Understanding Anxiety with Dr Claire Ashley: Systems, Science and How Sewing Can Help

In this episode, Dr Claire Ashley explores anxiety - what it is, why it happens, and how it affects the body as well as the mind. 

Drawing on both her medical expertise and lived experience, she explains the physiological response behind anxiety symptoms, from racing thoughts to a heightened stress response.

We talk about practical strategies for managing anxiety in everyday life, and how creative hobbies like sewing can play a powerful role in supporting mental health.

 From regulating the nervous system to creating moments of focus and calm, sewing offers more than just a finished garment - it can become part of a sustainable wellbeing routine.

If you’ve ever wondered why anxiety feels so physical, or how to manage anxiety symptoms in a gentle, realistic way, this conversation offers both science-backed insight and practical tools.

Claire discusses:

• What is anxiety and its physiological basis
• How sewing induces mindfulness and flow state
• The impact of arts engagement on cortisol and inflammation
• Perfectionism and its link to anxiety in sewing
• Practical tips for reconnecting with sewing for anxiety relief

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Guest details:

Instagram: @wiredtomake

Book: The Burnout Doctor 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1399412809

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Claire Ashley and anxiety

03:59 How engaging in creative arts helps anxiety

08:52 Perfectionism and anxiety

12:37 Tips for people wanting to engage in sewing without pressure

14:08 Substack end of the show 

Transcript

Gemma Daly (00:10)

Welcome back to the show. It's wellness week and I've Dr. Claire Ashley with me again today. If you didn't tune into yesterday's episode, we touched on burnout and today we're gonna be talking about anxiety. So welcome back Claire.

Claire Ashley (00:25)

Thank you so much for having me back Gemma.

Gemma Daly (00:27)

Fantastic. So would you mind talking us through what anxiety actually is?

Claire Ashley (00:33)

So I can talk to this from personal experience and also from professional experience as well because I have suffered with anxiety for the entirety of my adult life basically and from a clinician's perspective obviously we have our definitions of anxiety and you what we look for when we talk to our patients about anxiety as well. So the in terms of the

the pathophysiology, so you know what happens in your brain ⁓ when you are suffering with anxiety. It's quite complex actually, and it's quite difficult to explain succinctly what's But basically, with anxiety, you're...

your brain basically is running on overdrive. is feeling very much like it is threatened in the moment, despite the fact that you might not necessarily be threatened externally. And so your brain very much goes into future focus mode rather than necessarily being in the present, pulling attention away from the present into kind of imagined worst case scenarios. When we talk to patients about anxiety, we typically ask questions around, you know, worry and panic. ⁓

Catastraphisation ⁓ in terms of physical symptoms. Anxiety is a very physical thing to experience. So a lot of people will say that they suffer with things like palpitations. They're feeling their heart racing in their chest, maybe stomach aches, headaches. And this is all because when you're feeling anxious, your body pumps out your stress hormones, which is adrenaline and And that happens because ⁓

know, from an evolutionary perspective, your stress hormone response has been designed to give you an evolutionary advantage, right? Imagine you're a caveman, you go out hunting or you're looking for water and you see a bear or a lion on the horizon, they want to eat you, right? And so your body starts pumping out stress hormones so that you can

either fight the animal or run away from it. That's your fight or flight response. Now for the short term and in the immediacy there, you've got a survival advantage because you start breathing deeper, you get more oxygen to your muscles, your blood gets diverted to your brain so you can think more clearly and be more focused with your decision making. Your eyes dilate up so you get more light and you can see more clearly and you're ready to fight this animal or to run away from it and that gives you a survival advantage. But in

modern living, the threats that we face are not necessarily immediate or physical and they're not necessarily or mostly not life threatening. The threats you get are opening an email, having a difficult conversation, but your body responds in the same way pumping out those stress hormones. And so you'll still get those physical symptoms, even though the threat that you're experiencing might not be what you've

evolved to respond to. you've got your physical side, but then you've also got the emotional side as well. thing about anxiety too, there are, when it comes to the medical definitions, there are, you know, you've got your generalized anxiety disorder. Some people get anxiety around social situations. Some people, know, your anxiety is focused around very specific fears or phobias. But I say for the majority of people, there's not necessarily a cause for it, you know.

there's not a reason to be anxious but that is how they exist and ⁓ that's the experience of it unfortunately for the majority of people.

