Mindfulness Drawing is a beautiful way to develop mindful awareness and skills of observation. It can also be useful when you find you cannot quite sit in a formal meditation practice and you would rather use your hands, and have a session that is more creatively driven. I like to choose simple items from the house or wild flowers I have picked from the park to simply follow the lines of, into my drawing. It is best not to get too complicated, when you actually start drawing, a whole world of color, shape and line starts to open for you and its the relationship you start to develop with these elements and the various actions and emotional observations that make this a truly magical experience.

 

Self Reflection; This practice gives you space to self asses and self reflect on your state of mind as well as emotional mood once you get drawing. Because you are engaging so many sight/mind/hand skills, this new coordination of physiological movements can be slightly challenging at first but very quickly they will help you to ease tension and create calm. Ideas and thoughts you might have been carrying since a few days or that morning have a tendency to ripple up to the surface, and through the act of drawing, just like in meditation we can use our skills of watching these thoughts come to us and then we practice letting go, or bringing the idea to the paper to resolve and release.

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Observation of choice; As you draw there is a constant engagement you have with the observed form, and to place it down onto paper you are constantly making choices. This is a really good way to open up your channels of self trust and soft inner listening. You are given the opportunity to follow your instincts and act upon them with positive affirmation and nurture.

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Observation of results; As you see the results on paper, this sight of beauty being replicated with your help, the colors and magic of just a creative result is highly rewarding and feeds back into you, with confidence and joy. Often just the process of drawing can be enough to help you release stress, anxiety and leave you feeling lighter in your step!

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Guided by instincts; Engaging with your inner voice and instincts in what color, or line to draw is joyful and builds up a relationship with yourself that is simple but grounding and comforting. With so much noise and information that we are dealing with everyday in our lives, to be able to sit in a safe space with time to settle our racing thoughts and fears, we can replenish ourselves with a practice of deeper listening and observation of both the outer and inner worlds.

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