Monday for Mindfulness

Card designed by Maria Moorhouse and made by me

I always feed Flash in the conservatory and while I am in there, I listen to our local Hereford and Worcester Radio.  One day last week, they mentioned that crafting is good for people with illness or worries.  Who knew that?  Well, a huge number of us knew that, and have known it for a long time.  Settling down quietly with a piece of art or some type of craft just relaxes the mind and body.

I am a self confessed collector of hobbies and one of my pleasures is to go to watercolour painting classes with Matthew Palmer, who is an excellent and very patient teacher.  At a recent class, sitting next to me was a married couple and we got to chatting, as you do.  They were going through quite a lot of trauma in their day to day lives, with their daughter suffering terminal illness, and they were looking after their granddaughter, seriously stressful.  Their granddaughter had gone to her other grandparents for the day to give them a chance to do something for themselves.  It was so good to see their stress just wash away for that one short day.  They could lose themselves and concentrate on playing with paint and water to create a picture.  Neither of them cared if they produced a masterpiece or not.  It was just the process that was important to them and taking a break from their usual life.

This couple went home, feeling relaxed and better able to cope with their worries, a great result.  They did not need a painted masterpiece.  Their masterpiece was within them, the gathering of more energy to go forward to deal with their lives.

Writing this makes me think that none of us know what the people around us are coping with.  That applies even more to our interactions on social media, where we cannot even see facial expressions.  I would like to bet that in any workshop there will be at least a third of the company who are dealing with serious worries, physical or mental, and are trying to get a break from them.  If they go home with a lovely piece of work, that is a bonus.  They would just be happy and more fulfilled by the pleasure of the company they have experienced and just being there. Online, many people will read what you have written and shown, and that will be enough to give them a few minutes in a different world.