#Mihaly was in in your eyes I say it counts

[anja-the-sane-panda]

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!

Happy Saint Nicholas Day everyone! I'm so sorry for this being such a short fic but I hope you all still like it!

[fitnesshealthyoga-blog]

New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/mental-health-and-the-fiber-arts-by-mobius-girl-design-%e2%80%a2-lovecrochet-blog/

Mental health and the fiber arts by Mobius Girl Design • LoveCrochet Blog

To round off our stress awareness month, we’re delighted to introduce Sandra Eng, psychologist and designer from the Mobius Girl Design blog. Read on and find out all about how mindfulness is a key component for using crochet and knitting for mental health and make Sandra’s beautiful FREE pattern for the Asana Mandala…

Scroll down for Sandra’s Asana Mandala pattern…

Let’s set the scene: you’re sitting in your comfiest chair, a cup of steaming hot tea at your side, and in your lap is an organised jumble of beautiful yarn. You crochet a few stitches, take a sip of tea, and with a pleasant sigh, notice stress falling away and a deep sense of calm taking its place.

Sound familiar?

Even if you haven’t thought about it in these terms, you’re most likely already aware that crocheting, knitting and other crafts contribute positively to your mental health. Let’s talk a little bit about why that might be the case.

Mindfulness

In recent years, the practice of mindfulness has been touted as a go-to intervention for stressed out folks. Mindfulness not only helps to reduce stress, it also improves working memory and focus, increases cognitive flexibility and takes the edge off from distressing emotions. It’s even been shown to reduce pain.

So what is mindfulness?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a landmark mindfulness researcher, defines mindfulness as the practice of paying attention, in the present moment, without judgement.

It sounds simple enough, but let’s break that down a bit:

Mindfulness and crafting

Paying attention

Crocheting and knitting often force us to slow down. We count our stitches, read the pattern, notice whether the piece is working up correctly. All the while, we’re practising the attention portion of mindfulness.

In the present moment

Our minds wander all. the. time. It’s normal, and not a bad thing. One moment we’re focused on the task at hand, and the next we’re thinking about that interaction at work, or our kids’ schedules, or the very important matter of what TV show we’re going to watch next.

The practice of mindfulness reminds us to bring our attention back over and over to what is happening right now. If you’ve ever been merrily stitching along, and all of a sudden realise you have no idea where you are in a pattern, you know how easy it is for your mind to become occupied by other things. By continually guiding your attention back to the pattern or the stitch, you are practising mindfulness.

Without judgement

This is the part of mindfulness that a lot of people struggle with (raises hand). We’re wired for judgement, so much so that we don’t even notice when we’re doing it. We think:

“Ugh, this looks awful”

“I’ll never figure out how to make this stitch.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Negative judgements snap us out of mindfulness and into self-criticism, which is stressful! When you find yourself eyeing up your work or your skills critically, use it as an opportunity to practise self-compassion instead:

“I’m learning and I know I can improve.”

“Practice, not perfection.”

Crafting of any kind, including crocheting and knitting, is a natural route to practicing mindfulness. Even when your project isn’t cooperating, or you end up frogging what you’ve stitched, the process of making helps you find an maintain a mindful state. And that’s great for your mental health!

Challenge and mastery

When I first started crocheting, I felt like I was over in my head. There were so many different stitches to learn, and my hands took a long time to master the rhythm of stitching with even tension.

With practice, the challenge of learning crochet lessened, and I started to feel ready to tackle different kinds of patterns. Trying something new often bounced me right back to that place of feeling uncertain and like a beginner. More practice led me to feeling more confident in my skills. And so on.

Our brains crave challenge. But not so much challenge that we feel overwhelmed and likely to give up on the thing we’re pursuing. You may notice that some projects frustrate you to the point of tears, while others are so simple you could stitch them in your sleep.

Finding the ‘right’ amount of challenge can be tricky! But when you find it, you will know it, because you’ll feel interested, engaged and excited. ‘Getting it’ – whether it’s a more difficult pattern or a different way to combine colors, or a new skill you’ve always wanted to try – feels fantastic!

Psychologists have demonstrated that experiencing mastery contributes to positive mood. It’s no surprise that being able to do something well can help you to feel less stressed and better overall. 

So, if you’re finding that you want to throw your project into the ‘naughty corner’, or are ready to pull your hair out right after you pull your your stitches out, consider picking up a different kind of project. One that fits with the level of challenge you’re currently comfortable with. You’ll be back to experiencing the soothing effects of crafting in no time.

