'Me Time' by Catherine Bligh

Wednesday 28th March 2018

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When Stylecraft told us Blogstars that 2018 would be their year of well-being, they helpfully provided us with some suggestions about topics we might like to blog about. One of them was ‘me time’, and it struck me as ideal for me to talk about – not just because I strongly believe that we all need ‘me time’ in our lives, but also because I have an illness known as M.E., and quite frankly I couldn’t resist the word play!

‘Me time’ is time we take for ourselves. Maybe it’s a little bit every day, maybe it’s a few times a week, maybe you don’t take enough of it. It’s time we need to have in order to relax and refresh ourselves, time in which we can set aside all the demands of daily life and switch off from the world. It’s time we spend looking after ourselves so that when we pick up those demands again, we can meet them more easily.

It’s important for everyone, but when you’ve got a chronic illness, it can be even more important to carve out some space in your life to focus just on keeping yourself as mentally and emotionally robust as possible. So ‘me time’ can become an act of self-care that is an essential part of the overall picture.

Crafting is a great way of doing that. Crocheting or knitting something can bring your focus right down into a small area: your hands, your pattern, your yarn. I find it incredibly soothing to let all my other troubles fade away and just concentrate on making the stitches. Even when I’m particularly ill, I can always manage to crochet something, even just a simple granny square. The repetitive motions and counting of stitching can be a really good way to keep myself focused on resting and recuperating from bad patches. It’s very meditative, and I find it a really good way to let go of my troubles and focus on something creative and calming. The world is switched off and all I have to think about is the next stitch or few stitches.

It’s a wonderfully peaceful way to relax, and has the added bonus of producing something useful or pretty!

For more blog posts by Catherine Bligh, follow this link to her blog page- https://catherinescrochetcorner.wordpress.com/

   

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