Category Archives: Macramé

Macramé is a knotting technique in wich you only use your hands to create different kind of objects

Lotus Macramé

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The lotus flower is a symbol often associated with Buddhism or spirituality in general. One of the characteristics associated with this symbol is that of purity and the ability to maintain its beauty in the mud.

For me lotus symbolically represents inner growth and everything related to study and practice and the wall hanging you can see in photo it’s my special lotus.

What does inner growth mean to me?

It means looking inside me, discovering my vocation and my talents and bringing them to light with awareness and intentional actions in everyday life learning to “make a difference”.

The path of inner growth is a path that concerns all people (women and men) in different ways, none is excluded. There is always a moment in life that takes us on a journey deep within ourselves.  There are those who travel daily in their inner world , others who cyclically lose their way and then find it again, and others who realize the strength of the path of inner growth only when a tragedy happens. To each his own path, to each his own way.

Joy : a macramé tale

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Joy is a macramé wall hanging symbol of my “key word”. 

The story of this macramé concerns the integration between the way of awareness and the way of creativity and it is a coaching exercise about vision.

Having a keyword that can represent your direction means having a clear vision of your life.  Before choosing and formulating a goal it is fundamental to do a deeply work on oneself (better with a life coach) and discover the direction that guides our choices. In this way, the keyword becomes a reminder that helps us not to get lost on the path or that helps us to find the right way when we lost it.

It may be difficult to reduce one’s own direction to just one word, but the goal is to be able to refer to a fixed point. It is a matter of finding an evocative word that can represents for us a lifestyle and meaning. Obviously it is a word that can change with time and experience.

 I usually use collages for this practice, but this time I translated it with the macramé technique using cords and colors.

The wall hanging that you can see in photo is the representation of my key word JOY and the sentence you read below is the reminder that is hidden between the knots. 

The key to self-care is hidden in joy.

Chair meditation

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Last article of our journey in the posture meditation: how to meditate on a chair.

First of all it’s important to remember that meditating sitting on a chair does not take anything away from the practice compared to meditation with legs crossed or on your knees. I often encounter, in fact, the limiting belief that meditation sitting on a chair is a postural adaptation that takes away part of the meaning to the practice.

What really can do the difference in your practice is the comfort of the position. A meditation practice performed in an uncomfortable position for your body is counterproductive to the practice itself.

The best meditation is the one you do in an optimal postural condition because it allows you to contact yourself in peace.

How to practice meditation on the chair:

  • Be sure to keep your back off the back of the chair and your feet on the ground (without shoes, if possible).
  • Leave your arms soft and place your hands on your legs finding a position that allows you to let go of tensions in your shoulders.
  • Your back is straight, but not rigid, and the diaphragm area is free.
  • Be careful with your shoulders: do not approach your ears, leave them soft and open as much as necessary for you.
  • Do not close the throat with the chin towards the chest and do not arch the neck.

The characteristic of this position compared to the previous two , kneeling and crossed legs, (see previous articles) is mainly in the support of the feet on the ground. In this case the feeling of rooting on the ground, which comes from the contact of your feet with the floor, can be an additional point where to focus attention during practice.

Once you choose the best position for your body, it’s time to learn “to be with what’s inside and outside of you” one breath after another.

I hope I have helped you with these short articles on posture in meditation in finding your position and choosing to start meditating.
If you want I remind you that you can start by listening to this short guided breath practice: IT’S TIME TO BREATHE

