{"id":33709,"date":"2020-04-14T08:58:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T12:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindfulartstudio.com\/?p=33709"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T18:10:13","slug":"drawing-to-calm-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindfulartstudio.com\/drawing-to-calm-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing to Calm Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dear Wonderful, Creative You: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you are quarantined at home, or an essential worker going out into the world to make sure the rest of us get our needs met, most of us are feeling anxious, out of sorts, and generally unsure of what to do with ourselves, at least some of the time. I talked in my last post about some coping skills that have helped me adjust to life in quarantine<\/a>, and how art is a part of that. But I want to share specifically today about using drawing to calm anxiety with something I call slow drawing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should you slow draw? What is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s possible that others define this a bit differently, but for me, slow drawing is a mindful practice where I move my pen at a slower pace than usual and really pay attention to the process. <\/strong>It’s a mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is simply paying attention to what you are doing in the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when I slow draw, I have an intention to notice the process with curiosity<\/strong>. Curiosity is a wonderful skill because it disengages judgment, and engages presence. When we can stop thinking about what we should be doing, checking the phone, worrying about what will happen next and just be present to what we are doing right now, it’s a relief. This kind of singular focus is an excellent mindfulness practice. (It’s also great for us artists, trying to get the inner critic to take a break so we can explore with our art materials.)<\/p>\n\n\n