What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, and can be anything from moderate to severe. Our mental health involves our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It is our cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to how we think, feel and behave. It has an impact on just about every part of our everyday life.
World Health Organisation (WHO)
According to the WHO, “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
Mental Health has Become More Widely Discussed
Mental health is discussed much more widely now and is much more part of people's everyday conversations but what does it really describe and how do we know how our own personal mental health is? People have always been aware that they need to look after their physical health and now they are realising that their mental health is also just as important.
Symptoms of Poor Mental Health
There are many signs that your mental health may be suffering and they can include anxiety, depression. loss of appetite, fear, panic attacks, low mood, sadness, feeling lonely, feeling angry. Someone suffering with their mental health may experience some or all of these feelings and emotions.
Whilst there are occasions where people's mental health may become so unbalanced that they require medical intervention and advice from medically trained professionals, there are other circumstances where individuals can help maintain well balanced mental health by seeking out opportunities for personal fulfillment.
Sewing to help Well-being
Sewing can be one of the many past-times that individuals can practice in order to help maintain mental well-being.
How can Sewing Help?
There are many ways that sewing can help to maintain good mental health:
- Sewing can give you a purpose. Choosing a simple project to sew, such as the
mini bear project that we offer, can be something to enjoy. The process of selecting some fabric and making something with your own hands is very enjoyable. It does not have to be a masterpiece, just something that you have created.
- Sewing will focus your attention on the present. Being present in the moment and not having to think about your everyday worries and concerns is very good for mental health. Even if that only happens for a very short amount of time, it is giving your mind some time to switch off and relax whilst focusing on your sewing task.
- Concentrating on the repetitive nature of the sewing tasks is very relaxing and almost meditative. This can lower your stress levels and slow your breathing down. If you would like some more information about how sewing can be a meditative hobby,
click here.
- Sewing gives you the opportunity to have some 'me-time'. This might seem trivial but actually it is really important to allow ourselves the time to sit and spend time doing something that we enjoy for no other reason than we like it and it makes us feel good. It does us good to be indulgent and treat ourselves well and give ourselves permission to spend time on a fun activity.
- Sewing gets us away from screens. Even if you are not a social media addict and don't feel that you look at screens much, you might be surprised when you add up the number of hours that you look at a computer screen at work or a TV screen at home. Sewing allows us to enjoy an activity that is no way related to a screen. Looking at a screen can cause sensory overload and although scrolling through social media can seem relaxing, it can actually just feel like 'white-noise' and can cause stress and dissatisfaction. Sewing does the opposite.
There are lots and lots more benefits to sewing to help with anxiety, if you'd like to read some more,
click here.
What Next?
If you have enjoyed this blog post, please share it with your friends on social media.If you are interested to see how sewing could help you
Visit our sewing patterns to select a sewing project that you can put into action and feel some benefits to your well-being..