It’s time to breathe

Where do you start when you want to listen to the body? I always start with breath. Breathing is the first step Breathing is one of the main “tools” that you can use to listen to yourself in depth. It’s just watching your breath that you will begin to know your essence deeply, in a…

by Barbara Boschi

RECAP OF OUR JOURNEY OF MEDITATION

Meditation and posture

Can posture during meditation make a difference? Absolutely yes! Posture in meditation has a purpose and should not be underestimated. With this first article, I want to introduce a series of articles that will cover the meditation posture. For the next 3 weeks we will make a journey together in the discovery of positions in…

by Barbara Boschi

Sitting meditation

In this article I will focus on the sitting position that is most frequently used to represent a person in meditation. I refer to the sitting position on the ground with the legs crossed and the lotus flower position. Meditation sitting on the ground with legs crossed. Sit on the floor without a pillow and…

by Barbara Boschi

Kneeling meditation

We continue our journey dedicated to the deepening of posture in meditation: let’s explore, in this article, the position with the legs bent to the ground, on their knees. After focusing on the most affected areas of the body during sitting meditation, and after considering the cross-legged position, this article is about the kneeling position.…

by Barbara Boschi

Foto di Florencia Viadana su Unsplash

Focus Catcher Macramé

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Focus catcher is a macramé wall hanging created to represent the process of concentration linked to meditation and body awareness.

“I often have many ideas but not enough time and energy to realize them all and this creates a feeling of confusion in my head and a particular agitation in the body. “

Now I’ve learned that when I find myself in an excess of creativity I must sit down, take a breath and have a Body Scan practice. One breath after another I put my ideas in order and select only one to be implemented. I write down in a notebook some of them that I will review later, others I let go, it will be someone else who will realize them.

It was nice to symbolize the “focus” process as I meditate and to find the analogies with the knotting work of macrame. Macrame and many other handicrafts are often referred to as forms of meditation. These statements find me in agreement even if I recognize specific characteristics to both meditation and crafting. But it’s also true that there are many similarities between the practices of body awareness and the practices that express our creative side.

I have often turned the creation of a wall hanging into a journey within myself. Sometimes I start to discover some places of my inner world through knots, weaves and new patterns, other times I symbolically transform an awareness without using words (as in the case of the wall hanging that you see in the picture).

Focus embodiment

What is the use of training focus during a body awareness practice (often called body scan)?

Among the many benefits that I find in everyday life thanks to the practice of body awareness there is also that of training the ability to intentionally direct attention. Intentionally bringing attention to the breath or to a part of the body means shifting the focus from one situation to another.

Specifically in body practice, the aim may be to find a place of silence in the body where you can contact a little peace or recover your energy from a heavy day. Body practice has cascading effects on our daily lives and the seemingly innocuous training of directing attention to one part of the body can lead you to become aware of the usefulness of shifting focus to recover energy.


Let me give you some examples of what it means to “shift the focus”:

Shifting the focus from the outside to the inside, to recover energy through silence.


Shifting the focus from the inside to the outside, to contact the world through empathy and compassion.


Shifting the focus from the big to the small, to address the sense of helplessness.


Shifting focus from small to large, to realize that even a small step is important and can make a difference.

I could go on like this for many more lines, but I’ll leave it to you to find the other ways.
  Body listening practice (whatever methodology you’ve chosen) has an important impact in your life and in managing emotions: don’t forget it!

You have great power and great wisdom within you: use your power with awareness and listen to your wisdom.

Meditation and Relaxation

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Meditation and relaxation: two practices so similar and so different from each other.

As I wrote in previous articles, in this blog I want to tell the importance of manual creativity as a way of well-being and help you transform your hobby in a flow meditation.

Why is so important to me bodily awareness while you are creating?

The reason is that I have been involved in body awareness for almost 30 years as a therapist and I teach relaxation and meditation since 2010. In all these years I discovered and experienced that creativity is in the body and that you can really flow with it only if you listen to your body.

As listen to your body can be a deep journey into yourself, so can macramé and the creative path. Body learning is the most important tool you have at your disposal while working with your hands knotting and creating with macramé (or other manual techniques).

Meditation or relaxation which to choose?

In the common language these two terms are often used as synonyms. In practice, these two techniques are associated with each other. The confusion is easy and can only be clarified after trying both.

I always invite to try different styles and not to remain anchored to a single discipline. Through different experiences your body can experience different way of communication and listening.

There are different approaches and methodologies both in meditation and relaxation.

Some relaxation practices focus almost exclusively on the body and the perception of muscle tension (body scan) and others on imaginative ability. Some meditation practices work on the concept of here and now while others work on the concept of “here and elsewhere” (guided creative visualizations).