Flow

The Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi takes the ideas of challenge and mastery a step further. Csiksgentmihalyi developed the concept of flow. He described it as a state of complete concentration and absorption. When you’re in flow, it’s as if the outside world, including time, falls away, and the only thing that matters is what you’re involved in.

Finding flow requires the right combination of challenge and skill. When they’re evenly matched, you’re much more likely to become ‘lost’ in your project, in a good way.

Csiksgentmihalyi asserts that people are happiest when in a flow state. When the stitches are flying off your hook or across your needles and you’ve found your stitching groove, you can bet you’ve achieved flow!

A little flow goes a long way in helping us to feel less stressed and more attuned to ourselves and our experience.

Community

The final contribution of knitting and crocheting to positive mental health that I want to discuss is community.

We’re social creatures, and feel best when we feel like we belong to an involved, caring community. In my experience, interacting with other crocheters, whether in person or online, more often than not puts me a good mood.

When you share a beloved craft with others, the barriers to connection are immediately lowered. You have a shared language and often shared experience, that acts as shortcuts to bonding with others.

Whatever others might say about social media, I’ve found it to be a wonderful tool for building community with people I would never have the opportunity to interact with otherwise. I’m so glad to have connected with other crocheters from across the globe! I can personally attest to their positive influence on my mental health. Hopefully your experience has been the same.

Parting words

Experiencing mindfulness, engaging in challenging tasks, finding flow and building community are just some of the reasons the fiber arts are good for your mental health. But this article is long, and we all have stitching to do!

I’m confident that, before reading this article, you had an intuitive sense about how crafting, and especially crocheting and knitting (this is a fiber community, after all!) help to buoy your mood and soothe your stress. Hopefully you now also have some fun tidbits to share with others about why these crafts we love so much can have such a positive impact.

Here’s to many, many more stitches in the service of shrugging off stress and feeling good!

The Asana Mandala Pattern

You will need:

Stitch Guide (UK terminology)

Back loop (BL): Work stitch(es) in the back loop only of the indicated stitch.

Back post double crochet (bpdc): Insert hook from back to front to back around the post of the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up loop, yarn over and draw through both loops on hook.

Double crochet (dc): Insert hook in stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over and draw through 2 loops.

Double treble crochet (dtr): Yarn over twice, insert hook in stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop. [Yarn over and draw through 2 loops on hook] 3 times.

Double treble crochet two together (dtr2tog): Yarn over twice, insert hook in stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop, [yarn over, draw through 2 loops on hook] 2 times 2 times. Yarn over and pull through remaining loops on hook.

Front-post double crochet (fpdc): Insert hook from front to back to front around the post of the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over and draw through 2 loops  on hook.

Half-treble crochet (htr): Yarn over, insert hook in stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop, yarn over and draw through 3 loops on hook.

Picot: Ch3, sl st to first ch.

Treble crochet (tr): Yarn over, insert hook in stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop, (yarn over and draw through 2 loops) twice.

The pattern:

Rnd 1: With A, make an adjustable ring. Into ring, ch 2 (does not count as st), 16 tr, sl st to first tr to join. Fasten off A. (16 tr)

Rnd 2: Join B in any st, ch 4, dtr in same st (counts as dtr2tog), ch 2, *dtr2tog in next st, ch 2; repeat from * to end, sl st to first dtr to join. Fasten off B. (16 dtr2tog, 16 ch-2 sp)

Rnd 3: Join C in ch-2 sp, ch 1 (does not count as st), 3 dc in each ch-2 sp around, sl st to first dc to join. (48 dc)

Rnd 4: Sl st into next dc, ch 5 (counts as tr, ch2), tr in same st, sk 2 st, *(tr, ch2, tr) in next st, sk 2 st; repeat from * to end, sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch-5 to join. (32 tr, 16 ch-2 sp)

Rnd 5: Sl st into ch-2 sp, ch 1 (does not count as st), *(dc, htr, ch 1, htr, dc) in ch-2 sp; repeat from * to end, sl st to first dc to join. Fasten off C. (32 dc, 32 htr, 16 ch-1 sp)

Rnd 6: Join A in ch-1 sp, ch 5 (counts as tr, ch 2), tr in same st, *bpdc around each of next 4 sts, (tr, ch 2, tr) in next ch-1 sp; repeat from * to end, omitting final (tr, ch 2, tr), sl st to 3rd ch of beg ch-5 to join. Fasten off A. (64 bpdc, 32 tr, 16 ch-2 sp)

Rnd 7: Join B in ch-2 sp, ch 1 (does not count as st), *dc in ch-2 sp, ch 5; repeat from * to end, sl st to first dc to join. (16 dc, 16 ch-5 sp)

