When you knit regularly, you are engaging your brain and hands in a way that can help maintain your fine motor skills and dexterity. It can also be used as a relaxation tool to replace other habits such as smoking, drinking or binge eating. Research has shown that activities like knitting can activate areas of the brain that are good at generating a sense of calm, leading to better emotional processing and decision-making. Tissue puts these functions back into practice and keeps them healthy despite the gradual loss of cognitive ability due to aging.
The rhythmic movement of the fabric eases the mind, allowing you to focus on the task and keep worries at bay. Knitting forces the brain to use its memory actively, and the more you use your brain, the healthier it becomes. In a clinical setting, a study of a group of people who have eating disorders showed that tissue had a significant effect on reducing anxiety and calming obsessive thoughts or worries. There are many ways to weave for charity, and many studies show that giving back to the community supports mental health and can help with feelings of depression and loneliness.
Knitting can also put you in a state of mindfulness, where you focus on just one thing and let go of other things that can occupy the mind. In one study, tissue offered both physical relief and social support, which significantly helped reduce the feelings and effects of chronic pain. Knitting and crocheting have been shown to help people with anxiety related to eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The calming effect of repetitive tissue movements prevents adrenaline from acting and activates the parasympathetic nervous system to dampen the body's fight-or-flight response.
Reading a knitting pattern requires you to have some patience to understand the fabric jargon that finishing a knitting project is an excellent feat. Now, knitting is no longer associated with domesticity, but with a creative activity for men and women of all ages. When you knit, you are subconsciously doing math and using your memory remembering the steps you need to do, such as how many rows you need to knit, when to knit and when to do the reverse, and what color or pattern comes next. Knitting is an activity that has been proven to stimulate the brain in multiple ways. It helps maintain fine motor skills, dexterity, strength in the hands, emotional processing, decision-making skills, memory recall, math skills, patience, creativity, relaxation, mindfulness, social support, physical relief from chronic pain, and more.
It is an activity that can be done for charity or for personal enjoyment.
