Sunday, July 10, 2016

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to Slow Sunday Stitching where we celebrate the art of being in the moment, slowing down, and creating something with our own hands. We encourage you to take a deep breath, relax and pick up your needle and thread and stitch yourself back to sanity.
Multitasking Goddess
It has only been in the last few years that I have learned about the importance of slowing down and the consequences of living a rushed and stressful life. When I think about how I lived in my 30's and 40's, I am very grateful to have even survived to today! I rushed through each day, taking on way too much responsibility, trying to make everyone happy, living dangerously close to burnout most of the time and multitasking every single waking minute
Now I see the same kind of dynamic developing with my adult kids. Their attention is rarely focused on what they are actually doing. Smart phones have added an extra layer of multitasking that thankfully I am not at all tempted by, because my brain can not even handle it. 
Scene from my kitchen
I often wait to speak to them until they are done watching a video on their phone, or reading something on facebook, while they have their attention diverted to something else happening somewhere else in the world. "Hello kids! You mother is trying to communicate with you! Hello? I'm over here... just look up!"
They are already multitasking experts. We all are. We can't walk somewhere without looking at our phones and having earphones in. We are not enjoying the sights and sounds around us, nor are we actually experiencing living in this moment inside our own body. We are thinking about other people's lives in our own heads. I wonder what the long term consequences will be for this next generation, and for families and communities?
Just starting "Life is Beautiful" block #26

So just for today, stop multitasking! Pick up your needle and thread, and without any other distractions try to be in your body right now and take some stitches. Notice what it's like to feel relaxed when you are not multitasking, think about how happy your hands feel to be stitching, and about what colour you are going to be stitching next.


Ahhh... that's so much better!

Now let's see what our friends are stitching today. Link up a hand stitching blogpost and link up to our weekly party.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

13 comments:

cozykoza32a@gmail.com said...

Your wisdom Is so very wise. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Kathleen Mary

CathieJ said...

You may just have helped me make an employment decision with this post. This past school year had me working one full-time and two part-time jobs. My multi-tasking was out of control. Now I have to choose between the full-time and one of the part-time positions as they will overlap this year. I will ponder on it some more as I stitch slowly. The family in that next block looks cute by the way.

Teresa in Music City said...

You preach it and I'll tap my foot sister!!! I've been examining my own days to see where I can slow down and choose only those things that enrich my life, eliminating the chaotic things that just manage to drain me. I read recently that scientists are beginning to discover many negative ways that multitasking is destroying our brain's health - my poor brain can't afford any additional trauma LOL!!!!

SandraC said...

Your Sunday posts are always so inspiring....thank you!

Needled Mom said...

I so agree with you. I guess it is at our age when we can realize just how quickly time has gone. You have no idea of things like that when you are young.

Rebecca said...

I do not even own a smart phone and my little flip phone gets time bought for it only when I head out on a road trip. The closest thing I do in multitasking now days is planning dinner as I sit and stich or in the case right now tat.

Melanie said...

Great post. I worry about this too with my kids and how to get them to focus on one thing at a time. I've recommended the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport to my kids and other people because it talks about the art of focus and the problems with distractions like social media. I've taken Facebook off my phone so that when I'm out and about I don't have the tendency to look at it. I do have Instagram still so... I still have my distractions. :) have a great week.

Juliann in WA said...

I am not very good at multi-tasking. Planning to close down the social media a bit this week and do some old fashined sitting and reading.

Dolores said...

I don't own a cell phone and my eldest son uses his to take photos of his twins to send to his wife. Otherwise, you can't really get him on his phone because it's not one. It does bother me when my middle daughter answers her phone when we are in the middle of a conversation.

Sarah said...

Youngsters just can't live without there phones it seems! I stopped having to multitask when I decided to give up work a year ago, it's bliss!

Kyle said...

Thanks for your great reminder.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Getting hubby to put his phone down can be a struggle. I'm happy to put mine away. One of the reasons I'm not on Facebook. Less distractions. I did get lots of hand embroidery done yesterday on my Be Attitudes blocks. I'll be finished with the 2nd one soon. I think I can do the blanket stitch in my sleep now ;)

Kate said...

Very fun picture of your kids. DT found Pokemon Go this week. Talk about distracting. Hope you got in lots of slow stitching last weekend.