Rnd 8: Sl st into ch-5 sp, ch 1 (does not count as st), 7 htr in each ch-5 sp around, sl st to BL of first htr to join. Fasten off B. (112 htr)

Rnd 9: Work this round in the BL. Join A in same st as join, ch 2 (does not count as st), tr in same st as join, tr in each st around, sl st to first tr to join. Fasten off A. (112 tr)

Rnd 10: Join C in same st as join, *sk 2 sts, (4 tr, ch 2, 4 tr) in next st, sk 2 sts, sl st in each of next 2 sts; repeat from * to end, making final sl st in same st as join from previous rnd. Fasten off C. (128 tr, 16 ch-2 sp)

Rnd 11: Join B in same st as join, ch 4, dtr in same st (counts as dtr2tog), *ch 4, sk 4 tr, dc in ch-2 sp, ch 4, sk (4 tr, sl st), dtr2tog in next sl st; repeat from * to end, omitting final dtr2tog, sl st to first dtr to join. (32 ch-4 sp, 16 dc, 16 dtr2tog)

Rnd 12: Ch 4 (counts as dtr), (4 dtr, ch 2, 5 dtr) in same st, *sk ch-4 sp, fpdc around next dc, sk next ch-4 sp, (5 dtr, ch 2, 5 dtr) in next dtr2tog; repeat from * to end, omitting final (5 dtr, ch 2, 5 dtr), sl st to 4th ch of beg ch-4 to join. Fasten off B. (160 dtr, 16 fpdc, 16 ch-2 sp)

Rnd 13: Join C in ch-2 sp, ch 1 (does not count as st), *(dc, picot, dc) in ch-2 sp, bpdc around each of next 5 dtr, fpdc around next fpdc, bpdc around each of next 5 dtr; repeat from * to end, sl st to first dc to join. Fasten off C. (160 bpdc, 32 dc, 16 fpdc, 16 picot)

Weave in all ends. The mandala benefits from light blocking to open up the points and picots.

Does crochet help you with your mental health and stress management? Tell us all about it in the comments!

Read more about Sandra’s crochet adventures on her blog, Mobius Girl Design!

Tags: asana mandala, crochet and anxiety, crochet and depression, crochet mandala, crochet mental health

About the Author

Merion Merion dreams in colour and adores crochet! From glorious granny blankets to ethereal shawls and lace cardies, she’s never very far from her hooks! She loves cake, knitting, heavy horses, books and Mozart. Her favourite colour is duck egg blue.

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[jessicakmatt]

What is Flow State and Why Does it Help You Make Better Music?

What is Flow State and Why Does it Help You Make Better Music?: via LANDR Blog

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re creating new music.

Distractions come easily when we have so many software instruments, sample packs and audio effects at the tips of our fingers.

There’s been so many times I got distracted by browsing preset libraries that I’ve lost count!

That’s why I’ve been paying attention to pitfalls in my creative process lately.

It’s great to have so many tools to play with and all–but at the end of the day, the best music comes out when you fully immerse yourself in the process of making it.

Be self-aware while you make music

I’ve noticed that distractions come in two forms: self-inflicted and environmental.

Self-inflicted distractions usually stem from the project seeming too daunting at first.

You know that feeling when you doubt your abilities and make up reasons not to focus on the task at hand?

What’s worse is self-doubt is often crippling if you make music alone in an isolated home studio.

You might feel great when you start working on a song but hit a roadblock midway through.

As soon as you feel a hint of struggle, you lose confidence in yourself. This fear of roadblocks causes inner resistance.

Then come the environmental distractions.

A roommate or a family member knocks on your door at the worst time possible. Out of the blue, your neighbor next door starts blasting music in surround sound.

There’s not much you can do in those situations–at least not immediately.

Sure, you can start saving to rent a private production studio in the future. But what can you do in the meantime to increase the quality of your creative process?

It’s simple–prevent distractions that are within your immediate control.

Prevent distractions that are within your immediate control.

Does your mail application have to be on while you’re producing a track? Do you really have to keep your phone so close by while you’re writing lyrics?

You have to commit.

Improving your focus takes time. The first step is to confront the reasons behind your distractions and come up with a plan to confront your distractions.

Of course, this is a life-long journey.

So here’s a way to make an immediate impact–resist the urge to multitask when you make music.

Resist the urge to multitask when you make music.

A truly immersive creative experience requires your full attention. Here’s how you can get there.

1. Understand the nature of flow

Flow state is the psychological term used to describe what we musicians know as “being in the zone.”

It was first coined by the Hungarian-American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in 1975.

Decades later, neuroscientist Dr. Charles Limb put forward a theory. He said, “Artistic creativity is magical… But it’s not magic.”