Gemma Daly (03:53)

so how do you think that sewing can genuinely regulate anxiety?

Claire Ashley (03:59)

So the really great thing about engaging really in any creative art and sewing definitely forms part of this is that there are a variety of mechanisms by which it can help manage anxiety. So I think first of, I mentioned that with anxiety, your brain starts to catastrophize and starts thinking about the future and trying to overthink and mitigate anything that could go wrong in the future.

Whereas sewing brings you back into the present moment, right? It stops the brain from going to those difficult places. And what's really great about that is not only are you in the moment concentrating on whatever it is that you're doing in the moment, whether you're cutting a pattern out or you're pinning it or ironing or sewing or whatever it is that you're doing. It's not just the act, but it's also tactile. It's sensory. And it pulls you into flow state.

I mentioned flow state on the previous video. that's when time disappears because you're so involved and you're so focused on the task that you're doing. The thing that's about flow state that is really helpful in anxiety is that it basically empties your brain of everything else. It pulls you into that present moment and it is a form of mindfulness.

And we know from the evidence base that that actively reduces cortisol and adrenaline levels. And so that's really helpful when it comes to any mechanisms to help ease anxiety. We know that actually arts engagement in general produces measurable reductions in cortisol. So that

You know, it has direct impacts on how fast your heart is going. It slows your breathing down. So you start to feel incredibly calm when you're doing your sewing. We also know that it helps to reduce systemic inflammation, which is implicated in anxiety disorders, well as other mental health problems such as depression. When it comes to specific things and mechanisms, like if you do repetitive movements, so this is more with hand sewing, I'd

rather than machine sewing that activates serotonin pathways in the brain. And so that gets you into a meditative state. also get a sense of identity and control with sewing, which is really helpful for managing anxiety. So it gives you agency, you make decisions, you control outcomes, you can troubleshoot as well.

You know, you make a mistake as we all do with our makes. I can't think of a single make that I've done where I haven't made a mistake and had to get the seam ripper out. Like there's always a moment of, my God, it's gone wrong again. You know, but you can unpick and you can fix it. So you're problem solving as well. And so, yeah, it is genuinely therapeutic. And I think the final mechanism by which sewing can help anxiety is the community aspect as well. So ⁓ I think.

Gemma Daly (06:21)

You

Thank

Claire Ashley (06:43)

Sewing can be a solitary thing and if you're introverted then it's quite a helpful hobby to have, right? But actually a lot of people have ⁓ communities offline that they go to where they can connect with other sewists. We've also got an amazing online community with sewing as well, offering that kind of low pressure social connection, feeling like you're part of a community is also really helpful when it comes to the management of anxiety as well.

Gemma Daly (07:11)

It's incredible how much actually goes on inside you, isn't it? Without you like being aware of it and how sewing can actually have such a big impact. I wouldn't have had any idea.

Claire Ashley (07:18)

Yeah.

Yeah, there's a very interesting book that's come out recently. I don't know if you've heard of it, Gemma. It's called Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt. So she talks, she's done a lot of research actually on arts engagement in general, not just sewing. So that does include other things like knitting, other fibre arts, ⁓ music, art, dance, but she has shown some absolutely incredible.

results in terms of how engagement in the arts can impact positively on your longevity and also mental health problems, dementia risk. ⁓ It's absolutely incredible when you start to break it down and look at the science and the she forms an argument that actually it's a forgotten pillar of health and how we should all be.

engaging in arts and ⁓ you know, you're doing some basically you're doing something great for your brain and your body when you're sewing and in fact, I think I read something recently where some researcher argued that in like doing a creative hobby and spending maybe half an hour a day is just as impactful on your physical health and your mental health as doing exercise, which I found absolutely fascinating and we know how good exercise is for you, right? Like you're meant to do

Gemma Daly (08:30)

Wow.

Yeah.

Claire Ashley (08:36)

half an hour a day or what, can't remember exactly what the guidelines are, because it's been a while since I looked at it. But the idea is that you move every single day, right? So, know, sewing has a comparable effect to that. I find that absolutely fascinating.

Gemma Daly (08:39)

Mm.

That is amazing.

Something I wanted to go into a little bit with you is about perfectionism. So it feels like a really common thing in the sewing community sometimes. And generally on social media, how closely linked do you think perfectionism and anxiety are?

