Thank you so much for mentioning slow stitching, @PencilsInSpace .
As someone new to fabric crafts, that is exactly the sort of attitude and benifits I was looking for, but I hadn't quite grasped towards the concept and I have been getting much too caught up in Getting It Right, struggling with new techniques and a sense of failure and clumsiness.
Just accidentally, over the last few days, I had begun to work out that at this early stage in my learning I shouldn't really be aiming at producing a pre-defined piece of work. I should basically be practising my stitching and working out how each fabric type behaves differently in response to my efforts.
I began to see that even this unplanned and piecemeal process can produce something nice - just because of the sheer sensuality of the fabrics. But I had still seen this as a kind of second-rate bumbling about, an accommodation to failure.
This concept of slow stitching, and the little bit of googling round the term that I have done, has helped me see it more as the essence of traditional crafts and as a fantastic support for mindfulness -- which is what I desperately need.
In adddition to fabric crafts I have recently begun woodworking, with an organisation that provides workshop space and basic tuition for people with mental health difficulties. I am absolutely sure that 'slow stitching', modified to slow carpentry, will help me make use of what is offered there.