A couple years ago I took the free online course Yale has on Coursera, The Science of Well-being. I found it interesting on the whole and managed to get a book by Martin Seligman on learned helplessness. Highly recommend.
One take-away I learned was that by doing things for others, and being of service, is one of the keys to happiness.
Recently a dear friend asked if I’d make a cover for her challahs for her sabbath celebrations in her home. I obliged, but worried I might flake out as I’ve been struggling with anxiety & depression quite bad the last 1000+ days.
I found a pattern, and I suggested a yarn I prefer, and she had the yarn delivered to me.
My depression has made it difficult for me to focus on anything really. Tv or reading, it all requires an attention span I seem to have lost—so, too, my ability to crochet.
For 20 years, crochet was much more to me than a craft. It was a creative outlet, and part of a meditation/mindfulness practice, as well as a big part of a community I had before the pandemic stripped all that away.
Still trying to muster up the gumption to start the process, i wound the yarn into workable balls. I calculated how many stitches to start, and gradually ny hands started doing the familiar movements and the muscle memory kicked in.
The pattern required I pay more attention to counting stitches, so that was a distraction from the things which make me anxious, at least while I hooked. I suspended reality.
I hummed a niggun, and I imagined this item being used and loved hopefully for years to come at my friend’s dinner table.
And before I knew it, I finished it.
A bit premature, as it is only Thursday night, but shabbat shalom!
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