I have always enjoyed crafting, however I don’t consider myself to be much of a creative person. While I enjoy making arts and crafts, I very rarely come up with the ideas of what to do myself. I always needs inspiration, or guidelines to follow, or for someone else to come up with the idea for me. I’ve also become more in tune with my spirituality lately, so the idea of using crafting as a spiritual practice was very intriguing to me. Crafting Calm: Projects and Practices for Creativity and Contemplation by Maggie Oman Shannon explores just that idea, using crafting projects as a spiritual practice and a way to quiet the mind. I was very happy to be able to receive a copy of Crafting Calm to review.

I was sent a copy of Crafting Calm to review:

Crafting Calm is written by Reverend Maggie Oman Shannon, an interfaith minister, spiritual director, and the author of five other books. In Crafting Calm she explores crafting as a spiritual practice. In today’s face paced world, it’s often hard to find time for ourselves, time to quiet our mind, and focus on our spirituality. This book walks you through ways to quiet your mind, and find a bit of peace through crafting. It was certainly an inspiration to turn off the TV, or the laptop, or cell phone, and do some crafting.

Since Maggie Oman Shannon is a Reverend, this book does have some focus on God, and The Bible. I myself am not Christian, so I didn’t connect well with that part of this book. There are various quotes from The Bible in it. However, if you are a Christian, I think you would connect even better with this book. Personally, I still liked most of the wisdom and the crafts in the book, I simply overlooked any Christian overtones.

The book has a lot of crafts that it walks you through. It not only tells you how to do them, but the meaning behind them and the intention you should put in to them. It teaches you how to make contemplation candles, prayer shawls, prayer flags, visual journals, the list goes on. There is no prior experience required in this book. I personally had not made many of the crafts outlined in the book, but I found the instructions very easy to follow.

The book walks you through the meaning of parts of crafts, all the way to the meaning that is placed in different colors. I have always found crafting to be a calming practice, and this book has helped me explore that more. It’s definitely a book I plan to use throughout the future, and is a great one to have on your bookshelf.

Buy it: You can find a list of stores to purchase Craft Calm by Maggie Oman Shannon on its Viva Editions page.

Connect: You can connect with author Maggie Oman Shannon on her Facebook, and with Viva Editions on their Facebook, and Twitter.

Micaela