Drive To Thrive: How Making Friendship Bracelets Is A Form Of Concentrative Meditation
Benefits of Concentrative Meditation Through Bracelet Making Heading link
Prepared by UIC Sociology 490 Interns
- Improves self-esteem: When creating a bracelet for someone, confidence is developed by the hopes the one receiving the bracelet will like it. This also develops the courage to continue creating more bracelets that others would like.
- Limit feelings of depression: As the creator, you are devoting time, effort, thought, and energy into this bracelet in hopes that it will bring joy to the one receiving it. By occupying yourself to create a sense of positivity it limits the feeling of one’s depression.
- Useful Stress Management Practice: Taking the time to clear your thoughts and focus on a small task that you do for yourself or someone else has the capability of lowering your heart rate, slowing your breathing and improving overall physical health related to stress. All the materials you need for making a bracelet are easy to carry around but other forms of concentrative meditation can also be practiced for these benefits.
- Increase in Empathy: The practice of creating something for someone else, without being expected to do so and practicing compassionate thought, can help foster an understanding of others humanity and circumstances in life. Making friendship bracelets does not have to be limited to only your current friends, but friends to be or people with who you have not seen eye to eye with in the past. Practicing this compassionate thought on more difficult people in your life is in essence working on your ability to empathize with others.
- Lowers anxiety levels: Anxiety begins as a persistent negative/worrisome thought that then puts you in an anxious feeling or state. By choosing to participate in concentrative meditation, you are allowing your behavior to affect your feelings, which will then affect your thoughts and put a stop to the anxiety.
- Improves academic/work performance: As students on UIC’s campus, we can all relate to the feelings of stress and anxiety in regard to deadlines, and that then leads to difficulty focusing on the work that needs to get done. By practicing concentrative meditation, you are teaching both your mind and body to be in control of those negative emotions, which in turn allows you to focus on the tasks at hand and perform well in school/work.
To check out more benefits and a video on how to create your own friendship bracelet at home visit the link below.
Drive to Thrive: Friendship Bracelets & Concentrative Meditation
Modified on August 03, 2022