In the last few years, there’s been a lot of buzz about mindfulness –gently bringing your focus to the present moment and having a non-judgmental awareness of your thoughts and feelings. Practicing mindfulness can give you better mental, emotional and physical health, and help you to feel more connected with the world around you. Basically, it’s a good thing that many of us try to do moreof, but find it difficult to make space for in our busy lives. But what if we combine mindfulness with another important habit of ours – cross stitch! Read this article to find out how to practice mindfulness while enjoying your creative hobbies.
Listen Mindfully
What do you do while you cross stitch? Few of us sit in a silent room concentrating on our stitch guide – in fact, most people who cross stitch spend at least some of their time doing so while watching TV. At the end of a busy day, it’s nice to unwind and switch off from the real world in front of the box, and we can keep our hands busy with cross stitch. However, if you want to practice more mindfulness, consider switching off the TV and trying one of these instead:
-A guided meditation. Many of us find it hard to concentrate on meditating, even though we know it would bring calm and tranquility to our lives. Turn on a guided meditation and let the words wash over you while you’re getting on with cross stitch. It’s a good idea to put aside your more complicated projects and pick something you can do without really thinking about it. If the guided meditation has visualization exercises, either take a pause in your stitching to close your eyes, or just do that part with your eyes open.
-Breathing exercises. Part of meditating is slowing the breath and bringing an awareness of your own body. If guided meditations aren’t your thing, you can listen to a guided breathing exercise, or just practice sitting quietly and being aware of your breath. Something as simple as breathing in for five counts, pausing, and then breathing out for five counts, can help to slow your breath and bring you a sense of calm.
-Listen to music. Having on a bit of background music can alter your mood while you’re stitching. We love relaxing music with water sounds to really get into a good mood, but you could instead choose to put on some classical music, or just something that makes you feel destressed.
For a good starting point to find relaxing music, guided meditations and more, we recommend The Honest Guys, but there are plenty of similar things available on YouTube, so find something that will serve you.
Check in With Yourself
Do you ever get really engrossed with a creative project, then after a while wonder why your back is aching, and realize that you’re scrunched up like the hunchback of Notre Dame? It’s common to experience aches and pains if you spend a long time doing cross stitch, particularly if you have bad posture or aren’t’ aware that you’re holding an uncomfortable position.
An important part of mindfulness is being able to bring an awareness to your body and check in with yourself. If you intend to sit for an hour or two and crack on with a big cross stitch project, it’s a good idea to regularly check in with yourself and ask yourself questions like, Do I feel tense anywhere? Could I relax and release some tension in my jaw/shoulders/neck? Would it be a good idea to stand up and do some stretches? Should I change position? Making sure that you stand up and change position regularly will benefit you in multiple ways. If you practice yoga, you could even experiment with sitting in different positions while doing cross stitch, to stretch out different parts of your body and bring you overall comfort.
Cross Stitch for Helpful Reminders
Want to be more mindful in your day-to-day life? How about using cross stitch to create some helpful reminders, such as slogans on a keyring, embroidery hoops to hang around the home, and other decorations to help keep you in a state of mindfulness. You can choose any quote that is meaningful to you, but our favorites are:
-Breathe
-Eat, Pray, Love
-“Wherever you are, be there totally.” – Eckhart Tolle
-“These mountains you were carrying, you were only supposed to climb” – Najwa Zebian
-Quiet the mind and the soul will speak
-“Visualize your highest self and start showing up as him/her.” – Ali Owens
-“I am what I choose to become” – Carl Jung
Repetition Stitches
While you might like to push yourself by trying new patterns, exploring more complicated crafts and learning new stitches, there is something to be said for letting yourself mindfully practice a craft which is ‘easy’. The repetitive process of needle in, needle out, needle in, needle out, can have a calming effect on cross stitchers, and shouldn’t be disregarded as ‘not pushing yourself’. Doing a cross- stitch pattern which you can engage in automatically will enable you to more easily reach a state of flow – when you can become totally immersed and focused, and time will pass without you realizing it. Achieving a flow state not only shows skill in what you’re doing, but also aids you in spending your time mindfully.