Mental Health Benefits Of Mindful Jewellery Making
If you’re anything like me, you probably spend way too much of your precious time trying to fight your way out of self-spun webs of obsessive, negative thinking. Hours wasted picking over things you wish you hadn’t said or panicking about future happenings that will probably never happen. This obsessive panicking has been turned up to, erm, a MILLION since we’ve all found ourselves stuck in this bad trip of a pandemic. I’ve been desperately rummaging through my spiritual tool box every damn day to see what I can pull out to help me keep it together until bedtime. My morning meditation practice is an essential part of my self care and I always feel a bit more wobbly if I miss a morning. Deep in lockdown the noise was often too loud for meditation to work as well though. After spending most of April staring at the wall in shock, I started a Facebook group for other jewellers called Lockdown Jewellery Challenge, where I’d post a theme a week and we’d all make something inspired by it. I’m going to write more about that another time but I feel like those projects saved my soul for a couple of months. Getting lost in designing and making a piece of jewellery purely for the sake of making it was an active meditation in itself.
Tool Porn!
It’s so easy to become obsessed with the outcome of a creative project and lose sight of the joy that can be found in the process. I totally reconnected to that joy with the pieces I made in that group….savouring the journey rather than rushing to the destination. I used each of those projects as a mindfulness practice, working on being as present as I could with every little stage of making so each piece became an extended meditation. Making something mindfully can serve as a much deeper and more healing meditation than sitting in silence when your brain is babbling away like an abusive maniac!
I’ve been wanting to start my own beginners jewellery making classes since I taught at a jewellery school last year. After all these years of being a jeweller, I’m still so excited by the craft and I loved sharing that passion with others and seeing the first sparks of jewellery-making-addiction light up in a students eyes! So many mental health struggles have emerged from or been exacerbated by the fear and isolation of lockdown and this unsettling Covid-19 world we’ve been thrown into. It made me think about what skills I’d like people to leave my workshops with. I want students to come away with a basic understanding of the fundamental techniques of jewellery making but also learn some simple methods to turn each step into a meditation that quietens the chatter of their minds. These mindfulness techniques can also be applied to most areas of everyday life outside of the studio.
Yoga Teacher Training in Arambol, Goa
In 2012 I did my yoga teacher training. My yoga teaching career only lasted for a year as my jewellery business started growing soon after that and I decided I wanted to focus all of my attention on that. I’m still a regular student of this transformational practice and I’m excited to be able to include some of my yoga training in these workshops. As much as I love the physical side of yoga, my favourite part of my training in Goa was learning about Pranayama, a series of breathing exercises that control and regulate the breath. These exercises can help ease anxiety and focus and calm the mind. I’ll start my workshops with a round of guided pranayama to calm the mind followed by a gently guided meditation. The pranayama will get the body and mind nice and relaxed for the meditation session.
Do you want to learn to make jewellery and centre yourself at the same time? Check the available workshops and dates here: Mindful Jewellery Making Each workshop is for 2 people only so each student will benefit from personal attention throughout the day. Workshops are held in my studio in Dalston, Hackney.
Tags: jewellery making workshop, jewellery making class, silversmithing class, learn jewellery making, hackney workshops, dalston jewellery making
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