Cognitive Flexibility and Knitting
I recently read an insightful twitter thread, which sounds like an oxymoron I know, but it was by Dr Emma Kavanagh, author of the book How to be Broken. Here is the thread for you to read. It talks about the pandemic and how we are reacting it. The main theme is control and how scary the world is because so much is out of our control right now. It’s a great read and her book has shot straight to the top of my reading list.
The part that stuck out to me was her very sage advice for us all right now, “Practice being in the present moment. Feel your feet on the floor, the breaths in and out. Do activities that force you to concentrate, that keep you in the here and now. Research tells us that practice at this changes the function of our brain making it easier for us to cope.”
For me personally I think I “handled” the first year of the pandemic pretty well and unwittingly followed this advice by developing a daily journalling habit. It was towards the end of 2020 that I picked up my knitting needles and I haven’t been able to put them down since.
Is there a more perfect activity that forces you to be in the present moment like knitting does? Even the most mindless stockinette stitch requires a small amount of concentration. Each and every stitch requires you to take notice of it. Am I knitting or purling? What colour strand of yarn should I be using? Am I supposed to increase or decrease here?
Dr Kavanagh continues on to explain that practicing creativity when stressed will allow for post traumatic growth. How many knitters use their hand craft to relax at the end of a tough day? I know I do. A few rows can make all of the difference for me. The more that we practice the above, the stronger cognitive flexibility will become. When announcements for positive changes in our lives are made we are encouraged to engage in cognitive closure but we need to acknowledge that we can’t really know what will happen, if these changes will occur the way we want them to. In this case a end of COVID restrictions.
This acknowledgment is really tough and uncomfortable but if we remain cognitive flexible we are better equipped to deal with things not turning out the way we expect. Knitting helps us be in the moment, work on our projects and meditate. And say for example, the government pushes back the deadline for easing of restrictions, I may not know when I will be able to go to see my family at home in Ireland or dance in a crowded room, but I do know that if I keep knitting, one stitch at a time, eventually I will have a wonderful new pair of socks.