In her book The Light We Carry, Michelle Obama provides personal reflections and her strategies for dealing with things when they feel overwhelming. Her mantra: “Any time your circumstances start to feel all-consuming, I suggest you try going in the other direction — toward the small.” In her case, this was knitting.
Obama called knitting the “gift of absorption” — something that allows you to redirect your mind away from the big stuff so that you are able to gain perspective when you return to it. She urges people to give themselves permission to “duck out of the storm” and actively engage in a smaller activity that refreshes them.
For Obama, she rested her brain by being a beginning knitter — someone who had to initially concentrate on the steps and count her way through a tangible process. For me, it’s writing letters by hand. When the world seems too big, I pick up a pen and leave everything else behind, even when I’m writing about The.Big.Thing. The act of writing transports me.
It could be cooking, crafting, gardening, woodworking, or a million other options, but I believe Obama is spot on with her notion of going toward the small. Cultivate an activity that can hijack your brain and absorb all your worries for a spell. You’ll discover that going small is really a big deal.
Source: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama, 2022
