If you’ve had a look around the cool mindz website, you would have noticed that doodling features quite prominently both in the actual look and feel of the design of the website, but also in the structure of the lessons I’ve created and the style with which I approach my work as a transformation coach.
Doodling is there for us to use as a tool and so far Mikayla has had lots of fun in her lessons. I’ve shared a few of her doodles so you can have an idea, but the progress she has made since we began is something that is extremely exciting for me to see after each session. She has particularly taken to one of the lessons which requires her to do a doodle a day. She’s told me she intends on continuing and I’m certainly not going to stop her.
Mikayla isn’t the only one benefiting from doodling. Since I started creating cool mindz, I’ve jumped right back in and I’m really enjoying seeing how they’ve changed since I last visited this style of drawing back in 2015.
My approach hasn’t changed since then and it’s this technique that I’m hoping to teach as a way of transforming a few things for you. When I doodle, there is no pre-thought or structure, I just make shapes and take my black pen on a little exploration on my drawing pad. Sometimes I turn the page upside down and continue drawing, not really knowing which side is making more sense than the other.
My doodles seem to represent different things to different people which is what I love. They don’t have to make sense. After all, life doesn’t always make sense does it? I like the randomness and freedom with which I’m able to create. No-one is commissioning me to “make sense.”
Let’s take a few steps back to the beginning
When my imagination ran wild with thoughts of how to put cool mindz together, doodling came through very strongly as a tool that I could use to help others get into a unique headspace with themselves, while tapping into their creativity.
I did some research. According to the world wide web, “A doodle is an unfocused or unconscious drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied. They may just be abstract shapes and often take place during long telephone conversations.”
I continued to research and explore, as I always do, so I looked up the meaning of creativity. Quite simply and plainly,“Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed. Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline and mastering a way of thinking. You can learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesizing information.”
I liked that last bit about experimenting, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesizing information. That description actually was the approach I’d begun to explore with respect to healing and my approach to life coaching. This description also captured how I experienced doodling personally.
I came across more research. “It turns out that doodling is more than a mental distraction. According to research conducted by psychologist Robert Burns, doodles are a form of art therapy.”
Art therapy! That’s what I was looking for. I decided to go with my intuition and immediately began including doodling into my lesson plans.
I then reached out to all the creative friends I had, to ask if they would supply some doodles for the cool mindz website. I gave them some doodle prompts so they could address some of the themes I’d created for the lesson plans.
I received a response from one friend which included a link to an article that was written in The Spectator in 2017 titled, “The play’s the thing.” It was written by Robert Ade.
He writes about the great psychoanalyst D.W.Winnicott who introduced the squiggle game into his work. In the article he says,”He wasn’t an artist, but a natural and spontaneous doodler.”
Every description used in this article spoke deeply to me and was all I needed as final confirmation to carry on.
I’ve included the link to the article and encourage you to read it.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-play-s-the-thing-18-may-2017
And there you have it. This is how doodling crept into cool mindz.
I like organic processes. I want to change perspectives, unlock the creative genius that is inside all of us, and if nothing else, introduce a cool way to pass the time which will bring you into the moment and help you feel more peaceful in your life.
It’s one of the tools we use to navigate our way through your life and bring you to a better, healthier and more creative place within yourself.
I’m looking forward to “playing at creating” with all the cool minderz out there.