There are all sorts of pretty obvious practical benefits of DIY, ranging from things like potentially being able to save some money to freedom from external help if your kitchen sink springs a leak.
While there are always certain tasks around the home, such as Premium Gutter Installation, that can’t be easily handled in a DIY manner, there are nonetheless plenty of things that can be.
When all is said and done, though, the benefits of DIY are not just strictly practical. In fact, there are a good number of significant psychological benefits to taking up DIY.
Four Positive Mental Health Benefits of DIY
Here are a few of those benefits.
1 – Reconnecting with your embodied nature and bringing action and thought together
As human beings, we all experience and interact with the world through the medium of our bodies. And according to various psychologists and brain researchers, the current trend of trying to separate our thinking from our embodied natures – such as in the stereotypes of the non-athletic intellectual, and the non-intellectual athlete – is very harmful.
Taking up DIY helps to bring action and thought back together and to get you reconnecting directly and physically with the world around you.
Among other things, this might help make you more creative, better at developing practical insight. Plus you will be better at moving past mental blocks as and when they develop.
Perhaps most importantly, DIY can help you to unify your problem-solving skills with your practical know-how.
2 – Feeling (and being) significantly more autonomous and self-reliant
Obviously, as already mentioned, DIY is beneficial in a practical sense, in a range of different ways.
When you develop your DIY skills – and apply them to deal with problems in your home – you are automatically in a much more autonomous position than you would be if you had to rely on external help to get things done.
Feeling – and being – significantly more autonomous and self-reliant in this way can do a lot of good. For example, it helps you develop your sense of confidence and your belief in your own ability to overcome obstacles in your everyday life.
Many people directly lack this kind of confidence and work very hard to try and achieve it. DIY can be one effective and direct way of doing so.
3 – Practicing the art of just taking a deep breath and moving forward
With many DIY tasks, it will more or less go without saying that you have to overcome some degree of frustration and initial resistance while also honing your problem-solving abilities to achieve what you are trying to achieve.
There are many different situations in life where it can be extremely beneficial to just take a deep breath and move forward.
Taking up DIY can help to hone this particular skill and make you less prone to procrastination and disheartenment, in general.
4 – The satisfaction of mastering new skills
You will find a soul-satisfying pleasure and renewed self-belief when you master new skills. Indeed, the peace of mind that comes from tackling a challenge provides a sense of well-being that’s hard to beat.
So cue up that how-to video, roll up your sleeves, and feel free to try something new. You’ll reap the benefits of DIY faster by starting with easier, less skilled jobs first. Work your way up from there.
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and a sweet toy fox terrier. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
This blog celebrates all things home.
