15 Minute Challenge - The Feel Good Effect

Tuesday came fast this week.  Monday night was more hectic than I had planned for.  Drama Teen had to teach at a volleyball clinic last night across town and will again the next two nights.  My office is having a "Sweet Treat" coffee hour today and everyone was encouraged to bring a favorite dessert.  That meant a trip to grocery store for eggs and flour so I could mix up a chocolate Coke-a-Cola cake.  So needless to say, it was a bit late before I made it upstairs to the sewing room last night.  It would have been so easy to just collapse in the recliner, but that would have made a slacker week even worse.  

Only three days in the sewing room this last week.  I guess the hot temps of last week just crushed my sewing mojo.  I hope to do much better this week, especially since this month's fostering creativity theme is "get involved in a good cause" and I'm so hoping to get my Quilt of Valor quilt to a finished flimsy stage by the end of the month.  

For quilters the most obvious way to get involved in a good cause is to make and donate a quilt or quilt blocks to a good cause.  How does being involved in a good cause help your creativity?  According to the University of California, Berkeley:
     1.  Giving makes us feel happy
     2.  Giving is good for our health
     3.  Giving promotes cooperation and social connections
     4.  Giving evokes gratitude
     5.  Giving is contagious
So how do all these things foster your creativity?   Being healthy and happy are important factors, it's a big leg up if you feel like being creative.  Studies have shown that when you give you are more likely to get back, somewhere along the line your generosity will be rewarded.  Being rewarded for your creative efforts, makes you more likely to be even more creative. Gratitude is integral to good health and happiness, so that feeds back to the first point.  Studies have shown that giving releases oxytocin, a hormone that induces feelings of warmth and euphoria.  At least for me, feeling good and being happy are big energizers, I feel like doing more and am more likely to tackle something out of my comfort zone, i.e. be more willing to take a risk in making something I wouldn't otherwise.  

How creative have you been the last week?  Have you found time to sew a bit, knit a bit or something else that gets your creative juices flowing?   

1. Julie in GA 2. Susanne

3. Amanda 4. Kate

5. Marti

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