Our brains are fascinating creations. We have this complex computer system in our head essentially running our entire body. Most of this is done with neurons. Neurons are nerve cells that transmit nerve signals to and from the brain. The pathway along which information travels through the neurons (nerve cells) of the brain is a neural pathway. Some of these pathways are hard wired from birth…breathing, hunger, heart beating, etc.. Many are formed as we experience life. Driving the same route everyday to work is a good example. We tend to stick to what is familiar because of these neural pathways. If we change up our route, it seems unfamiliar until we make it a habit, basically developing a new neural pathway, and soon that new route is the familiar one.
The more we do and experience the more we learn and grow. For the most part these learnt experiences are beneficial to us, even if at the time it doesn’t feel like a positive experience. After it is over we often express how we learned from the experience and have grown to be a better person as a result. Some experiences in life have taught us “bad habits” however, such as emotional eating, avoiding confrontation, etc… So we need to do something new and different to change these pathways and develop new ones.
Your brain grows and strengthens through forming new neural pathways, an effect that can be achieved by learning new skills–like knitting. Knitting not only creates new neural pathways as we develop the skill, but also keeps your neural connections growing, banishes stress, and improves our moods. It causes dopamine, the happiness hormone, to be released by helping you lose yourself in an activity. Your brain can only focus on so many things at once, so when you occupy it with learning a new skill like knitting or figuring out how to perfect that sweater sleeve, it doesn’t have space or energy to dwell on the things causing you stress and anxiety. How cool is that? These are the things I think about when I work with kids and knitting. Forming those positive pathways early!
Don’t worry if you are a winter knitter and stop for awhile. Those connections do not just disappear during the summer. May take a little bit of practice to make it familiar again, but you don’t lose the skill. So banish the blues and pick up the needles. I can attest first hand it does a brain good!
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