Join TanglePod for a month of finding the ways to slow down with breath and focus with each of 31 different tangles. We are focusing on the specific cadence that you can find, and how to use each one to encourage your practice to slow down and be in the moment. Juliette and I often find different approaches to tangles, and in these short conversations will provide tips on approaching each tangle with focus in mind. Use your journal, tiles or scratch paper and play with these exercises to see how you can find your rhythm too.
Join me on TanglePod for a month of finding the ways to slow down with breath and focus with each of 31 different tangles. We are focusing on the specific cadence that you can find, and how to use each one to encourage your practice to slow down and be in the moment. Juliette and I often find different approaches to tangles, and in these short conversations will provide tips on approaching each tangle with focus in mind. Use your journal, tiles or scratch paper and play with these exercises to see how you can find your rhythm too.
My favorite tip on tipple is watch for the tails on your orbs!! They are a good visual that you can use a little more focus.
Join me on TanglePod for a month of finding the ways to slow down with breath and focus with each of 31 different tangles. We are focusing on the specific cadence that you can find, and how to use each one to encourage your practice to slow down and be in the moment. Juliette and I often find different approaches to tangles, and in these short conversations will provide tips on approaching each tangle with focus in mind.
Use your journal, tiles or scratch paper and play with these exercises to see how you can find your rhythm too.
On the podcast I co-host (www.tanglepod.com) we are celebrating a different version of Inktober. Inktober was developed by Jake Parker in 2009, and is a wonderful way to be motivated to share your artwork, and just spend time being creative. We are putting the focus on the process, rather than the product, because Juliette and I both benefit from taking the time with our pens and paper, and practicing being present and focused with our work.
I hope you will join us for this series of focus and relaxation. Post it on your fridge, or post it on your social media, or keep it in your journal with some notes about the benefit that you get from the regular practice.
I love to have a little background music while I tangle, or pursue other favorite creative activities – it takes a different type of music to than say, dancing while doing the dishes. Here is my current playlist in progress, I am constantly refining it as I hear new music, keeping it to around a half hour so that I can put all my other distractions away and immerse myself in my project.
Deliberate : slow, unhurried, and steady as though allowing time for decision on each individual action involved
Slowing down, and focusing on a single thing at a time can be hard to do. We are coming away from a time where multitasking was rewarded, and we are learning more and more that the benefit of mindfulness and focus on your health is great. You can’t truly focus on many things at once, and it is a great break for your brain and good for your well-being to take time to do something deliberately. Just a small amount of complete attention to an activity will bring better results.
In Zentangle practice, a deliberate stroke can help you enjoy and benefit from the process even more than the thrill of a beautifully drawn tile. Taking time to focus on the ink coming from your pen onto the paper, taking a deep breath and focusing on the time to get from one point to another helps you relax into the process, and brings a calm to what you are doing in that moment.
Learning tangles in a specific, repeatable order also helps to make sure that you are drawing deliberately. This isn’t an absentminded doodle. You want to take this time for yourself.
Whether you have completed a hundred tiles, just taken a class or are just beginning to explore Zentangle, give this exercise a try. Think about each stroke as you make it, allow yourself a few moments to focus.
Bales is one of my favorite tangles because of the repeatable, deliberate steps taken to create a fun design. Give yourself a little time to follow these steps, go slowly and relax with your pen.
Start by drawing parallel lines one direction. Make each stroke deliberate, focus on your pen and paper. Go slowly, this is not a race.
Now rotate your tile or paper to make parallel lines the other direction, perpendicular to the first collection of lines to create a grid. Notice that by rotating your paper, you are keeping the same motion as you create a grid, keep focusing on the stroke as you go.
Next we are going to add some curved lines from point to point within the grid. If you make the strokes vertically when drawing Bales, there is a tendency to make curves quickly down the column, never lifting your pen, never stopping to breathe at each intersection.
If you make the little rice shapes across a row, like in the picture below, then proceed to the next row, it forces you to slow down and pay attention.
Stopping at each intersection, taking a breath and lifting your pen creates more even strokes, deliberately helping you to slow down, calm down and relax into the process. Deliberately draw one curve then pick your pen up and move to the next.