Claire Ashley (08:57)

Yeah.

So from a medical perspective, they are separate things. You wouldn't go to a GP and get a diagnosis of perfectionism, I don't think. But you're absolutely right that it does ⁓ the experience of perfectionism. And sewing I think that there are ⁓ a lot of different ways that perfectionism can impact on your enjoyment of your hobby. But conversely, while sometimes it might...

negatively impact your experience of it. And I'm definitely guilty of this because I look at my makes with such a critical eye. I had set myself excessively high standards, which is just crazy, especially if you compare what you're making by hand to what you can buy on the high street, like a lot of ready to wear stuff and certainly fast fashion, you look at the quality and you think, my God, like

Gemma Daly (09:57)

I

Claire Ashley (09:58)

this is what's being sold and yet I'm holding my handmade items to a much higher standard than this. Actually, maybe I should be a little bit kinder to myself and reduce my expectations, you But also it can be helpful, I think, to tackle perfectionism. So I have found it incredibly helpful myself

Gemma Daly (10:06)

you

Claire Ashley (10:17)

to basically accept that if you can't see it from maybe six feet away, three paces away, it really doesn't matter. Because the thing is otherwise you're then unpicking and redoing, unpicking, redoing, and it's exhausting and you're not enjoying that process of your hobby, right? And so when it comes to perfectionism and mechanisms by which you can overcome it, there are some therapeutic and coaching techniques that you can use, but actually actively doing stuff where it's less than perfect and doing a bit of like,

graded exposure, that's actually really therapeutic as well. And so I think when it comes to perfectionism, it's a double edged thing in sewing, I think it's got plenty of opportunities to make you feel bad about yourself if you're a perfectionist, but also conversely, can help. So I think it's about just being mindful, I guess, and making sure that you're not.

tipping over into your perfectionism, taking away your enjoyment of your hobby, because that's a sad thing, that's not what you want to get out of your hobby, isn't it?

Gemma Daly (11:18)

That's right.

I think, because I was speaking to somebody else about this recently, and I think my personality is that sort of perfectionist type thing. over the years, think having children reduced it, because I was like, well, you know, there's going to be mess. I cannot control this all the time. And then

Claire Ashley (11:33)

Yeah.

Gemma Daly (11:41)

Going through my sewing journey as well, gradually that dropped off. So it doesn't mean that I don't want a high standard of garment, you know, but it does mean that those little mistakes, I can let them go. And that's just over time.

Claire Ashley (11:55)

Yeah.

Absolutely, and I've found it really helpful to control my perfectionism as well. I think the other thing is people that are perfectionists tend to be very high achievers and the standard that they set themselves, even if you go for like 90%, that's still a lot better than most people's 100%, right? So I think sometimes it's just reminding yourself it's okay to do like good enough is good enough. And you're right on that point about kids like...

Gemma Daly (12:10)

you

Yeah.

Yeah.

Claire Ashley (12:25)

wow,

you have to let go of so many things when you have children, Yeah, because you can't be perfect when it comes to parenting and your house definitely will not look perfect when you've got kids,

Gemma Daly (12:28)

You do.

No, it will not.

so just finally on this subject, what are some small ways that people who struggle with anxiety sort of can begin to reconnect with sewing without the pressure?

Claire Ashley (12:51)

That's a great question. I think if you don't want the pressure, think picking an easy project is a good way in, just basically lowering the bar so that you're less likely to get stressed when you're making the garment.

And I think also sewing without an outcome in mind is also really helpful in just doing it for the sheer joy, for the process. And so maybe you don't pick a pattern that's really technically difficult, pick something where you know you've got the skill set to be able to do it. ⁓ And, you know, don't...

put any external metrics on yourself by which to measure the success of that outcome. The success is going to be the enjoyment of making it. And if you're not enjoying it, feel free to step away. You don't have to stick at it if it's not making you feel good. So I'm doing that this month. I am making something just for the enjoyment of the process. And it is actually making me feel a lot calmer and a lot happier. And so yeah, that would be my advice.

Gemma Daly (13:56)

Amazing, great advice. Thank you Claire. And we'll be back again tomorrow with another episode for Wellness Week where we'll be talking about ADHD and sewing. See you then.