Every practice, whether meditation or relaxation, has the overall goal of connecting with yourself, with your inner world and with your inner artist.

Posture is an element that differentiates the two techniques and is not to be underestimated. The relaxation practices prefer the lying position while the meditation techniques is about sitting. There are exceptions, however.

Posture and any pain in the body could be one of the key points for choosing one technique over another.With my articles I will guide you to discover all the nuances of body listening and how this can be useful in your creative practice.

P.S. Listen to your body doesn’t mean necessarily do meditation or relaxation sometimes it’s about slowing down and breathing. Next week I’ll show you the importance of breathing with a free guided meditation.

Listen to your creative body

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“Listen to your body, create your life” is my motto, it represents both my profession and my approach to life at the same time. All the changes I have gone through have respected this steps: first I work on being (listen to the body) and then on doing (create your life) in order to be able to live mindfully.

What do I mean by living mindfully? Living mindfully means (for me) listening to my body, paying attention to my present with kindness and making space for joy.

The body is my starting point, my inner guide on this journey. I am constantly evolving and changing.

Getting in touch with yourself through the body means allowing yourself to discover your own essence. This is how I discovered macramé and started knotting. One knot after another I realized the deeply connection between mindfulness meditation and macramé.

Listen to your body, free your creativity and transform your life.

The most important step, the one that allows you to create the life you want, is what concerns your creativity.

Most of the time (not always) that you feel dissatisfaction in your life is because you are not expressing yourself freely and you are not using your creativity. You are not aligned with your deepest direction.

When you connect with your inner world through the body you connect with your talents and your inner artist.

By first learning to recognize your potential and then to have the courage to express it, you will be able to make the change you want and feel more in tune with life.

Through dialogue with the body you discover yourself and free your potential.It takes confidence, courage and patience.

It’s a gradual path that leads you to express yourself in the world. It is a journey that sets you free.

If you want I can help you discover how to listen to your body and transform macramé in a mindfulness meditation practice. In the next days I will write new articles about it and you’ll find a free guided meditation. Stay tuned!

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Slow down

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This wall hanging is a reminder for me to Slow down and enjoy my time.

Snail and turtle are the animals I saw in this wood. It was starting from these two animals that I worked, one knot after another, reflecting on the ability to slow down.

Turtle

Snail

Learn to slow down: this is what you need to do to take care of yourself.

When you feel that you need to dedicate yourself you often feel the lack of time. Time is the most precious resource you have, but you are not always able to manage it in the best way.

However, lack of time is also one of the most used excuses for not getting involved and not taking care of yourself. It takes courage to put yourself first, I’m perfectly aware of that, but if you don’t do it, no one can do it for you.

If you feel that you have too many things to do, too many commitments and you can’t stop right now, you have to know that sometimes you just need to slow down.

Slow down means learning to manage your time and enjoy it, finding some space for your being to emerge.

Slow down means taking a breath between one task and another and becoming more aware of the choices you make.

If you feel that being productive is very important for your life please remember that productivity to be efficient also needs “time to be”. When you realize that being time is just as important as doing time or even more, you’ll probably feel the sensation of efficiency and tranquillity. You are efficient and at the same time you have time for yourself. It looks like a miracle!  

When you slow down, you balance your energy and realign yourself with the universe, and it is in this moment that miracles happen.

P.S.: Slow down can also means knotting !

Functional macramé

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Macramé knotting does not only mean decorating home or office, but also creating functional objects like bags, coasters, runner for the table or storage pockets (you can see some photo here)

When I knot this type of macrame the creative energies are slightly different than when I create a wall hanging.

In functional macrame there is often a knot or a pattern that is repeated and the work becomes for me a way to calm, relax, release energy in the hands and, of course I’m I am satisfied that I have created something useful only with my hands!

In decorative macrame (such as wall hanging) there is a completely different energetic work for me.