According to Dr. Limb, musical improvisations activate certain parts of the brain. Eventually, musicians get in the zone and are able to completely commit to creating.

He explains this neurological origin of musical creativity in his 2010 TED talk



2. Recognizing flow state helps the creative process

We all experience the flow state of mind from time to time. But few of us can actually get in the zone whenever and wherever we want to.

When we come out of a flow state, the first thing we usually do is check the time. That’s because a truly immersive creative experience causes us to lose track of time.

What it takes to bring about “flow” varies from musician to musician.

For you, just turning off your phone might do the trick. Organizing the contents of your computer can be immensely helpful, too.

All you have to do is pay attention to the things that get you in the zone.

Pay attention to the things that get you in the zone.

Australian singer-songwriter Tash Sultana was so inspired by the philosophy behind flow state that she named her debut album after it.

She explains why in this interview from her YouTube channel.



Recognizing flow state leads to having control over it. Having control over it leads to consistent inspiration.

3. Practice does make perfect

Music producers tend to keep their eyes on the prize, and that prize is usually making tracks they’re proud of.

However, obsessing over the end goal takes away from the productivity of practice.

A songwriting session may not be fruitful in the way you wanted, but it’s still good practice.

A songwriting session may not be fruitful in the way you wanted, but it’s still good practice.

What’s most important is to ensure that you get the most you can out of that practice.

In the following video, Annie Bosler and Don Greene break down the science behind the saying, “practice makes perfect.”



The key is to practice effectively, rather than assuming that putting in the hours is enough.

Finding your flow state

Getting focussed in the studio takes time and effort, but if you really want to get in the zone it’s totally worth putting time into finding strategies to get there.

Maybe you need to shut off your phone, turn off your wi-fi and ask your roommates for some space during your creative hours.

Or maybe it’s time to invest in a private studio space or hardware that keeps you out of your DAW.

Changing up the way you work to find a work-flow that suits your creative needs is so important for finding that zone.

This is how I view my creative process nowadays. I acknowledge that I have to resist distractions happening in my surroundings first. Then, I make an effort to keep the ones emerging inside my brain at bay.

What I’ve found is that flow state is all about moving with intention. To achieve it, you have to commit to eliminating “the hundred other good ideas.”

The post What is Flow State and Why Does it Help You Make Better Music? appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog https://blog.landr.com/flow-state-creativity/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/623559765954576384

[sherristockman]

