Self-Care Challenge Day 3: Drawing It Out
Even if you don’t see yourself as “creative,” “artistic,” you can make circles on a page. Get out some markers, crayons, oil pastels, chalk – whatever you have. Go ahead, draw for just 5 minutes. I promise you can crunch it up if you hate it. See if you can stick with it, suspend that inner critic, and just enjoy the experience of putting color and shape on the page.
Tell your friends about the 7 Day Self-Care Challenge using:
#selfcarechallenge on social media!
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Do you draw your feelings out? I dare you to give it a try. Tell us about it in the comments and get a chance to win a portable art kit, or free entry into my art journaling workshop.
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Wow, Amy, we are on the same page. 🙂 Last night, after trying to meditate for 5 minutes, I created a little drawing that I’m been thinking about since the start of the challenge. It is a woman sitting (in the meditation position I use) reaching up and holding a heart in her hand. Is she showing it, catching it before it escapes or just letting go? From the heart a vine of flowers is growing and covering her body. I had the words self care in mind when I did it. Thanks for the inspiration, Amy.
Sandy: I always find the the drawings that emerge just after sleep or after meditation are so special. I resonate with the image of being surrounded and enveloped by that caring.
Cheers,
Amy
Missed yesterday so today I did my self care first thing this morning. I just sent my boys off for the first day of school, my older son’s last first day of school. I was feeling sad and frankly kinda old. It started out with just circles so I didn’t have to think much about what I was doing or try to make it look just right. I ending up with a beautiful design that reminds me that life is circular, not just beginnings and endings.
HI Teresa:
What you just shared was so beautiful, and exactly what I have known to happen with art. When we can just let go of the product and be with the process, it can speak to us in surprising ways. I am inspired by you.
Thank you,
Amy
Good morning! I love art! I found some pages I had water colored last week in purple and yellow, the color of violets and pansies. I cut out butterflies… A great metaphor for transformation… I added some beautiful flowers and leaves. And then I found some blue paper with clouds, and wrote words on it with a metallic marker: brave, purpose, light, faith, hope, dream, become, joy, and grow. I made the calligraphy fancy, adding dots and hearts. I cut these words out with a paper punch, so I can add them to notecards. It was more than five minutes, but it sure was fun!
Hi Patricia:
I am so thrilled to have your voice on here each day sharing about how you open yourself to this process. You demonstrate one of the most powerful things about art – it’s transformative abilities. I do the same thing with pieces that have pretty elements but don’t work as a whole and cut out shapes, etc. I like the idea of the butterflies. I usually do just abstract shapes or circles. I may try this. The words are inspirational and I’m so glad you shared them on the FB page.
Cheers,
Amy
Just tuned into the challenge. Today I am in New Hampshire and it is quite rainy. Fits my mood since I have been quite gloomy lately. I drew a picture of the mountains in a small notebook I carry around and added raindrops and words. I did it all in pen, which was fun to try. Definitely helped clear my mind at least for a little while
HI Amanda:
Welcome to the #selfcarechallenge! I am so glad that you decided to join us! (Stop by the blog everyday to find out the day’s challenge, or if you want a reminder in your mailbox, sign up for the Free Self-Care Guide to the right to get on my list.)
I am so pleased to have your voice here. I appreciate you naming the gloomy mood that has been following you. I think that at least today, with the rain, the gloom has touched many of us. I’m so glad that the drawing got the clouds to lift at least for a little while. It has me wondering, too, if you had perhaps written the words that described the picture on a separate page, and then perhaps written about what you want to be feeling (if that’s different) what might have happened.
All the best,
Amy
meditation ‘squared’:
fun and easy to spend more than 5 min on this assignment today
sat by myself for lunch with a piece of paper, yellow address labels, highlighters, colored post-it sticky tabs and colored post it notes. i made a design of squares and rectangles. so relaxing.
Karin – You make office supplies into art supplies. I wonder if anyone else might give this a try. Any takers?
Cheers,
Amy
I bought oil and soft pastels last year, after the end of a relationship… it was very helpful for me because this man didn’t draw, it was a thing “only for me” (because he write a lot too, so writing was difficult to me at that time, it made me think at what we shared…)… I hadn’t draw since a few months (only doodles during meetings or so…). This evening i took the 5 minutes, and they became 30! It was like a breathing, I wrote words which made me sad and then I draw on them, and I’m very proud of me, I think my pages are beautiful!
HI Christine:
It’s great to have your voice on here again today. Your words about the transformation that took place are beautiful to me! I’m so glad too to hear you bring up the idea of doodling. The copywritten Zentangle (I call it power doodling) http://www.zentangle.com has made drawing feel more accessible to a lot of people. I encourage people to hop over there and find some inspiration. Anyone can do it! Art is like breathing. I like that so much. Thank you!
