Abby Quillen

Freelance Content Marketing Writer and Editor

Depression

7 Reasons to Join the Urban Homesteading Revolution

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My article about urban homesteading was featured on CustomMade’s blog, accompanied by some beautiful graphics. I’ll have lots more articles coming out soon! Jump on over to my portfolio or Contently page to see my latest published work.

7 Reasons to Join the Urban Homesteading Revolution

By Abby Quillen

I grew up in a fairly typical late-20th-century family. We lived a few blocks from the center of town. We bought all of our food at a chain grocery store—and much of it was instant, frozen, or packaged. I’d never spent much time around livestock or farms, but at a young age, I longed to grow a garden, bake bread, and cook from scratch.

When I was in college, I pored over back issues of Mother Earth News and devoured Living the Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing’s memoir about homesteading in Vermont, which helped launch the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s. At the same time, I loved living close to a city center—riding my bike and walking everywhere, spending the afternoon at the library or swimming pool, going to book readings and events, and living close to my friends. It was hard to imagine leaving all of it behind, although I always thought I might.

When my husband and I were considering buying our first house, we realized we might be able to combine the best of urban living with the best of the back-to-the-land movement. We weren’t alone: Around the time our son was born in 2008, a lot of people were talking about “urban homesteading.”

What is urban homesteading? In short, it looks different for every family. For mine, it means we live in a regular, ranch-style house in the city. In our backyard, we have a small flock of three chickens and a large vegetable garden that provides us with peas, greens, tomatoes, corn, squash, beans, and herbs. We compost. We cook nearly all of our meals from scratch, including bread, tortillas, and pizza crust, and we brew beer. We chop wood to heat our house, and we hang our laundry on a clothesline. We make most of our own household cleaners and personal care products out of simple ingredients, like baking soda and vinegar. Biking is our main form of transit. And we try to be intentional about the things we buy. For other families, urban homesteading includes keeping bees, raising rabbits, making clothes, or preserving food.

More than anything, urban homesteading is a mindset. It turns us from consumers who are disconnected from where our food and belongings come from into producers who use our hands to make some of what we need to live. Most of us have little desire to be as self-sufficient as the original homesteaders had to be and the back-to-the-landers strived to be. In my family’s case, we’re thrilled to take advantage of all of the wonderful elements of urban life, including farmer’s markets and grocery stores as well as chocolate, coffee, and cultural events.

In some areas, urban homesteading has become mainstream. Where I live in Eugene, Oregon, nearly everyone I know has a vegetable garden and a flock of backyard hens. It’s no wonder the movement is picking up steam. There are many excellent reasons to celebrate the revolution.

1. Homegrown food is safer, more nutritious, and tastes better.

When the latest salmonella or e-coli outbreak dominates the headlines, it’s comforting to know exactly where your food comes from and how it’s raised. And because vitamin content is depleted by light, temperature, and time, freshly picked produce grown near your house is more nutritious than conventional produce, which is transported an average of 1,494 miles before it reaches the grocery store.

An even more delicious reason to celebrate homegrown food is the flavor. Gourmet chefs use the freshest ingredients they can find for a reason. The first time I cooked one of the eggs laid by our hens, I couldn’t believe how large and yellow the yolk was or how delectable it tasted. And it’s easy to appreciate novelist Barbara Kingsolver’s zeal for sun-ripened garden tomatoes. “The first tomato brings me to my knees,” she writes. “Its vital stats are recorded in my journal with the care of a birth announcement.”

2. Urban homesteading encourages healthy movement.

When I started gardening and making more things around the house and yard, I noticed a side effect: I felt better. It’s not surprising. Digging the dandelions out of a raised bed, brewing an India Pale Ale, and peeling potatoes fall in line with the sort of daily activities most important for maintaining a healthy body weight, according to research conducted by Dr. James Levine at the Mayo Clinic. In Levine’s study, people were fed an extra thousand calories a day. Those who did the most daily non-exercise activity (as opposed to deliberate exercise for fitness) gained the least weight.

Non-Exercise Activity Helps Maintain a Healthy Body

And in a nine-country European breast cancer study, of all the activities and recreational exercise women partook in, household activity—including housework, home repair, gardening, and stair climbing—was the only activity to significantly reduce breast cancer risk.

