Are you looking for ways to feel calmer, happier? Why not try out some mindful art techniques at home! For this activity, you’ll only be needing some paper and any pens or pencils to doodle and colour in. We advice to start with a short meditation, followed by the activity itself. Find a tranquil spot in your home or garden and get all the materials ready.

There are several free short meditations online, we suggest the following one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i

You can find this as well as some other resources in our Glasgow Club website: http://myglasgow.club/customer/index.php/mind

After you finish your meditation exercise, enjoy this calm feeling for a few seconds. When you’re ready, get your paper and pens and start doodling. You can do that with a relaxing music in the background or just noticing the sounds in your environment. Let yourself relax and draw freely and fluidly across the page. You are not trying to draw anything as such, rather just letting go and moving your hand which ever way feels right for you.

After 5 minutes or so stop and look at what you have drawn. Turn the paper around, can you see anything in your picture? Spend at least 5 minutes just looking. Remember not to judge the result, just notice all the lines on the paper and recognise patterns or shapes.

Once you have decided what you see, start some mindful colouring. You can take quite a long time over this. Try not to go over the lines or never having the same 2 colours next to one another. Let your mind go as you do this and let any thoughts come into your mind. You don’t need to do anything with these thoughts, just let them filter through your mind.You can take as long as you want to do this.

When you feel read to finish, take some moments to look at your artwork. Again, try not to judge the results, just acknowledge the feeling of relaxation you had while doing it. You can give it a title if you want. The example below is called ‘Acid Christmas’ and has been made by a participant from our ‘Creating Wellbeing’ sessions in association with the Glasgow Association for Mental Health, exhibited in our CommonSpace.

You can finish off your session with another short meditation. Hopefully after this you will feel calmer and ready to move onto the next part of your day.

Let us know how you get on and please share examples of your artwork on our social media!