Amy
Funny you should have this challenge today. As I wrote before, I am an artist of sorts, and while I have a list of art projects I want to do, there is one that was just to be for fun, and will only take minutes that I should have done for “Day of the Dead” but never got around to it. With your encouragement, I am working on it for next year 🙂
Wow Deb: I love Day of the Dead art. How exciting. I am so curious what exactly the art is? And do you have a connection to this holiday?
Cheers,
Amy
Recently I have started my own version of an art journal …. mostly doodles. I get really intimidated if I try to “draw” something as my artistic ability is nonexistent. I do find that just putting colored doodles on a page can express feelings in a way words don’t. Thanks for the inspiration!
HI Jodi:
Like Christine, I agree that “doodling” is a way of making “drawing” feel way less threatening and more accessible. I truly believe that the arts are for everyone – from the beginning of time they have been a way for humans to express, celebrate, and heal. Somehow in a lot of cultures we teach our children that only people with particular “talent” should engage in it. As children we all find joy in the arts, as adults we can too, it’s just finding the right route to travel with it. It’s funny, isn’t it, how doodling can sometimes capture feelings far better than words ever could.
Cheers,
Amy
I totally tried this out….thinking it would be “silly”–but I tried doodling and it kinda helped me go to a meditative state…. LOVED IT!!!
Jamie: YAY!! Exactly! I do a workshop sometimes on meditative art and it’s all about using power doodling and relaxing music to get in the zone. Using thin and thick tipped black sharpies and simple, repetitive patterns, you divide your 2×3 square of paper into sections and then fill it with the tiny patterns. It requires little thought. I am SO GLAD you caught onto this!
Amy
day three -drawing for 5 minutes – weeeee
i did circles and posted on my face book page –
i suspended my inner critic- and kept adding the next color and shape till the page was filled with color-
energy leaving my body-
good
Hi Susan:
What a great process you spell out of allowing colors and shape to flow from you, uninhibited by judgement. It’s a theme here, isn’t it? Can you invite yourself to do just 5 minutes a day even after the challenge is through? (Or maybe you already do!)
Cheers,
Amy
I enjoyed today’s challenge. I chose to doodle on a note card. I definitely could have continued to doodle for more then five minutes. It was a nice escape in the day. I have a stack of note cards at my desk for future doodling needs.
Kara – It’s great to hear how you used the challenge today as an escape, and that you have prepped to do it again!
Thank you for sharing.
Amy
Had an unusually tough day at work today. Again, I found myself thankful for this challenge which allowed or even insisted that I take some much needed time for myself. Just me, my journal, and a black sharpie in hand. It felt comforting and containing and much much needed.
HI Jill:
I’m so sorry that today was so rough, and so glad to hear that the challenge was timely, containing, and gave you permission to care for yourself!
Best,
Amy
Today I listened to the rain, I placed a yoga mat near the computer so I would be encouraged to stretch and take frequent breaks- it worked, I also placed out my sketchbook and did some random mark making, it was very free-ing- thanks for the suggestion!
HI Amy: What a great idea to create a visual reminder for self-care. I like how you broke things down to their most basic elements so that it was just “breaks” – little stretches, random markings – not needing to have purpose per se, a break for break’s sake.
Thanks for sharing it with us too.
Amy
Today I felt sick, so I treated myself to a work from home day. In between some meetings, I took the opportunity to doodle, and it was fun, bc no one could see me “drawing while I was at work.” The rain was soothing and helped to bring further calmness to freehand expression.
HI Christine:
I’m so sorry you didn’t feel well today. Low spirits for many reasons seem to be going around. It sounds though that you, like Amy who put a journal and a yoga mat next to her desk, were able to find ways to sprinkle breaks of self-care throughout the day. It sounds like it had the desired effect, and I’m so glad.
Thanks for sharing that lovely image with us.
Amy
This was fun! I used a phrase in my drawing to remind myself that I am always empowered. I just need to open the door and access the power! yay! The phrase was “I can choose.” Then, around the phrase, I played with wavy lines and fun colors. I posted it to the FB page. I continue to be delighted and amazed by the way “doing art” brings me to a place within that feels like ME.
Laura,
YAY for being “ME,” accessing your power, and mastering you thoughts, feelings, and self-expression through art. That’s what it’s all about. I can choose, it’s a great phrase for all of us. Thanks for sharing it.
🙂 Amy
I should draw more. I used to like to doodle and draw mazes and that was always soothing to me. I’m teaching my daughter how to draw mazes and we’re both enjoying that. I did some coloring today. I even thought about going outside the lines, but decided against it. Maybe next time!
I doodled in my journal before I went to sleep tonight. Such a relaxing activity to let out an exhale at the end of the day. Thanks for day 3!!
Today was great!!! I was at work but all the things that I was supposed to do, instead of write them I draw, it was fun and different and my coordinator was so happy with my work!!!! It’s great to do things in a different way!!!!
I would like to start this course.. I am a combat disabled Vietnam veteran. And need the self care. Is it free?
HI Tom!
yes, it’s free! Just follow the links at the bottom for days 1 – 5 and it’s self-directed. I hope it helps.
Cheers,
Amy