If you’d welcome an easy, effective way to calm mind and body, and improve your wellbeing, read on. There’s a method of simple stitching that can do just this.
As someone with a deep interest in Zen philosophy and meditation practices, I am fascinated by the ‘still point’ deep within our being. The still point is a state of equanimity in which we are able to maintain an inner calm and steadiness regardless of the external circumstances.
You may be familiar with this still point. It is a calm, restorative, spacious, quiet beyond the mind’s churning; beyond the mind’s conditioning, stories, preferences, habitual ways of seeing and thinking. In this state of equanimity, reactions in the body and mind that drain our wellbeing – anxiety, worry, stress, agitation and so on – can dissipate, enabling us to relax deeply. If we can do this, even just for a few minutes at a time, our body/mind system can find more balance and increase our sense of wellbeing.
Although the still point is always there and available to us at any time, remembering it is there, and then readily accessing it, can be difficult. It is easy to get tightly caught up in the turbulent swirl of everyday life, reacting to others and whatever situation we are in, and to what we are seeing happening in the world.
Typically, people approach accessing and cultivating equanimity through tried and tested traditional meditation practices, particularly those grounded in Buddhism. Over the past 40+ years I have practised a variety of these methods. Each in its own way has been effective at that particular time of my life, giving me sufficient skill to (mostly) remain calm, be kind, and keep doing whatever I can to be helpful to those around me.
My experience of the 2019-2020 summer of stupendous fires in the Shoalhaven changed all that for me. I felt like my whole nervous system underwent a radical recalibration to a different reality, taking my capacity for equanimity with it. Bereft, overwhelmed by my emotional swirl, too agitated to sit and meditate, I turned to making an artwork. I was moved to work with cloth, needle and thread, something I hadn’t done for decades. I made an apron called, How to live with a broken heart.
I feel immense gratitude that in the psychological space of the slow, gradual process of composing, constructing and stitching the apron I was able to restore sufficient sense of equanimity to accommodate my emotional turbulence. Since then stitching has become a steady meditative practice – one that reliably cares for my wellbeing.
What do I mean by stitching?
What I mean by stitching is: Surrender to the peaceful, rhythmic act of steadily making lines of stitches in a piece of plain cloth.
In its simplest form, this is making lines of running stitches in plain coloured cloth – as in the photo (below) of my work, Right Here, Right Now.
Stitchers with more experience in working with textiles expand their practice to encompass dyeing and layering of cloth, considerations of colour and texture. Yet, at the heart of the act of making, is simple stitching. The aim of this meditative making is not to produce, but to be in the moment to moment experience of the process.
This is different to sewing where the activity is directed to production of a garment. It is distinctly different to embroidery, using an extensive range of traditional stitches, typically to create a ‘picture’ of some kind. Here, exacting technique, and preoccupation with the skill involved, become the focus.
What other stitchers say
For this article, I was curious to hear from other stitchers about their experiences of stitching and what effect (if any) it has on their wellbeing.
Barbara Dawson, a prolific stitcher in her art making, shared the following striking effect she’s noticed in relation to her physical wellbeing. Barbara is in her late 70s, is very fit and pays close attention to her physical health. She noticed over the past few weeks that her resting heart rate had gone up by 5 points and was wondering why, what was different? She realised she had not been stitching and made a direct correlation between the two.
While evidence of the direct benefit to her physical wellbeing is new to her, Barbara has long recognised its psychological benefits. She unequivocally credits stitching with giving her a sense of calm and peacefulness. As someone managing elevated anxiety Barbara gladly finds refuge in the process of making long lines of simple running stitch, ranging across cloth she dyes herself. She likens this to walking the landscape, another of her regular practices.
Other stitchers equally comment on benefits to their mental and psychological wellbeing. A prime example is Leith Clayton Brandt, who told me:
“I am now 78. I have been stitching for about 40 years. I am an anxious type person … The act of stitching slows me down, and that it is tactile, I find comforting. When I am stitching I can be in the moment. It gives me a sense of calm and wellbeing.”
At the other end of the continuum, when Rebecca Lazenby came to a day of stitching I facilitated at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery last year, she had never even threaded a needle before. Rebecca’s description of her experience as a first-time stitcher also encompasses finding a sense of stillness.
“In the moment, when I am stitching, I am not really thinking about an end product, I am enjoying the pleasure of holding the cloth, the act of stitching, listening to whatever is around me and being still.”
In her description, Rebecca also comments, “I am not really thinking about an end product”. She is not alone in remarking on being unattached to outcome. Anandii, a practising artist and community arts facilitator, says “If I do visual art, I am thinking about the finished outcome, I want it to be successful. It’s different with stitching. The stitches – in and of themselves – I find interesting and engaging. With stitching I don’t have to feel clever at it to enjoy it.”
When our mind is concerned with producing a particular tangible end product – a painting, a drawing, a piece of pottery, and so on – issues of skill and technical proficiency come into play. When this happens, the mind goes into modes of planning and producing; focussing on a concrete outcome in the future.
The rhythm and simplicity of stitching seems to be uniquely predisposed to hold our mind peacefully in the present moment. The mind continues doing its thing, as is its nature, but it does it quietly in the background.
Stitching together
As mentioned above, I host and facilitate sessions in which people gather to stitch, quietly, in the company of others. This aspect of being in company without the expectation or pressure of conversation has its own distinct contribution to make to wellbeing. For Anandii, who lives alone, it is an aspect that she finds deeply beneficial and enjoyable:
“For someone who’s a bit hyper and over-involved in the world, stitching slows me down, quietens me. I find the rhythm of stitching incredibly stilling for my overactive way. Working in silence in the company of others is also energising, in a quiet way, for someone a bit manic like me.”
Arts Muster weekly facilitated sessions: Stitching for Wellbeing
If you like the idea of stitching in the company of others please join me in the Stitching for Wellbeing community sessions I will be running as part of Arts Muster’s annual offering of arts experiences and workshops in Jervis Bay.
Sessions 11am-1pm each Wednesday from 18 June – 30 July 2025.
Venue Vincentia Matters Community Hub, Vincentia Shopping Village, Burton Street.
Subscribe to the Arts Muster eNewsletter to receive more detailed information.
The intention of these sessions is twofold: 1. Contribute to individual and community wellbeing. 2. Raise money for Arts Muster Student Scholarships which enable students at Vincentia High School to take part in the two-day creative workshops being presented by Arts Muster Jervis Bay, Saturday 23 – Sunday 24 August 2025.
Holistic Wellbeing
As we know, wellbeing is a holistic matter. All the stitchers I spoke to (not just those mentioned in this article) pay close attention to diet and are physically active, regularly walking, swimming, doing yoga, Pilates and so on. And they include stitching as a vital tool in their repertoire.
Please be clear, I am not suggesting stitching as any sort of quick-fix, magical elixir for instant wellbeing, rather I am recommending it as a readily available way to access the still point within – a creative strategy able to make a valuable contribution to your wellbeing.
Come along to one or more of the Arts Muster Stitching for Wellbeing sessions and let me help you get started. Or, if you are already a stitcher, let me help you deepen the activity as a form of meditation with all the benefits this has to offer.
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You may also like to explore Jervis Bay Weekend’s series of six mindfulness meditations. Find meditation number 1 – Synchronise Mind and Body here.
