Stitch Meditation: Sewing Your Way to Inner Peace

Sewing and meditation are very different activities that you may not consider combining. But Liz Kettle saw their potential as a potent mix and created Stitch Meditation in 2014. Stitch Meditation provided her with a form of tactile, active meditation that kept her more focused than typical sitting meditation. Keep reading to learn more about Stitch Meditation and how you can sew your way to inner peace.

What Is Stitch Meditation?

Stitch Meditation is a form of active movement meditation like walking meditation, except your hands and fingers are moving instead of your feet. Kettle specifically used hand stitching in her practice to have the most tactile relationship with her creation and keep herself from falling into perfectionism.

While this form of meditation technically has no rules, Kettle created some guidelines to help keep her focused during the meditation, such as pre-cutting her backing squares and organizing her sewing scraps. If you’re interested in stitch meditation, you don’t have to follow these suggestions. The more you participate, the more you’ll discover what helps and hinders you, and you can use what you learn to develop your mediation ritual further.

How Do You Do It?

Liz suggests giving yourself 15 to 45 minutes for your meditation and limiting your decision-making time to five minutes at the start. Otherwise, you may become more focused on the project you’re creating than personal reflection and grounding. To further combat the idea of your meditation becoming a project, she also suggests keeping the pieces small; she uses 3x4 or 4x4-inch squares of paper or fabric scraps that she rips and cuts to size during her meditation time.

Follow these steps when you’re ready to begin:

1. Choose a piece of backing, a few pieces of fabric or paper, and some thread. While Liz prefers heavier thread, you can use whatever thread you’d like.
2. Start hand stitching your fabric or paper onto your backing with little to no set plan.
3. Allow yourself to relax into the stitches, reflecting on your day and your mood as you work.
4. Pivot your thoughts and reflections towards peace as you move through your piece.

What Is the End Goal?

The end goal of Stitch Meditation is to reflect and center yourself while sewing piece that physically represents your peace of mind. Liz has previously shared that at the end of her Stitch Meditation, she’ll realize that she chose specific colors or stitches because they display what she was reflecting on or hoping for that day. For example, a calming color palette of neutrals and blue symbolize her desire for a peaceful day. Messy stitches, which she doesn’t allow herself to redo, reflect her disorganized thoughts, and so on. She finishes her piece and, therefore, her meditation when the piece communicates to her that it’s done.

Sewing your way to inner peace with Stitch Meditation may sound odd, but it works. Sewing, especially hand stitching, will keep your hands and mind focused as you give yourself time to reflect and meditate. If you’re looking for sewing supplies to start Stitch Meditation and want to buy from an online fabric store in Canada, then Lindley General Store can help. Peruse our supplies and find what you’re looking for to sew your way to inner peace.