In Fall 2021, the Jewish Teen Initiative (JTI) at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and BaMidbar launched a nine-month Mental Health and Wellness Track of the JTI Peer Leadership Fellowship. The teen fellowship cohort focused on peer engagement through a mental health and wellness lens, culminating in community projects. Throughout Mental Health Awareness Month, stay tuned to BaMidbar and JTI as we share their projects related to mental health awareness and stigma reduction.
By Jessica Deitel
Concentrating on making a friendship bracelet helps relieve stress and anxiety.
Going to camp since I was a little kid, I have made lots of friendship bracelets. I have always enjoyed making them and have continued to add to my collection every summer. You can always catch me with strings tied to my water bottle at camp. Although friendship bracelets are considered a “camp thing,” I enjoy seeing that more people are making them year-round. Friendship bracelets make me think of summer which is my favorite time of year. Just seeing them makes me happy.
Not only is making friendship bracelets a fun summertime craft, but it is also beneficial to your mental health. It’s so much more than tying strings together! Concentrating on making a friendship bracelet helps relieve stress and anxiety.
Thinking about making those tiny knots over and over takes your mind off of the stress, allowing you to focus on the task at hand. Along with relieving stress and anxiety, making friendship bracelets can bring you joy. Part of making bracelets is giving them to others. We find joy in giving things to those that we love. Simply seeing the reaction of someone receiving your handmade gift is enough to increase your own happiness.
Making friendship bracelets is also an extremely fun activity. You can do it by yourself or with others. You get to choose fun colors and can make pretty much any pattern you could imagine.
I never really thought about how much joy making friendship bracelets has brought me until now. I’ve always found them to be my favorite summertime craft but didn’t think much of how I felt in the moment while making them. I now realize how happy making and wearing friendship bracelets make me and will use this in the future when I find myself overwhelmed.
During quarantine, I learned how to follow friendship bracelet patterns which has allowed me to not only challenge myself but make designs that are much more fun than the basics. I have found my favorite patterns by looking up “friendship bracelet patterns” on Pinterest, or by using the website friendship-bracelets.net patterns which has thousands of patterns and also has tutorials.
Bio
Jessica is a rising freshman at Tulane University and a second-year Peer Leadership Fellow who spent this year on the wellness track working to help reduce the stigma around mental health.