It’s time to take up embroidery as a way to relax and enjoy. Medical experts are supportive of embroidery as an effective way to improve creativity and mindfulness.

Hand embroidery was my way of tuning out from my busy job. I’m passionate about embroidery since I was a child, I stitched mostly at nights in front of the TV or on the weekend. I become completely absorbed and find it calming, as well as exciting, to see the images evolve.

Experts says that embroidery is known as logic relaxation. Forming and following patterns requires a certain logic to the practice. You could sit on the train going to work and look out the window or you could do embroidery, engaging the brain in being able to develop and follow patterns, so there is a logic involved. It's a self-induced state of focusing.

Focusing on a task for a long period of time has been shown to improve concentration levels and hand-to-eye coordination. It also stimulates the brain's right hemisphere, which is associated with creativity.

When people are working busy jobs that require them to have lots of responsibility and constantly be developing creative solutions, embroidery trains that creative area of the brain, as anything artistic would do.

This also fits into the concept of mindfulness, because doing embroidery makes you very present. It has also been shown to lower blood pressure, and as people achieve small successes – getting a difficult stitch right and creating something beautiful – their perceived level of confidence rises. Plus, at the end of the day, you end up with a product for your effort and your own creation.

And it has grown in popularity. There are increasing numbers of young embroidery bloggers and I run an embroidery club on Patreon, which is becoming bigger and makes me exited, I really love it. I offer women of all ages a chance to learn or develop a new skill and connect emotionally at the same time.

There is a return to an old craft but with a new look. It's as though young women are missing some of the things older women in their families used to do.

I learned embroidery from my grandma. Where did you learn embroidery from?