SHRESWSBURY — Producer, director and writer Callie Lasch will present a program highlighting an appreciation of handmade craft as a transformative tool for learning and healing at the Eastern Branch of the Monmouth County Library at 11 a.m. on Dec. 9.
Lasch has been addressing and exhibiting handmade craft and the use of hands as a means of learning and healing for more than 20 years, and will bring ideas to the table on how using hands in creative work reduces anxiety and depression, particularly important during the holiday season.
“Creative handwork is closely linked to parts of the brain that process emotion and memory,” the speaker said, “Science tells us that 60% of the brain is devoted to the hands. By engaging our hands constructively and creatively, we stimulate greater wellness through the building of new neurological synapses and support proper communication between both sides of the brain.”
Lasch also pointed out how engaging hands in creative pursuits at any age builds areas in the brain that generate calm and solution-oriented thinking, which in turn create a better emotional balance when facing the activities that surround people in their everyday lives.
Discover how engaging our hands in creative pursuits builds new synapses in the brain, generates calm, makes mental space for solution-oriented contemplation, and creates greater emotional balance in how we approach the world around us – and within us.
The program is offered at no cost and no reservations are necessary. For more information on this and all other programs within the Monmouth County Library system, visit www. Monmouthcountylib.org.