We hear a lot about the dangers of sitting, and most of us have to sit for some part of the day. But increasing our movement in our daily lives can make a huge difference for our health and the way we feel.

3. Urban homesteading helps families connect with nature and the seasons.

Growing up in Colorado, I was fortunate to spend a lot of time hiking and camping. Gardening has given me an even more intimate connection with the natural world, since now I must work with it as a co-creator. And it has given my two young sons a wonderful relationship with plants and seasonal rhythms. They love the garden and beg to help plant seeds, pull weeds, and harvest. Every time one of them asks me if it’s pea or fig season yet, or recognizes an edible plant in someone’s yard, I smile. Those may seem like simple things, but for me as a kid, produce was something that was shipped across the country and delivered to a refrigerated section of the grocery store.

4. Urban homesteading is thrifty. 

It’s no coincidence the urban homesteading boom coincided with a worldwide economic recession. If you build your soil, save seeds, and tend your garden well, you can save hundreds of dollars on organic produce each season by growing your own. Keeping chickens can also save you money. We estimate that our eggs cost $3.35 a dozen (in organic chicken feed) at the most, compared to $5 to $7 for similar eggs at the health food store. However, we were lucky to inherit our chicken coop, so others may have to include that expense as well.

Cooking from scratch saves us the most money. It’s not just that making stock, microbrews, and bread products from bulk ingredients is cheaper than buying them. As we’ve become better chefs, we’re also not as apt to go to restaurants, which used to be a huge drain on our finances.

Save Money in the Garden: 5 Tips for Thrifty Growing

5. Turning a lawn into a homestead makes productive use of land and supports healthier ecosystems.

In the memoir Paradise Lot, Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates recount how they transformed their backyard—one-tenth of an acre of compacted soil in Holyoke, Massachusetts—into a permaculture oasis where they grow about 160 edible perennials. What was once a barren lot is now habitat for fish, snails, frogs, salamanders, raccoons, opossums, woodchucks, bugs, and worms. “Imagine what would happen,” Toensmeier writes, “if we as a species paid similar attention to all the degraded and abandoned lands of the world.”

Most of us don’t have the skills or desire to garden on the scale that Toensmeier and Bates do. But by planting a few vegetables, herbs, or fruit trees, we create habitats for birds, butterflies, and pollinators. And by composting kitchen waste, chicken manure, and fallen leaves, we improve the ecosystem that supports all life.

6. Gardening and creating things boosts the spirits.

Author Matthew Crawford traded his job at a Washington think tank for a career fixing motorcycles because working with his hands made him feel more alive. “Seeing a motorcycle about to leave my shop under its own power, several days after arriving in the back of a pickup truck, I don’t feel tired even though I’ve been standing on a concrete floor all day,” Crawford writes.

We’ve all experienced the thrill that comes from making or fixing something. In her book Lifting Depression, neuroscientist Dr. Kelly Lambert explains that association. “When we knit a sweater, prepare a meal, or simply repair a lamp, we’re actually bathing our brain in ‘feel-good’ chemicals,” she explains. Lambert contends that in our drive to do less physical work to acquire what we want and need, we may have lost something vital to our mental well-being—an innate resistance to depression.

I can attest to what Lambert says. Almost nothing is as satisfying as appraising a finished scarf or jar of sauerkraut, or cutting the first slice off a loaf of homemade bread. I have no doubt that creating something with my hands every day—even a meal—is imperative for my mental health.

7. Urban homesteading encourages families to live, work, and buy more intentionally.

These days, before we buy something impulsively, my husband and I are more likely to ask ourselves some simple questions. Can we make, fix, or do this ourselves, and is it worth the time and energy? Sometimes the answer is no. For me, canning and making clothing are not worth the effort. But just asking these questions makes our family more intentional about how we live and work, and what we buy.

As a society, we’re often encouraged to make decisions based on two variables: time and labor. When it comes to household tasks, it’s usually seen as preferable to save both time and labor. While making a stew will take longer and require more physical work than buying a can, the process is enjoyable and good for the body. In addition, the homemade variety is healthier, tastes better, and brings greater satisfaction. Equations look different when you add in all of the variables.

I hardly think of my family as urban homesteaders anymore, because the parts of the lifestyle that once seemed foreign and daunting, such as gardening, composting, and cooking from scratch, are now routine. They help us stay connected and make our lives feel richer. It’s powerful to produce some of what we need to survive, especially food.

