Taking care of your soul through stitching.....

Date Created: Sep 10 2025 10:26AM

Taking Care of your Soul through Stitching

Looking after your Mental Health – a blog about taking care of your soul.

Mental health is so hot in the press at the moment, and is being covered in the soaps, with coronation street dealing with male suicide amongst others.

I don’t know about you, but I have found it really hard to watch, but yet I am so pleased they use the platform they have to address such vital issues that are a reality for too many families. Story lines like this get me thinking, about my own wellbeing, the health of my children, family and friends. I think its so important to talk. Open up to someone, anyone. I do think this is easier said than done though, for so many people isolation becomes their best friend and yet their worst enemy. I am no doctor, but I am human and have struggled. Practising mindfulness seems to be a fashionable thing to do now and whilst I think it is an amazing tool, it is hard to master (trust me I try) but to tell an anxious mind to be quiet is like telling a two year old to stop having a tantrum in the middle of Tesco! – it takes patience and more patience, something an anxious mind doesn’t always have heaps of, so persevere with it.

There are so many practical things you can do, which focuses your mind on a task in hand, therefore not asking you to focus on the now with breath but achieves the same result with focus. Sewing is one of them it takes you away from your thoughts, from the dark, from the anxious grip. I find hand sewing works well, so I always have a red work piece on the go, nice and simple – following lines with a running stitch, I’m not asking my brain to tackle hard patterns or intricate designs at a time I’m trying to get it to rest, nor am I having to concentrate too hard. After a few minutes it has got my attention and I can feel everything calming down, after half an hour or so the adrenaline stops coursing through at the speed of lightening and I can breathe again. The logical part of my brain starts to work again, and yes, I feel calmer (and I’ve achieved something).

I can write about my anxiety and share it with people in blog form, as the writing in itself is calming, you ask me to discuss it in person the embarrassment kicks in, god knows why, as I certainly wouldn’t be embarrassed if I had broken my leg, or hurt myself in an accidental fashion, but for some reason my brain not quite being in zen with the rest of my body is something to be ashamed of, the confident, stubborn woman in me wants to be different to that, I want to be the person that stands up for what’s right and tell people there is no shame in struggle, because there isn’t. But like anyone I have my hang up’s and this is one of them, I wish it wasn’t. However, it is manageable and there is so much you can do to help yourself, even when you feel you can’t reach out to talk to someone, learn to sew, knit or crochet – after all what’s the worst that can happen? You might not make a master piece in your own eyes the first time you try but you’ll have got through another hard half an hour and your body will thank you for it.

I have realised through the years, there is only so much bleach a bathroom can take, only so many times you can mop a floor in a day to distract yourself from your feelings, and equally there is only so many times you can temporarily hide under your duvet before it starts to feel too comfortable under there, that in itself is a scary place to be.

‘Sewing mends the Soul’ A quote I heard the other day, that resonated with me in so many ways. When I look back over some of my work I know I did from a difficult period its empowering as I’ve turned it around, into a small achievement of some description.

Becky x