How Hand Stitching Helps: Anxiety, Overwhelm, and the Need to “Get out of my own head”

I was going through a rough spot some time ago, and I began to experience a lot of grief and anxiety about a situation over which I had no control. All I could do was manage how I reacted to it.

Knitting had been my go-to craft, but I was totally burned out from knitting. As a lifelong crafter, I knew I needed to do something with my hands, so I returned to another favorite craft, embroidery. It did not disappoint. I did not know what to do since I didn’t have a project going, so I pulled out a handful of embroidery floss and a piece of white cotton cloth and started at the top with some random stitches.

Immediately, I exhaled. I felt my shoulder drop as I fell into the rhythm of the stitches. Once you’ve been doing hand stitching for a while, you build up a mental vocabulary of stitches to pull from. Then I turned to Pinterest for inspiration and found a few things to stitch. But I wanted to focus on the movements, the meditative properties of pulling the needle through the cloth.

In the evenings in the quiet time before bed, I’d pull out my stitching and focus on it rather than ruminating on the anxious thoughts that wanted to rush in to fill the quiet space I was beginning to cultivate.

I’ve never been good at meditating, or so I thought. For the longest time, I considered myself a failure at it because I was always unsuccessful at quieting my ADHD brain. As I’ve mentioned in another article, I was listening to Pema Chodron on a long drive, and she said she used to have the same problem. She reminded me that meditating was not necessarily achieving a silent mind, but it was the commitment to coming back to the breath, the mantra.

So, stitching became my meditation. I hold my project in my hands, take a few deep, intentional breaths, and then begin. It only takes a few minutes to fall into a rhythm. Stitching helped me to stay out of my head and focus on what was in my hands.

It was moving through and overcoming that challenging situation, and the growing pile of embroidery and stitching projects that I had accumulated that imspired me to share my love of stitching by starting Joyful Soul Stitching.

If you’re dealing with anxiety, overwhelm, or racing thoughts from a stressful day, stitching can be a great way to manage your mental health because it forces you to slow down and focus on something other than your stress.

But I feel like I’m saving the best part for last: one of the best benefits of hand stitching, aside from its meditative, calming factors, is that you walk away with something lovely. Whether you’re stitching flowers on a linen shirt, visible mending your brother’s jeans, or stitching a picture that you’ll hang on the wall, you’re adding beauty to the world while you calm your body, mind, and spirit.

Is hand stitching helping you to manage your mental health?