5 Ways Book Nook Kits Boost Mental Wellbeing
Bookshelf inserts are great for decorating bookshelves, but if you buy them fully-assembled, you’re missing out on an experience. One that has numerous benefits for mental health with no compromise on the decorative qualities. By building your own book nook kit(s), you can take a mental load off your mind, and experience all the benefits of 3D puzzles.
5 Ways Book Nook Kits Help Ease Stress and Anxiety
1. A Tool to Get into the Flow State (The Zone)
In his book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes the concept of ‘flow’ as being the secret to true happiness. It’s a state of mind that comes from doing a fulfilling activity where the experience can cause you to feel like you lose track of time.
To get into the flow state though, it’s not solely about the enjoyment. It’s about the challenge. Tasks need to be challenging enough to engage your skills, but not so hard that it entertains the notion of giving up. There needs to be a challenge-skill balance.
Book nook kits have varying levels of difficulty so there are designs to suit beginners, and experienced miniature hobbyists too. Choosing a quality book nook kit to match the skill level helps avoid overwhelm while avoiding boredom. When the challenge is just right, you can become fully absorbed in the assembly process.
Also needed to achieve flow is clearly defined tasks, goals, and actions to take to reach a goal. Book nook kits meet that threshold because you get the pieces, and the order of assembly in the instructions (task list) to know what parts go where to put the puzzle together - a clearly defined goal.
2. Tangible Visualization for Aphantasics
When you imagine an object, can you form a mental image of it? To some people, the idea of counting sheep to help with sleep is a metaphor, like guided meditation involving imaginary imagery being nonsensical. The term given to this is aphantasia, a term coined in 2015 by Dr. Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter to describe imaginative blindness, or mind blindness. Since then, the Aphantasia Network estimate 4% of people experience this phenomenon.
Book nook kits are often stories in visual form. What you can’t see in your mind’s eye, like the magical storefronts along Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter series, is brought to reality in miniature format. You can visualize the scene instead of only conceptualizing the scenes using literary descriptions and memory recall.
With experience, one can progress to scratch-building, which is building a book nook from scratch, or starting with a blank book nook kit and customizing it to display what you imagine, similar to how visualization boards/dream boards can be used as motivational tools to help you reach your goals.
3. Experience a Sense of Achievement that Continually Releases Dopamine
Dopamine is best known as the feel-good hormone produced in the brain. Any activities that make you feel good are natural dopamine agonists. Those play a significant role in creating a positive feedback loop. It works best with activities that generate small wins, like making a list, checking off each completed task as its done. It pushes you to do more until you reach the larger goal, which in the case of book nook kits, is completing the puzzle to create the bigger picture.
As an example, any miniature library kit has bookcases with loads of tiny books. Some kits may need the book covers and binding to be cut out from paper and glued to the wooden pieces, then arranged on shelves. The sense of achievement wouldn’t just be from completing the puzzle, but also from creating each component in the puzzle… The assembly of each teeny book, the decorative elements, and the arrangements of the mini books on bookcases and/or shelves, and perhaps side tables and/or coffee tables.
As book nook kits are miniature 3D puzzles, you get a dual benefit of the initial fulfillment during the assembly process - seeing the puzzle come together - and then experience the sense of achievement each time you see it taking pride of place on your bookshelf, knowing that it’s something you put together with your own hands.
4. A Powerful Form of Active Meditation
Not everyone is blessed with the gift of being able to sit and do nothing while focusing on breathing, ones surroundings, and engaging the five senses. For some, movement is instinctive. For those who struggle with traditional meditation, active meditation activities help to slow the mind, too. Assembling book nook kits, even if one struggles to reach a state of flow, can, more easily, get you into a meditative mindset. One where you feel calmer, attentive, and present in the moment.
5. Conversational Starters for Relationship Building
Once assembled, book nook kits become bookshelf inserts with each design having a story behind it. When guests come around, a well-positioned (that’s 57 to 60 inches from the floor - same as the height photo frames are hung at for easy viewing) a bookshelf insert catches the eye and becomes a conversation starter.
These could be considered as effective ice-breakers to skip the small talk and get into meaningful conversations about future plans or reminisce about past experiences. As examples, a Tokyo Alley book nook kit could serve as memorabilia of romantic strolls in Japan at night, whereas the Rolife book nook kit called 'Arcade Dating' could be memorabilia from a romantic honeymoon in Europe, perhaps carefully positioned on a shelf alongside a wedding photo book for added personalization.
The real gems among book nook kits are the ones that tell a unique story, using a theme you can relate to. The more relatable the book nook kit theme is, the deeper a connection you'll have in the process, and the more fulfilling the project will be.