Another excellent reason to learn to knit ( or crochet) is the health benefits to your brain. In this post, I want to focus on how knitting particularly helps the brain.
Your Mind Needs a Workout Too
Many of us like to get daily exercise from a gym workout or other forms of exercise like a run or walking. Everyone knows how important these activities are for our overall health, but many forget or do not know just how crucial it is to give your brain a workout too.
People worry about cognitive impairment as they age and are concerned about dementia. A good way to exercise your brain is to give it work. This can be in the form of puzzles, crosswords, and quizzes. I encourage my mother to do at least two crosswords each day. Knitting is another very good way to give your brain a workout.
When you knit your brain has to cope with doing several things all at once.
- right and left hands have to work together with your brain
- helps hand-eye coordination
- improves hand strength by repeated use of them
Knitting Reduces Anxiety
A lot of knitting involves repeated actions which serve as a calming sedative as you’re forced to concentrate on what you are doing. This means that often outside worries are pushed to the sidelines and that is good for your brain. A chemical called serotonin is released when you do repetitive things like knitting and this hormone helps to reduce anxiety and gives you a good feeling.
When you knit you concentrate on one thing so all those other worries that are troubling you are put aside. This gives you time to relax and calm down. When I find myself a bit overwhelmed I will either sit down and do some easy repetitive knitting project that I have especially for this time. I also find gardening can have the same effect too.
Idle Hands
My grandmother always impressed upon us to not have idle hands. She maintained that if we were sitting watching the television or meeting family we should always have a knitting project on the go as it helped us to be more productive and not get into bad habits. While watching tv, doing nothing else, it’s tempting to eat a snack or two. If you have a knitting project to pick up immediately you feel good because your time is being constructively used.
Engaging with other Knitters
By having a common skill that others share you can get involved in a group and so interact with people. It is easier to begin talking to someone else who shares your hobby, as at first it is about what you’re making and they are not focussing all on you. In this way it can be an ice breaker!
So now you’re aware of how good knitting is for your brain, make a promise to yourself to
- learn to knit if you don’t yet know how ,
- start a new project if you know the basics
- learn a new knitting skill to move to the intermediate level
