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Id		555
Author		Reynolds F., Vivat B., Prior S.
Title		Womens experiences of increasing subjective well-being in CFS/ME through leisure-based arts and crafts activities: A qualitative study
Reference		Reynolds F., Vivat B., Prior S.; Womens experiences of increasing subjective well-being in CFS/ME through leisure-based arts and crafts activities: A qualitative study ;Disability and Rehabilitation vol:30 issue: 17 page:1279.0
Link to article		https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-53249105449&doi=10.1080%2f09638280701654518&partnerID=40&md5=a6de9f7eca77f19ee51bfcfe3a655685
Abstract		Purpose. To understand the meanings of art-making among a group of women living with the occupational constraints and stigma of CFS/ME. The study explored their initial motives for art-making, and then examined how art-making had subsequently influenced their subjective well-being. Method. Ten women with CFS/ME were interviewed; three provided lengthy written accounts to the interview questions. Findings. Illness had resulted in devastating occupational and role loss. Participants took many years to make positive lifestyle changes. Art-making was typically discovered once participants had accepted the long-term nature of CFS/ME, accommodated to illness, and reprioritized occupations. Several factors then attracted participants specifically to art-making. It was perceived as manageable within the constraints of ill-health. Participants also tended to be familiar with craft skills; had family members interested in arts and crafts, and some desired a means to express grief and loss. Once established as a leisure activity, art-making increased subjective well-being mainly through providing increased satisfaction in daily life, positive self-image, hope, and contact with the outside world. Participants recommended provision of occupational/recreational counselling earlier in the illness trajectory. Conclusions. Creative art-making occurred as part of a broader acceptance and adjustment process to CFS/ME, and allowed some psychological escape from a circumscribed lifeworld.

Results:

Candidate transition variables
Also its good for self esteem, its good for confidence. .
Once established as a leisure activity, art-making increased subjective well-being mainly through providing increased satisfaction in daily life, positive self-image, hope, and contact with the outside world. .
Colour within the artwork itself had positive effects on emotional state, through both its direct stimulus and its capacity to trigger positive memories about life and self before illness. .
Once established as a regular leisure activity, artmaking supported subjective well-being in various ways. .
Art provided new sources of satisfaction in daily life, improved self-image, hope for the future, and positive contact with the outside world. .
Participants were actively engaged in strategies such as pacing and relaxation to enable them to carry out everyday activities and maintain a positive attitude. .
They believed that, even though conducted as a leisure activity, art might offer a potent therapeutic means of selfexpression. .
Self-esteem, and emotional well-being benefited from committed engagement in art-making: Looking for form, colour, movement, relationship, light, and harmony or clash, helps me redefine meaning in my much-diminished life and has kept me from suicide (written narrative). .
But for most participants, art-making came to be valued for promoting satisfaction, an improved self-image, hope for the future, and stronger contact with the healthy outside world, all important achievements for those whose lives were severely constrained by ill-health. .
Art-making was perceived as a means of emotional exploration and self-expression. .
They did seem to find that art-making affirmed identity and expanded meaningful experiences within circumscribed lifeworlds. .
Several factors then attracted participants specifically to art-making. .
Participants all felt that leisure-based art had enhanced the quality of their everyday life in many ways. .
The study explored their initial motives for art-making, and then examined how art-making had subsequently influenced their subjective well-being. .
Small arts and crafts projects offered manageable and satisfying ways of filling the occupational voids created by CFS/ME, and offered opportunities to be creative. .
Once established as a leisure activity, art-making provided a psychological escape from a physically and socially circumscribed lifeworld. .
Art-making encourages hope for the future Participants regarded their art-making as helping to create hope for the future, as they looked forward with interest to further projects, rather than feeling totally trapped by functional limitations and defined by their ill-heath. .
Various personal craft skills and family role models seemed to encourage a turn to art-making as a way of living with CFS/ME, as did the view that small arts and crafts projects might be feasible and satisfying for people with limited energy and strength. .
What other inspirations do you express in your artwork? .
Psychological acceptance released more active coping strategies which included reframing their leisure time, and exploring certain feasible artistic pursuits. .
They described feeling more satisfied with their daily lives through gaining purpose, challenge, and achievement in a context that offered few alternative sources of reward: I have a contentedness that I didnt have before. .
Art-making helped participants, in varying degrees, to meet their needs for achievement. .
It makes you feel as though you are achieving something. .
Participants also tended to be familiar with craft skills; had family members interested in arts and crafts, and some desired a means to express grief and loss. .
The reasons that participants gave for turning to arts and crafts as a way of living with their health problems will be explored next. .
A few turned to art to express emotions about their illness. .
Some turned to art to express feelings about their illness. .
Recourse to artmaking was one strategy among several leisure and lifestyle adjustments that participants deliberately made in order to live more positively with CFS/ME. .

ARTICLE - CANDIDATE TRANSITION VARIABLES

Results: