How Knitting Relaxes and Reduces Stress from Studying

Meditation, yoga, jogging, working out, but knitting? Who would’ve thought that knitting can actually reduce stress and help students focus on studying?

Research has proven that knitting can calm the mind and reduce anxiety. It can also help you cope with mental health issues. So, if you’re not into sports or meditation, here’s your alternative.

Let’s see how knitting can relax you and help boost up your grades. Your academic life is important, but so is your health – so finding a middle ground is crucial. Here are some of the most important benefits of knitting.

1. Reducing anxiety

New studies show a strong correlation between knitting and happiness and calmness. It can calm obsessive thinking patterns and help you focus on only one thing. Your mind will stop wandering while you’re knitting, concentrating on the task at hand. This activity blocks running thoughts and undesired anxious moods. It can help you overcome feelings of loneliness and isolation and strengthen some of your most important cognitive skills. This will help your academic life in unimaginable ways. Try it out, see if I’m right.

2. Helping with pain

When you’re experiencing pain, you don’t feel like engaging in any activity. However, knitting can be of great help to you, so try it out. By helping you stay focused on the performed task, knitting helps with pain – and studies show that it can actually reduce it. Knitting helps you find solutions to problems and is crucial in managing pain, therefore. Physical relief is just one of the outcomes that these studies found; so, as you can see, it works. You just have to be strong enough to try knitting whenever you’re in pain.

3. Promoting social interaction

Knitting promotes the idea of a community and helps people interact. As a student, you might be able to find knitting groups on Facebook or at your school. As soon as you’ll join, you’ll make tons of friends! Sharing the same passion is a great way to start a conversation. The coolest thing about it is that knitting offers you the chance to give back to the community. You can knit for your mom, grandma, or best friend – the idea is that you’re doing it for someone, and thus, giving back.

Knitting is also a great way to take a break from all the computer work you’ve been doing. It relaxes your eyes and helps you disconnect from the online world, while connecting with the real environment.

4. Reducing stress

If you’re wondering how knitting could reduce stress, here’s your answer – through repetition. The repetitive movements help your mind and body calm down and thus, experience a boost in your serotonin levels. It therefore acts as a de-stressor in times of need. You could knit before an exam, for example, to lower your stress level. You could also consult with EduBirdie specialists to help you out with your other assignments. As knitting teaches us, focusing on one task at a time helps you succeed, so let others worry about your writing deadlines while you focus on studying for the exam. Reduce your stress level as much as you can for better grades.

5. Helping with Alzheimer’s Disease

You might have family who’s struggling with Alzheimer’s, so you know how hard it is to live with such a disease. Research shows that knitting can help with AD, too. Knitting stimulates the mind and cognitive patterns of the brain and thus, fastens inter-neural connections. Instead of breaking, these connections are maintained with the help of this activity (and other treatments, of course). It’s never too late to offer a knitting kit to someone you love!

6. Teaching you important skills

The Knitting Behind Bars program in Maryland has been a real success since 2009. Inmates enrolled in this knitting program showed lower rates of violence, calmer behavior, and better conversation patterns. They’ve improved in many ways, and it showed.

Knitting can teach you important life skills, if you’re open enough to receive. It helps you forget about daily problems and focus on what matters. By focusing on one task and doing it the best you can, gratification decreases, and the long-time success mindset prevails. This can help your academic life in many ways – maybe it could open up new doors or perspectives. Or maybe it could help you understand what you really want to do in life.

7. Overcoming addiction

Surprisingly enough, knitting can help you overcome addiction. As students, we tend to be curious and try on various stimulants. I mean, who hasn’t tried smoking or drinking, right? When these activities enter your daily routine though, you’re in trouble. Changing addictive behaviors is not as easy as it might seem.

Knitting is a great way to stop your repetitive thoughts by helping you focus on another task. For this reason, knitting can be perceived as spiritual in some groups. As a student, you can use knitting as a means to stop procrastination and focus on your schoolwork. In the end, procrastination is a type of addiction, isn’t it?

Wrapping Up

Knitting is really good for you, regardless of your age. It develops your cognitive skills and helps you focus on the task at hand, which is great practice. Knit before the exam and see how your grades boost!

Author Bio: Judy Nelson is a knitting supporter and part-time writer. She works for an IT company, providing professional writing services for their blog. Judy loves swimming and dancing.

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