Mindfully doodle your way along a simple figure 8 shape and engage your creative centre. (5 minute video)

Doodling in a mindful and meditative way is a lovely way to unwind, relax, refocus and connect into our hearts. You don’t need to be arty or even know how to draw to enjoy it.

I remember (showing my age) when the telephone was attached to the wall or at least the cord. There was no walking around, finishing off housework or even being out of the house but I do remember a note pad by the phone. It was always covered with doodles, drawings and patterns. Sometimes it hosted some amazing creations, all while talking on the phone or quite often, waiting on hold.

Our lives are so very full these days and we have all sorts of amazing conveniences like phones, that keep us going, so taking time to stop can be really difficult.

I love this simple doodle meditation that takes only 5-6 minutes (includes 1 minute demonstration in video) to do. It engages the senses and I love working with my favourite colours. All you need are a couple of markers and some paper.

People I’ve facilitated these meditations for;

• love how simple they are,
• enjoy doing something relaxing and creative,
• rekindle a love of being creative and often want to get stuck into an art project afterwards.

For others it’s about unwinding while engaging in an activity.

You can doodle along with me as we journey with the breath and our senses in an activity you can do at home.

Figure 8 Flow Doodle Video Transcript

Demonstration – music only

Let’s start, our two colours

Take our first colour at the centre point

Let’s breathe in as we go up breathing down, past the centre

In and out, no stopping

Just go slowly, at the pace of your breath

If it’s all going a bit quick, slow it down, slow your hand down

As we link up our hand and our breath

Breathing in and around, and down and up and around

Not pausing with the breath, tracking over our figure 8

Just letting go of anything that wants the tracking to be perfectly over the first line

Working on your own now

Keep tracking, working on that centre point cross over

Breathing and just allowing your breath to slow down

Allowing the marker to slow down

And on another breath cycle we’re going to bring our pen back to our centre point

And take it off, so in, out and around and off.

Well done. (Turn page to a different orientation)

Let’s take our second colour now

Let’s start again at our centre point

Breathing in and around and back through the centre and around

So our second figure 8 is through the middle of our first

There might be some overlapping

Just allowing our breath to dictate how quickly the pen moves

Allowing it to slow down, allowing our pen to slow

Tracking over the lines

Allow yourself just to work on your work here

In and out, continuous breathing, no pausing

Just taking note of the colour your using

Take a moment to notice any sound that being created by the marker

Take notice where your hand is, is it close to the tip, the middle or end of the marker

Take notice of the pressure you’re using to take hold of your marker, is it light? Are you gripping tightly? or maybe somewhere in the middle?

Continuing to breathe

Bringing yourself into the figure 8

You might even notice the paper wearing thing in the middle at the crossing over point

Continuing to breathe

And on the next breath cycle, in and out, let’s remove our marker off at the centre point

And if you feel to, close your eyes, just for a few moments and let’s now see our figure 8, just one of them as we continue to breathe in, around, crossing over, down and around.

You might want to see that crossing over in your heart space allowing it to flow through with the breath

And when your ready and in your own time, slowly open your eyes.

Learn more about Meditation

If you're interested in learning more about meditation and mindfulness and how it can help you, you may want to try my Learn to Meditate classes or free Flow Doodling found on the Events page. Register your interest by completing the contact form and get notifications about upcoming classes, courses and events by subscribing to my newsletter, The Radiant Artist at the bottom of the page.