Can You Make Time Pass More Quickly? Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola People tend to think of time as moving along a fixed linear pathway, but in reality time, including how fast or slow it moves, is all a matter of perception. This is why watching a movie you love may feel like it flies by, while to another person who finds the movie boring, it moves tediously slow. Other peculiarities have also been observed, such as how time seems to move faster as you get older and it’s possible to lose track of time entirely if you’re engrossed in a task. Likewise, when French geologist Michele Siffre conducted an isolation experiment in the 1960s, it showed that our perception of time can change depending on our circumstances. He lived in a dark cave, alone, for two months, but when his team came to get him he thought he’d only stayed for 35 days.1 Further, when he counted off an estimation of 120 seconds while living in the cave (via a phone that only worked one way), he counted for a full five minutes.2 In an interview with Cabinet magazine, Siffre said, “I psychologically experienced five real minutes as though they were two … There was a very large perturbation in my sense of time … My psychological time had compressed by a factor of two.”3 ‘Time Doesn’t Exist Outside of Our Own Experience of It’ It’s interesting to note that when Siffre was asked what he thought caused the dramatic disconnect between actual time and his perceived psychological time, he said:4 “That’s a big question that I’ve been investigating for forty years. I believe that when you are surrounded by night — the cave was completely dark, with just a light bulb — your memory does not capture the time. You forget.” In some ways, what he experienced is similar to what happens when you’re immersed in an activity you love and suddenly realize you lost track of the time. In The Atlantic, senior editor James Hamblin, MD, wrote:5 “We conceptualize time through metaphors that project it along a straight line — before and after, long and short, earlier and later — as a function of how our perceptions relate to other perceptions. In the same way, the accuracy of any given clock is only relative to other clocks. Because time doesn’t clearly exist outside of our own experience of it, there are ways to manipulate that experience.” He used Siffre’s experience with time after sensory deprivation as one example, as well as the hallucinogenic drug peyote, which is known to cause changes in sense of time such as time passing more slowly, as another. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness can also change your perception of time. “I can’t generally advise spending years on peyote or full-time isolation in a cave,” he noted. “The most practical examples of manipulating time perception come from the common observation that the more we think about time, the slower it goes.” Hamblin wrote:6 “In his treatise The Principles of Psychology, William James wrote, ‘A day full of excitement, with no pause, is said to pass ’ere we know it.’ On the contrary, a day full of waiting, of unsatisfied desire for change, will seem a small eternity.’” Depression Slows Down Time, ‘Flow’ Makes You Lose Track of It Alan Burdick, author of “Why Time Flies,” revealed that when you’re busy, you tend to sense time as going faster than when you’re bored. Similarly, a study on more than 800 people revealed people with depression reported a slower subjective experience of time.7 As for why depressed people may feel time is dragging, it could be due to a slowing down of the internal clock or because they have difficulty being in the present moment or entering a state of consciousness known as “flow.”8 Flow, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the secret to happiness and occurs when you are completely absorbed in an activity (often one that involves creativity).9 When you’re immersed in flow, your sense of time becomes distorted because nearly all of your brain’s available inputs are devoted to the activity at hand, Csikszentmihalyi states. If you’re depressed and unable to fully give your attention to the present moment, and as a result find time is agonizingly slow, mindfulness-based therapies may be very helpful, particularly in cases of a depressed perception of time.10 Interestingly, mindfulness can also be harnessed to slow down your perception of time while helping you to appreciate your surroundings. How Busy You Are May Alter Your Perception of Time If you’re too busy, flying through your daily routines on autopilot mode, you may feel like your day is over in the blink of an eye. Neuroscientist David Eagleman, Ph.D., adjunct professor at Stanford University, explained that your mental engagement changes your perception of time, and when you’re engaged in mundane activities your brain isn’t taking in much new information. As a result, time seems to pass quickly.11 One of the areas of the brain responsible for emotion and memory is the amygdala. The more detailed the memory the longer the moment appears to last. This is one of the reasons why it can feel forever when you're stuck in traffic, but your memory of the event will be that it passed quickly, as you didn't lay down any new memory. This is where mindfulness comes in, as by helping you stay in the moment, it can seemingly slow down the passage of time. Steven Meyers, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago, told The Huffington Post:12 “Mindfulness allows people to appreciate their surroundings and can lead to the feeling that time is passing more slowly. Paying attention to events that are pleasant or interesting certainly can enhance our mood and allows us to savor positive experiences.” Mindfulness May Help You Slow Down Time Practicing "mindfulness" means you're actively paying attention to the moment you're in right now. Rather than letting your mind wander, when you're mindful, you're living in the moment and letting distracting thoughts pass through your mind without getting caught up in their emotional implications. You can add mindfulness to virtually any aspect of your day simply by paying attention to the sensations you are experiencing in the present moment. Techniques sometimes used to become more mindful include:13 Paying focused attention to an aspect of sensory experience, such as the sound of your own breathing Distinguishing between simple thoughts and those that are elaborated with emotion (such as "I have a test tomorrow" versus "What if I fail my test tomorrow and flunk my entire class?") Reframing emotional thoughts as simply "mental projections" so your mind can rest Meyers added in The Huffington Post:14 “Time can slip by because we are blindly going through the routine of our day … There are a range of remedies for this situation. Some people may feel a sense of accomplishment if they set personal goals for themselves and work towards them in a purposeful way. Others may need to be on the lookout for certain events — like appreciating a kind behavior from another person — to punctuate time passing.” Staying Busy May Benefit Your Brain Keeping a packed schedule may make it feel like your days fly by, particularly if you don’t make it a point to be mindful, but doing so may offer significant benefits to your brain. Research published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests that the saying “the busier the better” is true, at least as far as cognition is concerned.15 Greater busyness was associated with better cognition, particularly for episodic memory. It didn’t matter if the study participant was 5o or 89 years old, having a busier schedule was linked to improved memory and better brain processing, reasoning and vocabulary. The researchers pointed out that busy people have increased opportunities for new learning, which has been shown to promote the retention of new neurons in the brain’s hippocampus. In addition, busyness could promote the development of neural scaffolding and consequently facilitate cognition, according to the researchers, while promoting the development of brain reserves and use of more efficient cognitive processing.16 There are downsides to being overly busy, of course, like chronic stress and burnout. Along those lines, healthy eating is often one of the first things to suffer when life gets busy, so it’s important to stick to the basics in this regard: focus on filling your plate with real, unprocessed foods, preferably organic and locally grown, and avoid resorting to convenience and fast foods, energy drinks or excessive amounts of caffeine to keep going. However, a busy lifestyle can also be a positive one, particularly if you stay mindful and engage in activities that lead to flow. The more engaged you are, the more you may feel as though you’re living your life beyond the constraints of time instead of by them.