Growing Cycle

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Automation Nation

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The supermarket near my house has five self check-out stations. Often one or two is down, and sometimes, you have to jab at the buttons on the  screen multiple times to get your choices to register. Regardless, a line for the automated cashiers usually snakes around the tabloids. When I go to this supermarket, I usually find myself waiting in this line and traipsing up to one of these self check-out stations.

But, recently, as I was poking repeatedly at the screen and listening to the computerized voice ask me about an unexpected item in the bagging area, I glimpsed a cashier a few aisles down. She was scanning a customer’s groceries, smiling, and making small talk with him. It looked like a far better experience than the one I was having. So why did I choose the machine?

I kind of enjoy scanning my own groceries. The beeping of the barcode reader and the jigsaw puzzle of packing my cloth bags reminds me of playing grocery store with my sister when we were kids. But did I also choose the self check-out because I wanted to avoid a human interaction? And if so, why?

A few days after my grocery store experience, I was at the library, where self check-out is now the only option. I heaved a pile of picture books onto the counter, slid one across the radio frequency antenna, and waited for it to register on the screen, before sliding the next one. Meanwhile I tried to keep my two-year-old son from darting outside, yanking on the fire alarm, or pulling down his pants. I felt a little bit like a contortionist.

After I’d piled all of my books into my tote bag and herded my son toward the exit, the security gate rang – a common experience. The one person on duty behind the desk strode over, looked over my receipt, and counted my books. “Looks good,” he said, with a smile. “The machine must have missed one. Happens all the time.”

That’s when I remembered how the library used to be. Someone else checked out our books for us. Are the machines doing a better job than those people did? That hasn’t been my experience.

I’m not anti-technology. I use a computer nearly every day. I have a cell phone. I’m on Facebook. I blog and tweet. And I don’t want libraries – or grocery stores – to return to the days of Carnegie. Years ago I worked in a library before it transitioned to a computerized card catalog, and every night, we manually alphabetized towering stacks of cards. Let there be no doubt, computers are far better and faster than humans at alphabetizing six dozen titles starting with The Berenstein Bears and…. I’d guess they’re also helpful for keeping track of grocery store inventory.

But I’m not convinced that computers are better at face-to-face customer service.

And what are we losing? In an age when jobs are scarce, many of us are complicit in making them scarcer when we choose machines over people, even when the machines are less effective. At my local library, the people who once checked out books – some of whom had worked in the organization for decades – recently had their hours cut by 20 percent. A friend of mine in that position had to foreclose on her house, because she could no longer afford the mortgage.

And what are the social costs when we increasingly choose to disconnect from human interactions? In the U.S., social isolation is on the rise. In a 2006 study, 25 percent of Americans said they have no one with whom they can discuss their personal troubles. That’s double the number who said the same thing in 1985. And we know that for many people, social connections are the difference between life and death. Researchers from Brigham Young University recently reviewed 148 studies and found that people with strong social ties have a 50 percent lower risk of dying over a given period than those with fewer social connections.

Dr. Stephen S. Ilardi, a clinical phsychology professor at the University of Kansas points out that depression rates around the turn of the century were almost zero, but today more than 23 percent of Americans experience major depression during their lifetimes. Ilardi partly blames our growing social isolation. “I believe it’s time that we start living as Americans as if relationships are the things that matter to us the most…” he said in a recent interview.

I agree. And when so many are sounding an alarm that Facebook and other social networking sites may make us lonelier, because we’re not connecting face-to-face, perhaps it’s time to look at our ubiquitous replacement of customer-service representatives with machines. At least we can use social networking  to connect with each other. Automation’s only purpose is to disconnect us.

So from now on, I think I’ll be choosing the cashier’s line. I wish I could still do that at the library.

What do you think? Do you use self check-out? Do the social implications of replacing customer service representatives with machines concern you?

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Depression-Proof Your Life

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How to depression-proof your life. #mentalhealth #happiness
Photo Credit: D Sharon Pruitt

Is depression a disease of modernity? That’s what Dr. Stephen S. Ilardi, a clinical phsychology professor at the University of Kansas, argues. According to Ilardi, depression was almost unheard of in traditional aboriginal cultures, and the depression rate in 1900 was around one percent. Yet today 23 percent of Americans will suffer major depression during their lifetimes, and the number is increasing.

