Transcript for

Episode 102:

Spinning and Mental Health

Most spinners know that spinning makes us happy, but how, exactly does it do that? I'll explore that question in this episode.

Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 102 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love.

In the last episode I said that I would be talking about plying and yarn structure during the month of May, and I absolutely will, starting next week. But I wanted to slip in an episode that I've been thinking about for a while, about the mental health benefits of spinning. So in this episode I'm going to talk about some of the research linking creative expression to happiness and handwork to a healthier brain. And I'm going to share a specific and very simple technique I just learned about to use spinning to shift your mood.

If you've been in the Sheepspot universe for a while, you know that I live with some mental health challenges. I experienced quite a bit of trauma in childhood, and I come from a long line of depressives. I've had episodes of major depression periodically since ninth grade, and as I've gotten older I've also experienced quite a bit of anxiety. I am fortunate to have been working with a wonderful psychiatrist for many years, I take medication, and I've developed a lot of helpful coping skills: daily walks, time in nature, meditation, journaling, EFT tapping. As a result, I've been able to cut down the frequency, duration, and severity of my depressive episodes by a lot.

Despite this, though, there are still times when things get away from me. My routine gets disrupted and I stop meditating in the morning. Or it's -20C outside, everything is coated in ice, and going for a walk feels too difficult. Or both. And then I'm in the downward spiral.

What does all this have to do with spinning? My most reliable cue that I may be in trouble is that I stop spinning and knitting regularly, because part of my morning ritual of meditation, journaling, and planning my day is planning what I'm going to make that day—actually deciding, in the morning, what project I'm going to work on and what I hope to do. So the downward spiral continues, and accelerates.

I had a cold for the entire month of March this year and I was so depleted by it that everything stopped: walks, getting outside, journaling, spinning. Everything. I had so little energy and I needed to devote all of it to doing the absolute necessities for Sheepspot and the day job. Not surprisingly, my mood really suffered.

This experience reminded me, again, of how interconnected all of these self-care practices are for me and how important it is that I actually do them. And that brought me back to wanting to know more about the least well-studied of my minimum daily self-care requirements: spinning.

Zillions of researchers are out there studying how ritual, meditation, journaling, exercise, etc., actually work in supporting a positive mood. In comparison, there is a tiny amount of research on how knitting works, and as far as I can tell, absolutely none on spinning. Most of us know, anecdotally, that knitting and spinning make us happier, but we know remarkably little about how. So in the rest of this episode, I want to talk about what we do know.

We know that creative pursuits, in general, make us happy

There are lots of academic studies that suggest that creative activity is linked to feeling better. For example, a 2016 study by Connor, et al. in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that engaging in "mundane creative experiences, such as having small moments of insight or working on a creative hobby, " on one day helped their research subjects feel better (i.e. report more positive affect and flourishing) the next day. What's more, "this increased well-being is likely to facilitate creative activity on the same day" suggesting "a particular kind of upward spiral for well-being and creativity." I'll put a link to the study in the show notes.

We know that handwork, in particular, makes our brains happy

Neuroscientist Kelly Lambert, in her book Lifting Depression, notes that a huge amount of our brain power actually goes to controlling our hands, and that humans have an innate need for what she calls "effort-driven rewards," the tangible results of our own physical activity.

Lambert posits (and note that she hasn't actually proven this theory yet; she's speculating) that the widespread incidence of depression is linked to the fact that we are using our hands less and less to produce tangible objects (pushing buttons and clicking doesn't count). She argues that handwork like knitting engages the brain’s effort-driven rewards circuit particularly effectively:

Consider knitting. It requires both hands, comprises repetitive motion that likely results in the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and engages the effort-driven rewards circuit as the hands’ efforts produce a sweater or scarf. Knitting has long been considered mentally therapeutic, even though it hasn’t been studied scientifically.

I'm not a neuroscientist, but it seems to me that spinning may work in very much the same way.

I want to insert a caveat here that the burden of Lambert's song is to argue against psychopharmacology (treating depression with drugs). And I want to reiterate that she hasn't actually tested and proven these hypotheses.

But there is some promising work from UK researcher Betsan Corkhill that has some clinical evidence to back it up (as opposed to Lambert, who works with rats. Who can't knit. Which is a shame, because what could be cuter than a knitting rat?). In her book, Knit for Health and Wellness: How to Knit a Flexible Mind and More, Corkhill argues that there are some specific aspects of knitting that make it beneficial.

First, she notes that:

Performing a bilateral, coordinated pattern of movement across the midline of the body that you’re also looking at is a complicated process – it uses up a lot of brain capacity leaving it with less capacity to pay attention to other issues. . . A large number of narratives collected from knitters describe knitting as highly effective for distracting the brain’s attention, and you can take advantage of this to take control of your life.

Second, knitting is a repetitive movement, which releases serotonin and enables us to soothe ourselves and enter a meditative state, and she notes that moving meditations like knitting and spinning may be more accessible for some people than other forms.

Third, she writes "The position of your hands as you knit is also important – it increases your personal space to give the perception of increased safety." Even better if you're spinning, as you have the buffer of your wheel as well.

Finally, she notes that knitting is a social activity that enables eye contact with others, or not. The fact that it's perfectly acceptable not to make eye contact when knitting or spinning can enable people to socialize in a way that's comfortable for them.

We need much more research on all of this. But, Corkhill writes:

In terms of getting the world of Science interested in my work, the word ‘knitting’ has been the biggest barrier. At face value, knitting and science seem worlds apart…until now. What actually goes on behind the ‘K’ word is complex and exciting in many ways. To get my foot in the door with scientists, academics and clinicians I began by calling knitting ‘a bilateral, rhythmic, psychosocial intervention’. It is a phrase that grabbed their attention.

It seems clear to me that the association of needlework, in particular, with women has been a major barrier to our collective understanding of the potential of these bilateral, rhythmic, psychosocial interventions. But their potential is huge. As Corkhill puts it, they put "power in your hands [and] can help you to take control and become involved and proactive in your health and wellness."

"Textile Coping": Using Spinning Intentionally to Shift Mood

I want to end this episode by talking about a wonderful article from Spin Off's Summer 2023 issue, by Lisa Mitchell. A spinner, podcaster, and art therapist, Mitchell suggests the following simple method to use spinning to "experience a sense of mood repair and rejuvenation," by using spinning as a form of self-soothing. If you're interested in this topic, you should absolutely read the article, which contains some beautiful quotes from spinners about doing just that.

Here are Mitchell's four steps for using spinning for "mood repair":

1. Identify what emotion or challenge you want to soothe.

2. Identify how you want to feel after you spin.

3. Choose fiber that feels appropriate to the situation (in color, texture, source, etc.)

4. Spin with intention. Focus on the rhythm of spinning and using all of your senses.

I'm definitely going to try this four-part process the next time I'm dealing with a challenging emotion, and I'd love to know about your experience if you try it. As always, there is a discussion thread in The Flock, Sheepspot's free online community for inquisitive handspinners, dedicated to this episode. I'd love to hear from you with any thoughts or comments you have. Here's how to join the discussion:

1. Go to the show notes for this episode at sheepspot.com/podcast/episode102 (and remember that you can always find the show notes for any episode at sheepspot.com/podcast/episode plus the episode number).

2. Find the link to the discussion thread and click.

3. If you're not yet a member of The Flock, you'll need to create an account.

4. Head to the thread and leave your comment!

Well, darling Sheepspotter, that's it for me this time. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back next week with an episode on plying (promise!).

Until then, make some time to spin something. We both know it will do you good. There's research, sort of!