After your grid is filled with little curves in one direction, turn your tile and continue in the same manner, the same stroke filling in the other direction.
Continue with the curved shape across the rows in the other direction. By rotating your tile you keep the same stroke which helps you find a relaxing rhythm. Moving your pen in a methodical motion across your tile in this specific deliberate way, you can help make the stroke a soothing and relaxing motion.
This simple exercise is an example of how the practice of deliberate strokes can help you relax and find focus with the Zentangle method. I hope you take some time to try this pretty little tangle, and keep practicing these strokes as a way to calm your mind and find focus in your day.
devoid of or abstaining from motion: free from noise or turbulence
The world runs at a frenetic pace, especially the online, constantly connected side of our lives. Constant notifications, texts, emails, social media updates. As we learn to live at this speed it seems even more important to find a balance by being still.
Allowing your mind to be still takes practice. Allowing your body to truly rest takes practice. Not a lot of new skill or explanation required, just reminders and practice.
You might naturally find when you journal or draw, or in the middle of other focused activities that you pause for a moment and capture a bit of stillness, where the silence envelops you like a bubble. We need these moments in our day like a breath of fresh air for our minds.
Try This
Sit quietly for a few moments with all your screens and sounds off. Watch the raindrops fall outside the window, or the flames flicker by the fire. Sit still with yourself physically. Feet flat on the floor, hands gently resting on your legs. Take five minutes, two minutes or one minute to sit gently.
Close your eyes or focus on the distance and just sit.
Breathe and be still.
Sit still with your mind. When your mind wanders, bring it back quietly reminding yourself that you are still. It is a practice to be still for even a moment when you are used to constant stimulation.
Breathe evenly. Let your eyes relax or gently close them. When you start looking around remind yourself, take a breath and be still.
I know very few people who spend part of their day feeling calm. There is much to do, go, see and accomplish in our lives. The act of just being, never mind feeling calm gets lost as a nice to have, wish I could or when I am on vacation…
Why does the feeling of calm elude us on a daily basis when we may all feel, act and treat each other better without daily agitation, competition and stress? We don’t need to wait for vacation to do the things we love. Slowing down does not signal that you are opting out. Sometimes we just need to catch our breath and spend a moment of quiet stillness.
Try This
It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or planning to create a space of calm. Find a moment, close your eyes and take a deep breath in, really fill your belly with the air around you, then slowly release. Repeat. You can do more, take more time next time – but for right now this is a starting point.
Recently, when cleaning up my desk which is the custom table we made a few years ago – I was looking around for the tile that started it all – and could not find it anywhere.
A few days later after removing a grocery list from the puppy’s mouth, a flood of memories came rushing through my head of a pile of projects on the desk, things being knocked over and general chaos. Of course the puppy was on hand as usually for any type of excitement – and in the busyness of the day – that tile may just have fallen on the floor in a flutter of temptation too great for a dog who loves a good paper snack.
I was sad. Then I accepted the single swirl that started the tile – which I wanted to change and grow away from always drawing the same old tangle – grew into something more unique and exciting than I could have ever imagined, and as I type this I am resting my arms on a 3×6′ version of the tile. Of course, the tile was just my string.
Looking for a multi age game for a family party, I made a fun twist on a classic as a holiday ice breaker across the generations.
Memory is a classic game associated to little kids but Memories Memory – well that can be a classic game that can only ever be specific to your family. I was looking for a game to play that didn’t have a lot of rules for a mixed crowed. Making a memory game out of photos worked well.
I just printed 2×2 photos on cardstock with a border. I tried to do enough to fill up our coffee table in a square, which ended up being 36 pairs, so 72 tiles.
The kids young and old really loved to try to match their favorite photos – so make sure anyone playing the game is in at least one set.
My Zentangle Twist!
When tidying up my supplies – it occurred to me that this is also a great opportunity to make a game with all those tiles that I create while teaching! Often I have multiple tiles that are the same tangles, even if they look a little differently.
It is also a great way to utilize tiles when I am doing a practice of the same tangles on repeat. Like the tiles below – same tangles, different approaches. It makes playing memory a little more challenging but really fun to see how many different ways you can use the same tangles.