Depression can be a crushing, debilitating disease. Ilardi, who works with depressed patients, writes that it “robs people of their energy, their sleep, their memory, their concentration, their vitality, their joy, their ability to love and work and play, and—sometimes—even their will to live.” And unfortunately, despite the hope and hype of the last few decades, the majority of patients who are clinically depressed do not find lasting, permanent relief with anti-depressant medications.

Frustrated by the failure of current treatments, Ilardi poured through voluminous research looking for what might be psychologically toxic about our lifestyles and came to the conclusion that, “Our bodies were never designed for the sleep-deprived, poorly nourished, frenzied pace of twenty-first century life.” In Ilardi’s book The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression Without Drugs, he outlines six lifestyle changes, which he says have helped a great number of his patients beat depression. And he’s convinced that the following program will help everyone  – depressed or not.

1. Physical Exercise

According to Ilardi, it takes a surprisingly low dose of exercise to fight depression. In one study just 30 minutes of brisk walking three times a week relieved depression as well as Zoloft in the short-term and better in the long term.

2. An Omega-3 Rich Diet

Our ancestors consumed Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s in roughly equal measures. Omega 6’s promote inflammation; Omega 3’s are anti-inflammatory and the building blocks for our brain tissue. According to Ilardi, “In the past century, our dietary balance of omega 6’s and omega 3’s has shifted so far out of balance that it now stands among Americans at 16 to 1 … it has a profound implication for our physical health and unfortunately for our psychological well-being as well.”

Ilardi recommends that people consume more  nuts, fish, and vegetables and less processed food for long-term prevention and treatment of depression. But he says a high dose of Omega 3’s can help severely depressed patients restore their balances more quickly; he suggests about 1,000 of EPA a day (usually about 6 capsules).

3. Engaging Activity

Depressed people often have a tendency to “ruminate”, or brood and dwell on negative thoughts. Ilardi says we are hard-wired to mull things over and that can be a good thing, but it becomes toxic if we let it go on to long. He advises that people consciously notice when they’re ruminating, and make a decision to redirect their attention to an engaging activity after a set amount of time. He suggests conversation (about another topic), social activity, reading, or going online, but cautions against watching television, warning that it’s not mentally engaging enough to distract us.

4. Natural Sunlight

Ilardi says natural sunlight , which can be 100 times brighter than any sort of indoor lighting, is where we’re designed to spend most of our time. We have specialized light receptors in the back of our eyes, which control the biological rhythms in our brains. So when we don’t get outside enough, our body clocks can get out of sync. Ilardi says bright outdoor lighting can have an instant short-term anti-depressant effect and a more lasting effect within seven days.

5. Ample Sleep

Ilardi points out that sleep disturbances or deprivation precede depression in about 85% of patients. He says that although we all need about eight hours of restorative sleep a night, the average American only gets about six and a half hours. He advises that people go to bed at the same time every night and turn off overhead lights and screens at least an hour before bed.

6. Social Connection

In an interview, Ilardi said:

When anthropologists spend time with aboriginal peoples, one of the very first things they almost always comment on is that these are folks who spend so much time with their loved ones that they almost have no concept of privacy the way we do. I tend to think that is the default setting for the human brain and human psyche. I believe it’s time that we start living as Americans as if relationships are the things that matter to us the most, not  our achievement, not our possessions, not our money.

You can listen to that interview with Dr. Stephen S. Ilardi on The People’s Pharmacy here.

(If you liked this post, you may be interested in Is Knitting Better Than Prozac? about Dr. Kelly Lambert’s research.)

What do you think about Dr. Ilardi’s lifestyle approach to preventing and treating depression?

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Resolve to Pursue Happiness

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The pursuit of happiness is age-old. Thinkers from Aristotle to Epicurus to Freud philosophized about it, and Thomas Jefferson considered it a right so inalienable that he included it in the Declaration of Independence right up there with life and liberty.

In modern America, we seem to take pursuing happiness to an ever higher level (often with an ever higher price tag). Authors like Stephen Covey make millions penning tomes on positive thinking, 10 percemt of Americans take anti-depressant medications, and life coaches charge up to $300 an hour to become partners in “defining a better future”. Many of us are obviously eager for the secrets to a happy life.