Working with macramé continues to surprise me day after day, not only for its many uses and nuances, but also for the many different effects it can have on our well-being, and this is why I ‘ve started to write about it in this blog. I hope, week after week, to help you understand how it can be important to choose a craft hobby.

My macramé process

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In the last two years of working with macramé I identified 4 major stages of processing: Inspiration, Project, Knotting and Letting Go. (These 4 phases that I’m going to explain below are referring to create macramé wall hanging without following a tutorial )

Inspiration

The inspiration phase is the step that requires listening to the body, centering and often also Oracle cards, Tarot cards and Runes. This part of the work brings out my spiritual and intuitive side.

Intuition and deep listening also guide me in the choice of wood, threads, colors and dimensions of the final product.

It is the intention that creates the direction of the project. Sometimes it comes loud and clear, for example: “I want to create a wall hanging/ totem that can bring energy of protection” or “I want to create a wall hanging that can bring joy to that house, to that person”. Sometimes, however, the intention is confused and I just feel the need to create. At the end of the work, in the phase of letting go, the intention appears with its message.

Project

The project phase is the one that most of all brings out my practical side and also my studies in coaching. During the planning process, I create an action plan and a list of the material I will need.

The action plan consists both in establishing the working times in order to make creation fluid and free, and in defining the design and choosing the knots to make.

In the list of materials, in addition to the woods (if needed), I spend some time choosing the threads and colors. As for the choice of thread, a lot depends on the job I want to do and the result I want to achieve. There are cords with which it is not possible to make fringes, there are different thicknesses and different materials (cotton, linen, etc.). Beyond the thickness and characteristics (single thread, twisted thread, cord, etc.) I prefer to use threads from recycled material.

Working time is another important topic to which I pay attention. I create the “space on the agenda” for macramé and enjoy the moment without feeling like I have other things to do. Haste is not a good friend for creative work.

Once the action plan is defined and the material is ready, the weaving and knotting phase will be even more free and fun

Knotting

In this phase there is the part of body awareness that merges with the creative aspect. When I start knotting, I pay attention to my posture and take regular breaks to rest.

During weaving and knotting, body awareness comes into play not only through the hands, but also with the whole body.

Based on the work to be done, I assume different postures (standing, sitting on the ground, sitting on a chair) and I have different awarenesses. I prefer to work standing up (without shoes) maintaining good contact with the floor, paying attention to the work of the shoulders and adjusting the height of the support so as not to tilt the neck too much or overload the arms with muscle tension. The contact of my feet with the floor keeps me rooted to the ground as I work “connected” at the top.

The hands become channels that not only let the yarn flow through my fingers, but also my energy.When I’m knotting I feel a sensation similar to that of the meditative state (maybe you will understand now why I chose the name macrameditation).

Letting go

When I’m done with knotting I let the threads and knots can take shape well and I let myself take a distance from the product.

The phase of letting go is a very particular and delicate phase, it is the moment in which I observe the work from another point of view and make adjustments (if necessary). I often do a meditation allowing my gaze to play with the weaves created by the knots. When I feel that the process is finished, I separate myself from the macramé wall hanging and let it free itself and find its place.

The process of letting go is a process that I always carry out with each of my creations (both with the books I have written and with the awareness practices I organize) and which allows not to identify myself with the final product even if I recognize that in that creation there is a part of my energy.

I hope that my words about how I work with macramé will help you to better understand how healthy can be a creative path for body, mind and soul.

Macramé Knotting

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Knotting macramé doesn’t mean to me just weaving threads to create objects or dedicating myself to a new hobby, it’s about being fully present in the act of creating, of “rooting myself in hands” and express, even in this way , my creative and healing energy. 

It is about getting in touch with the inner artist and listen to a sacred space inside of me: my inner world.

The creativity that appears to the outside world as spontaneous and guided by intuition actually has a lot to do with discipline, perseverance, patience and, in my specific case, with listening to the body.

Knotting with the macrame technique means for me going through different phases of a process, some very different from each other. Each phase brings out a nuance of my inner world and a characteristic of my personality.

You don’t create in a hurry, you have to respect the processing time.