Class 3 ~ Be Mindful ~ Don't Forget to Breathe!

Mindfulness has been a catchword for a few years now, and there are lots of resources online to help. For me, mindfulness is being "in the moment". Years ago I remember having a conversation with my mother about how exhausted she felt. I sat down with her and asked her to write down everything she felt was weighing on her. After she wrote the whole list we went over it to see if there were any obvious solutions to remove some of her stress. I saw at once that most of them fell into two categories: things that had already happened but hadn't gone the way she felt they should have, and things that were coming up that she worried wouldn't go right. No wonder she felt tired! She was carrying at least a month's worth of worry every moment of her day.

We talked about how over 90% of her list was either in the past or the future, and she couldn't really do anything about them from where she was at the moment. The wisest action was to forgive (herself and others) for past mistakes, and prepare to do better, or accept only better from others in the future.

I also saw that her present moment was being overshadowed by her past experiences. She was worried "in the moment" that things wouldn't go well because they hadn't in the past. She didn't have any positive immediate experience of calm, or accomplishment, or joy to balance out her past experience. I wish I could say I had an immediate solution for her at the time, but I was pretty young myself and hadn't learned some of the skills I have now.

If I could back in time, I would have encouraged her to get out of her head, even for a short while, with some kind of creative experience that she could focus on and have some relief from the stress. I like to think that just being able to talk about what was bothering her was helpful, and I know she was more optimistic (and realistic) after we talked. In my own life that means having a creative outlet as a way to step away from my worries. Not that I don't have to go back and pick them back up eventually, but I'm better able to do so after I've had a mental break. People who struggle with chronic pain also benefit from mindfulness exercises as well. When we draw our focus into the smaller circle of what our hands are doing, it does lessen our body's awareness of other pains.

There are many ways to be mindful. My favourite ways involve creativity (because that's the way I'm wired), but for some people, breathing exercises work, or being in nature, or talking with friends (as long as it's not about what's worrying you). The secret is to bring your focus in close ~ moving your hand back and forth while colouring, or savouring every taste of the food you're eating, or just the calm flow of your breath in and out.

I use some of the great mindfulness exercises available online at the Positive Psychology Program website. I particularly like the "Self-Compassion Pause" worksheet, which you can find halfway down the article, but they list over 22 different exercises, so there's sure to be one that works for you.

In class, we talked about three creative ways to be more mindful: Mandalas, Zentangle and Colouring. Each of these practices uses the action of the hand to calm and center the mind. My personal experience is that while your brain is making all the little decisions that go into creativity ~ the angle of the pen, which colour is best for the next thing on your page, it's releasing its hold on the stress it's been carrying. And here's a thing: I've tried "mindful colouring" apps on my electronics and they don't have the same effect on me. For me, there's something about actually moving your hand that makes it work better. But (having said that) when I've mentioned this to other people, they say they've had success with both ~ the decision-making process itself can be enough. And for people whose joint pain prevents them from the kind of pressure that colouring with crayons require, colouring apps actually let them create with less pain.

Enough talk! Here are your handouts for Class 3:

The next two pages are all about Zentangle. On page 2 I take your through one my favourite things to Zentangle: my own hand. Easy peasy. On page 3 I show you all the patterns I used, but of course there are zillions more out there. My favourite source is Tangle Patterns, which sorts them alphabetically and has links to a step-by-step for each pattern. There are more patterns being added every day, so you'll never get bored. In class, we also used Sandy Bartholemew's Yoga for the Brain cards, which have a drawing on the front of each card, and the step-by-step on the back. 

 We also played a little bit with mandalas, which are surprisingly easy to make, especially once you've got what I call a "skeleton" to work on top of. I'll put some of my skeletons at the bottom of this post so you can print them out for yourself.

 I've already talked earlier about the benefits of colouring, but here's even more info on that:

 And, of course, a page to colour. There are (as you can imagine) a TON of online colouring pages available, but I thought I'd give you a few of my favourites:

• Mandala Monday posts new mandalas to colour each week. You can subscribe to their newsletter and be notified when new ones are posted, or search their colouring pages to see everything they've ever posted. Their mandalas are beautiful, clean and FREE.
• Want to share colouring with your kids (or grandkids?), Hello Kids is an excellent resource. They have adult colouring pages, too. As mentioned on the page below, I sometimes like to print out the simpler children's colouring pages and zentangle into them. Bonus!
• The Togetherness Project has a really wonderful 32-page colouring book you can download and print for free. Some of the pages I brought for us to colour in class came from their book. Each page combines an inspiring quote with beautiful artwork.
• Mum in the Madhouse has an excellent page of links to more adult colouring pages.

And I can't leave without boosting Carrie Wong and Witek Radomski's most excellent colouring book, Legendary Landscapes. Carrie and Witek are two local artists who launched their self-published colouring books through Kickstarter, and their books are not only availalbe at Amazon, but also locally through London Drugs and other local stores. I can't say enough how much I love their books ~ 12x12" wide, great paper quality and beautiful Canadian-landscape inspired drawings. They were both generously donated several of their colouring books to our program, which is why I have them to share with you in class. So, support local talent!

And (finally!) ~ to help you learn more about how colour works, I've created a colour-it-yourself colour wheel to print out and paint / colour / felt pen to heart's content. You may have noticed several times in my postings about collage that I've mentioned that I often use colours from opposite sides of the colour wheel to get more contrast ( or "pop"), and knowing how colours work together can be a big advantage when you're making colour decisions in your journal, whatever your medium of choice might be. So ... print this out and make it your own:

And here are some links to earlier resources I've posted for previous sessions of this class that go deeper into colour and how it works ...

• More about the colour wheel and colour combinations
• Thinking about health as a colour wheel
• Colour relationships explored by colouring the same mandala multiple ways

Well, that should tide you over for awhile ... 

Next week's class is called BE Grateful. We'll be thinking about people who've made a difference in our lives and the effects of gratitude ... hope to see you there! 

~ Penelope