I’m sure I can’t end this seemingly universal human quest. But if you’re hoping to make this year a little happier than last, here are some things you might try:

1.  Face fear

Americans can be an anxious bunch. In his book The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner writes:

Some people say we live in a culture of fear. Terrorists, Internet stalkers, crystal meth, avian flu, genetically modified organisms, contaminated food: New threats seem to sprout like poisonous mushrooms. Climate change, carcinogens, leaky breast implants, the “obesity epidemic”, pesticides, West Nile Virus, SARS, avian flu, and flesh eating disease.

Most recently, the globe seemed to succumb to near hysteria about the H1N1 flu pandemic. In “Killer Fear,” Peggy O’Mara, the editor of Mothering Magazine writes, “Not only is fear bad for our health, it colors our perception of reality.” She explains what fear does to the brain, and offers several antidotes here.

2.  Meditate

When scientists mapped the brain of a meditating Buddhist monk with a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, the left pre-frontal cortex of his brain, the part associated with happiness, joy, and enthusiasm, did not just light up. It was off the charts.

In another study, participants were randomly assigned into two groups. One received mindfulness meditation training and the other served as a control group. Like the Buddhist monk, the meditating group had more activity in the left pre-frontal cortex of their brains. They also had significantly better immune function than the control group.

Why does meditation make us happy? Taking time to sit silently is undoubtedly good for us, especially in our busy society. Moreover, observing our thoughts and emotions for 15 to 20 minutes a day shows us how transient they are, which helps us to not dwell as much on the negative ones when they arise.

Of course, the paradox is that while meditating is simple, it can be incredibly difficult. You can learn different methods by taking a class or getting a guided audio-recording.

3.  Slow down

Recently on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Steve Paulson interviewed Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk and follower of Ghandi. Kumar writes books, teaches at a college, gives lectures around the world, and edits a magazine, but he says his life is entirely stress-free, and his secret is taking life at a walking-pace.

Whatever work I am doing, editing a magazine or lecturing or whatever other work I am doing, I never hurry. I say, there’s plenty of time. The quality of your work is more important than the speed of your work. … If we seek fulfillment, we’ll have no stress. If we seek success we’ll have stress.

(You can listen to that interview and several others about the pursuit of happiness here.)

The irony about slowing down is that it can actually help us to get more done. Erin Hayes explains how doing things quickly often eats up time in her article, “Slow Down to Get More Done” and concludes with:

Sometimes faster is really slower, and doing less can help you accomplish more. And sometimes, the most productive way to schedule our time is to leave a big, blank space in our itinerary … and let our brain fill it in.

4.  Use your hands.

In her book Lifting Depression, neuro-scientist Kelly Lambert, PhD argues that when we cook, garden, knit, sew, build, or repair things with our hands and see tangible results from our efforts, our brains are bathed in feel-good chemicals. She writes:

In our drive to do less physical work to acquire what we want and need, we’ve lost something vital to our mental well-being—an innate resistance to depression.

Want to learn more? I wrote about it here.

5.  Seek out good news

Some days it seems like the headlines can sour even the rosiest mood. How can you counter-balance all the bad news? Scout out some good news. Reading YES! Magazine, Ode Magazine, GOOD, and Shareable.net makes me feel more hopeful about the world. And joyful distractions, like reading a good novel or looking at photographs of adorable creatures, probably couldn’t hurt either.

6.  Lower your expectations.

Denmark ranks as one of the three happiest countries in the world on surveys. Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss, attributes the Danes’ happiness to their low expectations. On the New York Times Opinionator blog,  he explains that we humans tend to get on hedonic treadmills. We want something, but when we get it, the joy from it wears off quickly, and we want something better … and then better … and then better. All this wanting often just leads to disappointment and unhappiness. The notion of simple living can be freeing.

How do you pursue happiness?

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9 Easy Ways to Improve Your Health

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Do you want to be healthier? Here are 9 easy (and inexpensive!) ways:

1.  Move more.

Dr. James Levine’s study on obesity indicates that increasing unplanned daily physical activity, like standing, walking, talking, cleaning, and fidgeting, can be a more effective way to lose weight than seeking out organized exercise. Increased daily activity may also be more preventative against cancer than recreational activities. Want to learn more? I wrote about it here.

2.  Retire your labor-saving devices

Adding more manual labor to your days is an easy way to increase daily physical activity. This time of year you can shovel snow, prune bushes and trees, hand wash dishes, sweep, clean, cook from scratch, take the stairs, etc. Manual labor makes us stronger and fitter and may also help us to ward off depression. (Plus you can pocket that cash you’d spend patronizing a gym.)

