Meditation has become an important part of our life. It serves to calm and center us, relieve anxiety and take a break from the constant chaos and stress of everyday life. While we appreciate traditional meditation, there are many forms of practicing mindfulness and meditation.
Mindfulness is defined as: “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”
The value of mindfulness and meditation are not just antecdotal, but rather studies have shown that those that practice them not only report less stress, but also may have reduced risk to cognitive decline and diseases like Alzeimhers, reduced risk of hypertension and heart disease, and also an increased immune response.
We have found that needlepointing is an ideal way to practice mindfulness, and is also very meditative. During meditation, one’s mind will wander - the practice involves repeatedly and gently bringing those wandering thoughts and feelings back to the present moment, back to an anchor, whether that be your breath, or in this case a needle, canvas and thread. Needlepoint is by nature a practice in which (especially as a beginner) at least some level of being present with the task at hand is required. And, the repetitive nature of needlepointing makes it an ideal anchor for bringing oneself back to the present moment.
This idea of being present in the moment also has known effects that relate to overall happiness. Here is one of our favorite Ted Talks (just 10 min) about the correlation.
We hope you’ll try needlepoint as a form of mindfulness and meditation. Looping can be social, it can be lots of fun, it can provide beautiful décor for your home, and it can also serve as a peaceful, relaxing respite from a stressful world.