KNITTING I Made This Big and Beautiful Bag With an Easy Trick

KNITTING IS BENEFICIAL FOR HEALTH Bimla,House No.1008,Housing Board Colony,Sector 15-A,Hisar,Haryana,India. Being an avid knitter and researcher I joined on a range of craft magazines. One of my jobs was to look after the letters pages. This entailed reading the large amount of letters which came into the office every day. About 98% of these talked about the therapeutic benefits of craft but in particular knitting. Then I asked our president of NGO Dr.K.Malhotra, who always indulge in knitting in her spare time Oh! that is my ‘light-bulb’ moment said Dr.K.Malhotra– Knitting as she told me …….. Days after my quarry.. I realised I’d stumbled across something potentially very important. I wondered whether knitting could be used as an activity from the arm chair which could act as a springboard to other activities – to motivate those people I saw on my community rounds, to bring them back into the world – that was my starting point. Therapeutic benefits of knitting As a physiotherapist specialising in neurological conditions I have been intrigued by the movements of knitting and their potential effect on the brain. The work I’ve done so far strongly suggests that the bilateral, cross midline, rhythmic repetitive, automatic nature of the movements are important. For example, a high percentage of the narratives I’ve collected attribute the feeling of deep calm to the rhythmic nature of the movements. The state of mind reached is described as meditative-like even by people who regularly meditate. We carried out a survey of over 100 knitters with NGO and we found the more frequently people knitted the calmer and happier they said they felt. 81% of respondents to our survey said they felt happier during and after knitting. 54% of respondents who were clinically depressed said knitting made them feel happy or very happy – that’s quite some achievement. How is knitting used as a tool for wellbeing? Health and wellbeing is about so much more than isolated symptoms and medication – it’s about the whole person and their environment. Therapeutic Knitting can help people address a wide range of issues to improve general wellbeing. KNITTING-EQUATION and Dr.K.Malhotra’s route into knitting. My mother taught me at seven but I didn’t do very much knitting after that – I think most women my age learned from their mothers or grandmothers. Like many new mothers I did a little knitting for my four children but then did very little after that. I picked it up again when I started researching the benefits – I needed to be reasonably proficient to run the group at our NGO, but it’s a bit like riding a bike, once learnt it doesn’t take much to get back in the flow. I use it now to manage my stress levels so I use it therapeutically. I think it’s important to practise what your preach. If you don’t do it yourself how can you expect others to follow your advice? The work you’re doing focuses on the therapeutic benefits of knitting – what type of conditions can it be used to help with? Anyone could benefit from setting aside 20 minutes every day. Being able to ‘switch off’ for a short time every day gives the mind a break and is beneficial to wellbeing. Anyone can use knitting as a portable means of stress management. Use it on your commute to work or during your lunch break if you are a working woman, and as leisure activity if you are a housewife. It has been found that taking your mind off a problem you’ve been dwelling on and doing a relaxing creative activity will often help you to solve that problem – the solution will often just ‘spring’ to mind when the mind’s attention is focused elsewhere. The main conditions that Therapeutic Knitting is used for are: Stress low mood depression mental health problems posttraumatic stress disorder. Must try it out. happy knitting!!!!