23. February 2009 12:12
by Jobo
4 Comments
A few years back, in attempts to deal with a stressful job and
overwhelmingly busy home life, I did some research into meditation as a way to
mellow myself out. After doing some
reading on the internet, and a flipping through a few books, I realized that my knitting and
quilting that I have been doing regularly
after work, and especially during those times of feeling stressed by my life - I
already HAVE BEEN meditating.
They say that one of the simplest meditation forms is just
to sit in a safe, quiet, silent place, focus on your breathing, and count
slowly from one to four with each breath, with the eventual goal of reaching
the fourth in-and-out without having an intrusive thought pass through. In the silence and peace from everyday
passing thoughts, we are supposedly more likely to reach insight. It is also said that this is very difficult,
and that many people have to practice for years before they reach that fourth
breath without being distracted by some passing thought… these people have obviously never completed
the longest pattern row of a complicated lace project, or finished a pair of
double-knit Norwegian mittens.
I estimate that I could probably practice for years and never
sit and breathe and focus and reach that fourth breath, but hand me a needle
and thread, or a pair of needles and a ball of yarn… I can spend hours in a
sitting – perhaps not counting purely the breaths from one to four, but definitely
counting the stitches, K1 P1 K1 P1, up-down-up-down-up-down goes the sewing
needle… and no daily distracting thoughts in between. During that time, I focus on my art, and on
creating beauty in a fibery form.
There is no room in my brain to think about the snarky
coworker who was unpleasant at work that day, K1 P1, or the pile of laundry that I should be doing, K across 1 row, or my mom being
frustrated that I haven’t visited yet this week, tie in the ends of a finished project, or any of those everyday worries.
I guess I didn’t need to learn how to meditate after all, I
just needed to discover it under a new name, already well established as a
stress-buster in my daily life.
So Blogsters, with that I leave you with some yarn candy pictures, and a song (which has nothing to do with knitting or meditation, but simply 1 2 3 4)
"Black Nile" Superwash Roving from Fiber Optic...becomes sock yarn 3-ply
