Proven Health Benefits Of Sewing

Aside from the obvious benefit of sewing your own clothes, there are mental and physical proven health benefits of sewing.  Several studies indicate that sewing provides health benefits that will enhance your well-being.

One immediate result of sewing is that it allows you to relax from the everyday pressures of life; and second, because it enhances your self esteem when you demonstrate your creativity.

The Home Sewing Association says that studies have shown that engaging in an activity like sewing reduces your overall heart and blood rates and promotes relaxation.  Their belief is that sewing involves the muscles and the mind, promoting healthier body synergy, and that because sewing has been so successful at promoting relaxation among women who sew that it may be better than therapy.

The study further suggests that when you are engaged in a repetitive task and creating something, like you are with sewing, it has a relaxing effect.

Another study was done to determine if sewing could help you face and overcome a life-altering and sometimes fatal disease like breast cancer. One person stated that sewing was not a priority initially, but later found that sewing was her escape from the drama of cancer as it affected her life.   According to the study, sewing can decrease your heart rate and aid in relaxation.

A doctor (Ph.D) at New York Medical Center stated that if our bodies were not allowed to rest from everyday pressures, then we are placing ourselves at risk for heart disease or other illnesses.   He believes that creative activities and hobbies, like sewing, can help people focus on something productive and get away from their worries for a while.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, unfortunately estimates 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer among women, and 2,030 cases among men in the United States during 2007.

Recently, an article in Entrepreneur Magazine states that sewing related businesses are on the rise nationwide. They have identified businesses in Lafayette and San Francisco, California; Austin, Texas; and New York City that offer a variety of sewing related products and services that are pushing some first year sales projections beyond expectations.

With sickness and disease on the rise, and studies indicating that sewing is an activity that reduces your overall heart and blood rates and promotes relaxation, wouldn’t it be great if we really promoted sewing to create a healthier body synergy to reduce medical problems?

Simply put, the proven health benefits of sewing are:

1. Reduces stress
2. Improves hand and eye coordination
3. Promotes brain growth
4. Increases happiness
5. Fights dementia

And, it looks like starting a sewing-related business is a profitable source of income, while helping others reduce stress, heart disease or other illnesses.

If sewing offers so many benefits, it’s a good thing that sewing is surfacing again. For some of us, it never diminished.  And, if you want to learn how to sew to help reduce your stress, express your creativity or start a sewing business.

They are calling it a sewing trend.  For most of us sewing is more than a movement, it’s a custom…tailor-made… tradition.