"The soul requires a duration of time -- rich, thick, deep, velvety time -- and it thrives on rhythm. Soul can’t be hurried or harried.... We may go through many events in the day and experience nothing because the soul has not had the opportunity to feel them from many different points of view."
-Robert Sardello
The heart will follow a beat if it is sustained long enough. When I find myself worrying these days I listen to the ocean. My heart finds peace in the gentle rhythm of the waves and slows down to match nature’s pulse. I wish I lived by the ocean. I don’t live anywhere near water, but I do knit.
Knitting provides that same sense of peace for me. The weaving of fibers harmonized by the gentle clicking of needles offers me tranquility that reaches into my soul. I read yesterday how they are recommending knitting (or any repetitive craft) for insomniacs. The beat that is created by doing something over and over causes the mind to relax and unwind. There is a chance if your pattern behaves to even lose track of time and experience that moment of knitting euphoria when your project and you become one.
They’ve also found that by turning off the part of the brain that counts the seconds you add years to your brainpower. Just five minutes a day of shutting off the part of the brain that controls time can make you feel totally refreshed. How often do we immerse ourselves so deeply in something that we stop watching the clock; or better still, forget the clock even exists?
My DH is great at it. I think that is why he is so laid back and calm all the time. He loves IT stuff and as long as I’ve known him, he’s been able to work on the computer and forget anything else exists. I admit it takes me a while to reach that state of no-time. All the stuff I should be doing runs back and forth across the screen of my mind until I attend to it or it goes away. But then the reward is so sweet. Suddenly it’s all about the knitting (or writing) and I can immerse myself so deeply that everything else disappears. And for a moment my life becomes timeless; an endless now-of-thought…a flash of pure unadulterated bliss.
Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)
4 comments:
I can do that when I crochet, or draw. Sometimes when I write.
That's why I'm peeved about having to keep this sleep journal thingie--it makes it necessary to notice and compute time, which doesn't help the whole forget-time-and-relax endeavor...
I would add a caveat to the knitting as cure for insomnia thing - as long as what you're knitting is mindless - and that does NOT include stockinette socks UNLESS the socks are knit in a solid color! My Trekking socks did not help me sleep the other night -I kept watching the patterns the yarn makes .... self-patterning yarn is too exciting!
(((hugs)))
I relax just reading your writtings. I love the way you carefully compose each word and sentence.
What lovely, lovely advice! That is what keeps me knitting, spinning, and sneaking away to the high country.. just knowing it will turn off the brain a bit. Thanks for the fine compliments to my shawl and glad you are writing more often these days.
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