Crochet Anxiety away (tips to start)

 

It's no surprise that I love to crochet, it's also no surprise that I have Anxiety, but one way I can relax and stop those moments of intense fear, the racing heart, the fidgeting is believe it or not crochet, it's incredibly calming and has such a soothing, calming effect on me. 

A few years ago, I was skeptical and never believed that a hook and a piece of yarn would do anything other than aggravate me. However, I ignored my ever-so-annoying intrusive thoughts and persevered, and now I'm obsessed, all I can think about these days is my next project and my ever-growing project list

So in this post, I'm going to share a few ways crocheting helps Anxiety and how you can get started, so grab a coffee and stick around. 

How does Crochet help Anxiety:

Repetitive motions: 

When you're crocheting, it can take time to build up a project and you may feel like your repeating the same rows over and over again and this can be very repetitive, however, as your repeating row after row, you can start to see your project come to life, and that brings so much enjoyment and excitement. It's the repetitive motions that keep your mind focused on what you're doing, making sure you're doing it correctly and noticing your project changing before your very eyes. You get into the zone and forget all your problems for a while. 

Flow state: 

This is a term used to describe feeling totally immersed in an activity, you slowly forget anything your thinking because your mind is so focused on the activity at hand. This helps my anxiety so much, whenever I can feel the anxiety bubbling up inside me, I grab my crochet hook and begin crocheting.

Breathing: 

You can focus on your breathing without really knowing you're doing it, by continually crocheting along at your own pace, you can breathe in and out with every stitch you create. 

Movies/tv 

Often, once I've figured out all my stitches and how long it's going to take me, I'll put my favorite movies or tv shows on and forget the world around me for a while. In my case, this is often horror movies, yes strange I know but, I somehow find horror films very relaxing am I alone???

Music:

The same as movies, you can chill out in your own comfy space and listen to music, you become so engrossed in the songs and stitches that your mind will feel empty

How I started: 

So when I first began crochet, I had a box of yarn and hooks sitting in the corner of my room along with several books to teach me, however, I'm more of a visual learner, don't get me wrong some books are very helpful but I find it much easier watching somebody guide me through each step. So, after months of everything just sitting there, I was incredibly bored stuck at home with a horrendous cold, and I thought why not, I grabbed the box and had a rummage through it all, and I remember thinking how the heck do I even begin this, I couldn't even create a slip knot let alone chain a bunch of stitches. 

I had a read-through of one of the books, and it was amazing some of the stuff was gorgeous, and I was so excited to learn how to do it, so long story short, I turned to YouTube and watched a bunch of tutorials, it took me a long while to learn even the basic steps. I nearly gave up a million times but, I persevered and slowly began to understand what I was doing and the rest is history, I was hooked (no pun intended.) 

I now look back and wonder why I didn't get started sooner, it's changed my life, I'm less stressed when I'm crocheting, my mind feels lighter and I can easily forget all my intrusive and anxious thoughts. All I can think about is how ammmaaaazzzzziiiiiinnnnnngggg the finished project will look when it's completed.

After a while, I looked into selling some of the things I made, of course, I made sure everyone knew that I didn't design them as it's very frowned upon to take credit for somebody else's work, not that I would ever want to do that in the first place. However, over the last few months, I've started to create my own designs, it makes me very happy to know others like them all aswel, and it's so satisfying to see an idea in your head then witness it coming to life. 

So now I've explained a little about how I started and how it's all going for me. If you have decided that's not for you, then there's no point in reading below however, if you would like to get started then read on.

How to start (what you need) 

First things first, you're going to need some hooks, if you head over to Amazon you can find tons of them over there. Try and go for metal hooks there much more smooth and less likely to snag your yarn, so you can crochet at a steady pace without stopping a bunch of times. 

Next, you will need some yarn, again there are tons on Amazon and depending on which pattern you use, it will usually say what type of yarn to buy. Make sure whichever yarn you get, it always matches the hook required. You can find this information on the yarn label. 

So you now have your yarn and hooks, all you need are some patterns, you can either search YouTube, read books or search online for free patterns, however, I recommend when your learning to maybe watch a few videos first, as you can see step by step and very slowly how to it. 

So there you have it, we've learned how crochet helps anxiety and all the things you will need to get started. So what are you waiting for, go and grab your supplies, get comfy, make sure you have a lovely cup of coffee or tea whichever you prefer, and begin your crochet journey, once you've got the hang of it you will be surprised how calm crocheting can make you feel.

Stay safe everyone xoxo