Doodling has been much maligned. Schools and offices squash you and your doodles. I have known for years that it has value in many ways. When you doodle, you open channels in your brain that deepens understanding and makes connections, leading to creative options, and wonderful problem solving.
Doodling can calm your stress and restore your spirit.
Sunni Brown in her six minute TED talk I recommend defines doodling:
“Doodling is really to make spontaneous marks to help yourself think.”
In her closing she says,
“So here is my point: Under no circumstances should doodling be eradicated from a classroom or a boardroom or even the war room.
On the contrary, doodling should be leveraged in precisely those situations where information density is very high and the need for processing that information is very high.
And I will go you one further. Because doodling is so universally accessible and it is not intimidating as an art form, it can be leveraged as a portal through which we move people into higher levels of visual literacy.
My friends, the doodle has never been the nemesis of intellectual thought. In reality, it is one of its greatest allies.”
Zentangles
As you know I recommend highly making Zentangles. It looks like doodling, but isn’t quite. In Zentangles, you can use a vocabulary of already designed patterns called tangles to work with.
I notice that my doodling pre Zentangle also used preformed patterns – mostly, squares, cubes, and circles. Zentangles have expanded my vocabulary and gives me a format to work within. Also, Zentangles gives me better tools to work with – good paper and micron pens (available many places).
Making Zentangles does bring you into the present moment. It does help you to focus. It does help to solve problems. It does give you more energy. It does calm your soul when you are under stress. It is a wonderful form of play that anyone can do.
Suzanne recently went through a knee replacement that had an unexpected detour to ICU. During our journey, I made Zentangles to calm myself and to give to Suzanne as healing talismans. (She is recovering well as I write this.)
Doodle away my friend. And play with Zentangles when you want to go to the next level.
Recent Posts about Zentangles
Zentangle – This Focused, Mindful Doodling Leads to Enlightenment
All God’s Children Experience Stress – Even the Dalai Lama
