The hurdle a lot of people (including myself) feel with meditation is that the benefits are hard to describe and harder to measure, so it's difficult to get into, or to keep going if you feel like you aren't definitely getting something from it right away.

Knitting is every bit as meditative, plus you end up with a scarf or some other useful object, which reduces the hesitancy. You get a hand-made toque AND clearer thinking probably, so even if that "probably" is a hard sell, everyone appreciates a shawl. Plus you get neat stories, like "I was knitting this when I came up with the '602 patent". Some future museum curator is gonna lust over that artifact.

There's no reason you can't apply modern meditative techniques _while_ knitting, either. If you've read up on meditation but found it hard to get going or stick with it, _add_ some repetitive manual work and try again.

Chopping firewood is better for cardiovascular health, but it's difficult to do year round, and the byproduct is only useful to a diminishing number of households that're set up for wood heat. It's also more hazardous if you're clumsy or didn't grow up doing similar work, so think about how many colleagues you'd trust with a knife, much less an 8-lb splitting maul...