Mindfulness Art Therapy

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi all,

I was in Tesco today and noticed a booklet called Zentangle.

This is a form of Mindfulness Art Therapy which is based on creating a tile on the paper, splitting it into sections in what looks a bit like a crazy paving manner and then creating a design with each broken part of the tile.

I don't know if anyone would find this beneficial to them but if so, its £5.99 per the book price.

I know from looking for Mindfulness books in the past that there are various ones for drawing on there too but I think they are more about how to employ Mindfulness itself into any form of drawing as opposed to using a specific style.

Here is a typical basic example:



They don't have to be in squares though and can take on some lovely designs that remind me of some tattoo styles:













I can see it being a relaxing and possibly distracting exercise, maybe along with some soothing music in the background?

[lior]

Here's how to do it... http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Zentangle

I don't get it, the picture of the lady isn't a tile?

I really like these pictures though. Wouldn't it be fun to have henna all over your face and hair stuck on your eyelids.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Thanks lior,

No, they don't all appear to be tiles but they seem to take the sections that you could create within the tiles and add them to other styles of drawing. Kind of a fusion thing.

Since the sections within the tiles are created by drawing several lines with no requirement for symmetry it does allow for thin sections as seen on the first lady's face. The second has tiles on the neck and forehead but the rest are more designs without boudaries but I thought it was a nice piece of art that provides some good ideas so decided to post it.

That guide you posted is what I saw in the magazine. It just had a load of extra stuff about styles of drawings inside the strings, all of which and more will be just a Google away.

Aside from tattoo designs, the the first lady reminds me a bit of Manga.

[23tana]

This looks interesting. I could see that I would find this relaxing. Thanks.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It seems pretty easy to get into. With compiling it bit by bit you can start simple and let it develop. A bit like a jogsaw in that respect.

I can remember doing some doodling as a distraction when I was sitting in meetings at work that I wouldn't be contributing much too. It helped a bit but this would have been better as it has more structure to follow.

It beings the opportunity to practice some Mindfulness with it by touch as well as drinking in with the eye.

I hope you find it enjoyable 23tana, let us know how you get on. I think I might give it a go myself as its different to how I used to draw many years ago and its quite striking when they put it together with animals & faces.

[MyNameIsTerry]

There is an interesting study of cancer patients in treatment who used Mindfulness Based Art Therapy (MBAT) which saw an improvement in various health factors over the control group:

http://www.brown.uk.com/palliative/monti.pdf

An interesting conclusion was: High statistical significance was demonstrated on the mental health, general health, and vitality subscales.

So, surely it could be useful for anxiety disorders & depression? Hopefully there will be future studies but there have been studies of Mindfulness courses in physical illness such as cancer as well as mental health in anxiety & depression and these were found to be favourable so this could indicate MBAT would be too. I believe it would anyway.

If you look at Table 1. MBAT eight-week program curriculum; you will see the same MBSR style meditations I have posted in my other Mindfulness Free Resources & More thread as seen in my signature. So, this appears to be a combination of training in Mindfulness so that it can then be expanded on specifically through art & exploration of materials.

It will be useful for anyone using resources such as in this thread to read how to perform that way when drawing so you get the best out of it.

[MyNameIsTerry]

UPDATE: This is no longer in Tesco. They now have a Zen colouring book in its place but there is no instruction section in it, its purely patterns ready to colour in. I guess they must be running some promotions on these books.

[Mindknot]

Just wanted to say, I've had a go at zentangling and it's pretty fun (although makes your hand hurt if you go for the fiddly drawings ) As I understand it there is some 'official' version where the zentangle name comes from that is supposed to be on tiles - the reasons they state is that a/ it's a smaller space so you can complete the task relatively quickly b/ something about the texture enabling mindfulness. But you can of course use the techniques and go off-piste and arty with it.

The zentangle approach is probably pretty good for art therapy due to the small scale project approach, because you can do one in 15 mins or so, whereas, I tried to do an A5 page once and it took a couple of hours to fill in... They may not have the book in Tesco any more (adult colouring is the new on-trend mindfulness exercise (i've tried that too, and personally find it a bit boring in comparison.)....) but you can find a fair amount of information about the principles on the interwebs, and pinterest has millions of patterns to copy and learn.

Anyway, thought I'd chip in, just because I've had a go at it Reminds, me I should get back down to it too.

[23tana]

Hi. I had a go at the zen drawing but I'm not good enough to produce great results. However, I saw an adult colouring book at the craft shop called Oriental Garden. It's really soothing to sit with music on colouring in and it's good therapy for my fingers. These books seem to be all the rage at the moment. There was a selection of subjects to choose from.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi 23tana,

Yeah, there are loads about, it does seem to be a new craze at the moment, My local Tesco has between 3-5 different mags in at a time now after they trialled the first couple a few months back. They even have books in their book section which are handy sized ones that you can carry about.

Some of them are animals themes, some just patterns, some buildings, etc. I bet they have loads in at The Works but I haven't been in the city centre for a while to have a look.

It's good to hear they are soothing and helping your fingers too. My local Tesco often has CD's for £1 and some of them are spa music, pipe sounds, piano, etc and I bet they would be good with an activity like this.

If you Google Zentangle there are tons on Google Images so maybe you could download and print some to colour them in?