk back home was calm and happy, and right there I realised it was the same feeling as always: making, with others, heals.

It's something we first put into words a while ago, that Wednesday we took a day off, because the weather was promising, and went to a beach yoga class in Scheveningen to spend the rest of the day in the sun.

I had just come back from India and a yoga teacher training, thinking a lot about how do you actually slow down?

One of the most effective ways to switch off after work is a hands-on activity that needs just enough attention to crowd out your thoughts: a craft, cooking from scratch, gardening, a slow walk without headphones. Do it without screens, at a fixed time each week. The goal is to be absorbed, not productive.

Why switching off feels so hard now

I know, it sounds much easier than it feels in reality. A few things keep getting in the way -at least for me-:

Rest became scrolling. The phone fills every gap, even the thirty seconds waiting for the kettle, so the brain never gets a real pause.

Free time became optimised. Workouts tracked, books counted, hobbies posted. Even relaxing comes with targets.

Work follows you home. The laptop on the kitchen table, Slack on your phone, the email you'll "just quickly" answer.

Doing nothing is uncomfortable. So we fill the evening with something passive, and wake up just as tired.

What actually helps

Use your hands. Tactile work pulls attention into the present in a way watching something rarely does. It's hard to replay a meeting while you're centring clay :))

Choose just enough challenge. Too easy and your mind wanders back to work; too hard and it becomes stressful. Beginner crafts sit right in between. Many people describe this as flow: time disappears for a while.

Leave the phone in your bag.

Let go of the outcome. You're allowed to make a lopsided bowl. Nobody is grading it, including you.

Protect the slot. Choosing the same evening each week helps build a routine.

Slow activities to try (mostly free)

This list sounds obvious, but even then, always good to remember that options are always available for us -from free to medium cost:

• Walking without headphones, along the beach or the Maas (free)

• Cooking or baking something from scratch ('free' with what you have at home)

• Gardening, on a balcony or in a community garden (free/low)

• Embroidery or punch needle (low)

• Watercolour or sketching (low)

• Pottery or hand-building (medium)

• Mosaic (medium)

• Yoga or breathwork classes (medium).

A gentle note on burnout

Creative evenings helped me, and they help many people at our tables. But they're not a treatment. If you've been exhausted for weeks, sleeping badly or dreading every workday, talk to your GP. Making things works best as part of recovery, not instead of it.

Make room for it

Switching off can't be forced, but you can make room for it: a fixed evening, busy hands, the phone out of reach, and no pressure for anything to turn out well. Start with whichever option above feels easiest this week, and protect it like any other appointment. A few hours with nothing to optimise tend to make the rest of the week lighter.

What's the one thing that actually lets you switch off, even for an hour? Let me know in a comment! Sometimes the best ideas for this journal, and for our next season, come from exactly there🤍

xx