Research Shows How Knitting Every Day Rewires Your Brain to Be Less Anxious and More Happy

Описание: You Know That Knitting Is Good for You. Now You Can Explain Why.

Everyone's knitting story is different, but we all have a sense that knitting is good for us. Knitting really did save my life (read the full story here) when I developed an eating disorder after college. I lost all interest in my hobbies and forgot that I liked to knit. I ended up in an eating disorder treatment center and lucky for me, the "craft lady" who came on Thursdays brought some needles and yarn.

"A Basket of Yarn Is a Basket of Potential" - Betsan Corkhill

For a knitter, the possibilities that a basket of yarn holds are what gives you hope for tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. They turn your thoughts towards creativity, producing something, turning yarn into a project. They turn your thoughts positively towards tomorrow and the joys it will bring. Perhaps this explains why knitters "therapeutically" add to their stash, even when they have enough yarn to last for yarns?

Betsan Corkhill, the universally recognized expert on the therapeutic benefits of knitting, surveyed over 3,500 knitters from 31 countries to understand how knitting can be so healing. She wrote Knit for Health & Wellness: How to knit a flexible mind & more... In this 90-second clip, she breaks down the power that knitting has to affect and turn around even the most powerful negative thoughts.

How Knitting Can Make You Mentally More Resilient Within Days

Suicidal thoughts - negative, depressing thoughts - are ruminative in nature and take place in the subconscious. They repeat and pile up on each other, magnifying each other until the thinker is buried under a repetitive stream of negative thoughts. These pathways become more and more entrenched the longer this continues.

Why Knitting is Literally More Effective Than Drugs In Rewiring the Brain

In this clip, Betsan explains how knitting is more powerful than drugs in reaching into the subconscious and rewiring entrenched negative neural pathways. Knitting replaced ruminative, negative thoughts with more positive thoughts of tomorrow. Knitting gives people pleasure today and hope for the future.

On the Surface, Knitting Is Seen as Fun, Relaxing, and Creative. In Reality It Penetrates to the Depths of the Subconscious.

“Knitting seems to break into those ruminative thoughts” - Betsan Corkhill.

For me, knitting absolutely did turn my life around and pointed my thoughts in a positive direction instead of focusing on weight and weight loss. I rediscovered my love of knitting and my knack for teaching at the same time, helping the other girls in the center with their cast-ons and bind-offs and making a pair of flap-top mittens until I quickly realized I was ready to face the outside world again. A job in a yarn store soon followed, and then a 13-year career as a knitting video instructor and always-learning entrepreneur.

Today I find myself in the beginning stages of a major life upheaval. I've also started my first knitting project in as long as I can remember (in Mexico it's just too hot to knit). This 90-second video clip re-inspired me to start knitting again and reconnect with its soothing, positive influence.

Having a Knitting Project Can Help, Even if You Can't Knit Every Day

Doesn't it help to know, in the back of your mind, that you have your knitting with you should things get dull? Isn't it like a security blanket, there for you if and when you need it? I think so.

These Two Sneaky Habits Can Make Knitting a Negative

We knitters love to see knitting as universally positive or a cure-all, and clips like this are sometimes just what we need to hear to reinforce our beliefs that knitting is 100% positive. But watch out for two bad habits that might make your knitting less enjoyable.

Knitting Until Your Hands Hurt

I've received literally hundreds of comments on my How to Relieve Knitting Hand Pain With One Simple Trick blog post (my most popular blog post on KnitFreedom by far) with people telling me they've spent months knitting late into the night, captivated by this wonderful new hobby, only to find themselves in debilitating pain. Read the rest of the article here: https://new.knitfreedom.com/blog/bets...

Please leave me a comment and let me know how interesting this was for you, on a scale of 1-10. What was the most interesting thing about this for you? Thank you!

Thank you so much for your feedback and see you next Wednesday with another eye-opening video clip.

Love,
Liat

Special thanks to Kristy Glass Knits for her in-depth interview with Betsan Corkhill. You can find the complete interview here:    • Kristy Glass Knits: BOOK CLUB! Betsan Cork...