Last January in Nourishing Our Spirits I wrote:
One experiment I’ve been doing since last August is doodling/expressive mark making every day. It doesn’t have to be much if I don’t feel like doing it, but one of the books I bought, Drawing for Joy, has a page of circles in a spiral, we’re supposed to outline one of the circles every day we do some drawing.
The idea of the book is to spend 15 minutes a day drawing, both as a meditation and for skill development. But 15 minutes is too long for what I want — I just want to have a regular habit of mark making so (1) it’s there as a resource when I need it and (2) to communicate with my subconscious. I don’t know about you, but my subconscious runs my life, and I learned long ago if I wanted any say I needed to make friends with it and develop good communication.
So what do I doodle? Sometimes just squiggly faces, often smiling, and lately two themes:
The doodle on the left is a fellow pulling weeds and throwing them away. It’s shorthand for the mantra,
Pulling the weeds, nurturing the flowers.
I think of the good life as a garden that needs regular gentle attention.
The doodle on the right is of stairs leading up towards sunshine. A quick visual for when I need to make a change. It’s shorthand for the question,
What is one small step I can take right now to make myself happier?
Sometimes it’s just the sun with no stairs, shorthand for the phrase,
Sometimes we need to make our own sunshine.
Anyway, I finished the chart last Thursday
August 8, 2019
A year was much longer than I needed. The habit is so quick and powerful it became automatic after a couple of weeks, so I no longer have to think about it. Have you ever made a habit change like this?
August 12, 2019
I used to do Fantangle which this reminds me of. The repetition of drawing little circles would be meditative, I’m sure.
Actually doing the exercises in the book was supposed to be meditative, but I mostly didn’t do them. I was more interested in developing doodles that were personally meaningful and I’m still doing it.
Hooray for finishing. I’ve tried to start habits similar to this but I tend to fizzle out quickly.
These were so easy to do that it wasn’t hard to do them regularly. I’m a great believer in tiny steps but every day.
it might sound silly. but I Bissell! every single day except one day on the weekend. sometimes Saturday sometimes Sunday. but every other day I use my little Bissell sweeper. it’s very meditative to me. I feel it not only cleans the dust off the carpet but from my mind as well. I suppose it’s similar to what my favorite little zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh teaches. I don’t do it the same time every day but I do it every day. it freshens my mind. my attitude. and my carpet! then I damp mop the wooden floors. it’s all good!
falls under the category of simple and serene. 🙂
I don’t think it’s silly at al. I think it’s a great ritual.
No, I have never did anything like this but would like to try. The thing is with me partly, I have to get up every day and give my husband his morning meds, sometime between 6:30 to 7:30, I give evening meds, and then tuck him in when he goes to bed around 10:30 most nights, by getting his CPap on and running…oh, and don’t forget every morn he wants to go to breakfast. So sometimes, I don’t even want one more thing I have to do. I also do devotional every morn except one. MOSt of the time. Every now and then something stops me…I know this probably sounds like excuses, and it is. Yet it is the truth.
I really would like to develop the habit of doing something I consider fun for a few minutes every day…but lots of time by the time I have time, I am so weary I don’t feel like doing anything at all.
It’s sounds as if your devotionals are a meaningful ritual for you. The easiest way to add something that warms your heart/lifts your spirits is to keep it small, at least at first, so it doesn’t take much time. And maybe do it in the morning before you get too tired? My doodling doesn’t take long at all, and I can also do it when being put on hold on the phone, etc. Just a possibility, we all have to figure out what works for us.
I love your blog. Hopefully it gives you some pleasure to write it?
yes and no on attempting new habits…
right now I’m trying to be more proactive in caring for myself – that has led me to the kitchen ware shop today to buy some new (better) tools for baking things…
and this week is about sorting (yet again) my art stuff as I want to embark on a new way of “making” but first I needed to decide what gets stored, what goes…
every day I’ve been taking some time to sift through that …
Even if it’s not developing new habits, you certainly are doing a lot!