MY HUSBAND has just built a woodshed.

He measured it up, ordered the wood and spent several weekends carefully constructing it.

I have to say, it looks great. So good, that I now fancy buying a bit of land in the Canadian Rockies and setting him to work on a cosy log cabin.

One thing I noticed during the time he was busy sawing planks and knocking in nails was his change of mood. No longer the grumpy man who would snap at me for every little thing, he was actually quite pleasant, and even responded favourably to what he normally calls nagging.

He had built something from scratch and was experiencing the surge in pleasure and relaxed state of mind that comes with that.

My husband is not the only one to achieve a zen-like state through constructing something. Building is the new spa treatment: across the country more and more people are discovering the meditative effects of putting something together themselves.

This does not have to be an actual size structure. Lego workshops are booming, as people turn to the plastic bricks as a form of ‘mindfulness’.

“They find peace of mind,” said Richard Carter, known as Bricks McGee, who runs Lego workshops. “Especially now with the awareness of mental health. Mindfulness comes with building something. I think that’s the appeal for the adult fans, it’s time to switch off.”

Building is therapeutic. I used to have to resist the temptation to take over when my daughters played with their Lego Duplo. I’d love making walls and towers from the different coloured pieces.

They later had a more complicated magnetic building set. This was challenging, and I loved helping them to figure out what went where.

As the process of creating something, building takes people back to childhood. From the basic wooden bricks of our infancy, to Lego forts and the Second World War battleships older children craft from Airfix kits.

Our kitchen table was often covered with pieces of Airfix, tubes of glue and mini pots of paint, which would - eventually - come together to make a Spitfire or Lancaster which my brother would hang in his room. My dad would often help him, with the pair puzzling over the often complex instructions.

There’s a model shop not far from where I work, and it’s always busy - not with children, but adults.

Victoria Beckham recently revealed how husband David spent hours during Christmas and New Year piecing together a model Land Rover out of Lego. In September, she told how he stayed up until 3am building a Lego Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

There is nothing like working with your hands to induce a feeling of calm. You often find that once you start something you can’t stop, you become engrossed and time flies by.

Over Christmas I started a jigsaw. It was quite difficult, with a lot of similar-looking pieces. Like David Beckham and his Land Rover, once I’d begun I had to finish it. I started it at 9pm, and, when my husband went to bed at 10.30 I told him I wouldn’t be long. The next time I looked at the clock it was almost 1am.

My husband has definitely caught the building bug and is planning his next project. Unfortunately this is also life size - he wants to build a pond and has earmarked an area of garden for it.

There is talk of excavations, linings and rockeries. I’m not in favour, and have a plan of my own: it’s his birthday soon. I reckon a Lego pond will be a good substitute. There are plenty of ideas online, some complete with frogs, lily pads and dragonflies.