I can just hear you say, what does doodling have to do with grief? Think about it, what have you doodled in your life? I remember in junior high school the days seemed interminable. In my class notes, you could find a countdown for the number of minutes left in class, or you’d find my first named followed by the last name of whichever boy I had a crush on in the moment. I would try out all the different styles of writing of what I dreamed my name would be. So, again, what does that have to do with grief.
When I did my countdowns or my possible names, that was all I was focusing on. I escaped into my doodles and away from the drone of the teacher I couldn’t bear to continue listing to. Doodling when grieving can have the same effect. You can clear your thoughts and focus on the colors and shapes you choose as well as focusing on the movement of your hand. Even if you think you can’t draw, everyone can doodle. I took a ceramics class from the wonderful ceramic artist Patricia Griffin, and she showed us how we could doodle on clay. The picture at the top of this page is a ceramic bowl I made and doodled on. And here is a picture of a cheese board I created in Patricia’s Iclass. You can look up on Google and see the beautiful work she does.
I like to start by drawing shapes on a piece of paper and then dividing up the shapes. Then I fill them in with more shapes and then colors. The first picture here shows how I first sketch what I am going to doodle around with a pencil. Then I cover the pencil marks with a very fine rolling ball black pen; then I erase the pencil marks. I fill in what I outlined with colored pencils. Of course, with doodling, you can do it any way you want to! You can also Google Zentangle and see all the images there. There are so many!
The key here is not how you do it. Rather, the key is to do it. Get lost in your colors and lines. Relax, have fun, and totally forget about anything else as you do it. Make it a form of meditation for you. Doodling has also been used for helping people deal with cancer and helping children deal with health issues.
I would love for you to find as many different ways as you can to deal with the different aspects of grieving. If you have found other creative ways to deal with grief, please share them with us in the comments below. We are all in this together, and we can all help each other out!
I would be happy to put you on the reminder list for or Writing Together Through Grief occurring on Saturdays each week by sending an email to me to emily@lovingandlivingyourwaythroughgrief.com and giving me your email address.
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