3. Go outside

Nature is good for us. Just viewing natural settings can lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and boost immunity.

4.  Plant a vegetable garden

How can you get moderate daily activity, reap the mental health benefits of manual labor, enjoy nature, and ensure a bounty of fresh (inexpensive) vegetables? Grow some veggies!

5. Commute car-free

A study of car and train commuters in New Jersey found that train commuters took 30 percent more steps per day. And perhaps more importantly, the train commuters reported significantly lower stress levels and better moods than the car commuters. That’s no small finding considering another study found that car commuters can experience greater stress than fighter pilots going into battle or riot policemen.

9 Easy Ways to Improve Your Health #wellness

6.  Relax

Learning to relax can have huge health benefits. Relaxation methods have been shown to slow heart rate, reduce blood pressure, increase  blood flow, reduce chronic pain, and improve concentration. You can do yoga or tai chi, listen to music, exercise, meditate, do guided visualization, get a massage, or just sit and drink a cup of tea.

7.  Call a friend

Many studies indicate that a good social support system can reduce stress levels and increase longevity. But a third of Americans report having fewer confidants than 20 years ago and 25 percent of Americans say they have no one at all to confide in. Are you stumped on how to make more friends? Start here or here.

8. Take a walk

A daily walk around your neighborhood is a great way to add more activity to your day and connect with your neighbors.

9.  Eat real food

In my three decades, I’ve already seen a number of health fads come and go. Fat was the nutritional pariah of the nineties. Then Y2K rolled around, carbs went out of style, and everyone started loading up on Omega-3s and antioxidants. Meanwhile, we slathered ourselves in sunscreen and treated sunny afternoons like radioactively contaminated Superfund sites. Except now everyone’s vitamin D deficient and popping D3 like Rolaids. My point is, perhaps we shouldn’t make too much of breaking health news, especially since so many studies are funded by the food companies that stand to gain from them. (I wrote more about this topic here.)

So what should we eat? Michael Pollen’s mantra is probably a good way to go: “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.”

[clickToTweet tweet=”Getting healthy doesn’t need to be complicated. Try these 9 easy ways to improve your #health” quote=”Getting healthy doesn’t need to be complicated. Try these 9 easy ways to improve your health.”]

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

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Is Knitting Better Than Prozac?

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Depression is a common ailment. A study recently published in the journal Psychological Science found that:

  • 41% of young adults experience major depression
  • One half suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder
  • And nearly one third are dependent on alcohol by the age of 32.

Depression is hardly new, but its occurrence is on the uptick, especially in young people. Millions of Americans every year are prescribed an array of anti-depressant medications, and the numbers are growing. Nearly twice as many people were taking antidepressants in 2005 than in 1996.

In her book Lifting Depression, neuro-scientist Kelly Lambert, PhD argues that what we really need to do to prevent and treat depression is use our hands more for manual labor. According to Lambert, when we cook, garden, knit, sew, build, or repair things with our hands and see tangible results from our efforts, our brains are bathed in feel-good chemicals. She theorizes that our contemporary society and its labor-avoidance mentality (which I wrote  about a couple of weeks ago here) promote depression and anxiety disorders.

Is Knitting Better Than Prozac_ #knitting #mentalhealth

“In our drive to do less physical work to acquire what we want and need, we’ve lost something vital to our mental well-being—an innate resistance to depression,” she writes.

Researchers have studied the psychological and health impacts of crafting, and the results are encouraging. In one study, women with anorexia reported less preoccupation with their eating disorder after three weeks of knitting. In another, seniors who engaged in a craft had less cognitive decline. However, more research is definitely needed. In the meantime, it couldn’t hurt to heed Kelly Lambert’s advice and pick up some knitting needles. You have little to lose, and you could end up with a warm scarf out of the deal.

You can learn more about Kelly Lambert’s research and book here. Or, you can listen to an interview with her on NPR’s To the Best of our Knowledge here.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Depression is epidemic. Is knitting a better treatment than Prozac? #knitting #mentalhealth” quote=”Depression is epidemic. Is knitting a better treatment than Prozac?” theme=”style1″]

If you liked this post, check out more of my popular posts about the health benefits of creativity:

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