One of the main reasons why I love creating mindlessly is that it doesn't require me to think about a lot of artsy materials.

Because when I first started reconnecting back to my inner, creative self when I was a new mom, all the "art" materials at Michael's overwhelmed me and had me wanting to run out of the store and never return.

Kinda like when I went to my first yoga class. Ha! I'm not even kidding. It was SO quiet in the room and it freaked me out. I was used to my Gaiam DVDs and having music in the background. So yeah, I freaked and wanted to run out of there SO bad! Ha!

But, because I kept FEELING the calming benefits of just coloring on a page with my Crayola crayons, I stuck around and eventually connected with something even more simple to do that truly makes me FEEL CALM in an instant!

Grabbing my black super sharpie (I like the super sharpie because it's nice and thick and doesn't hurt my hand while creating!) and cursive writing the word "love" or any word that comes to me in the moment that I know will instantly calm me and uplift me with JOY!

The funny thing is, I never, ever thought I'd just use the color black when I first started coloring with my crayons.

I love color!!

But something inside of me was telling me to try it and I'm SO glad I did.

Because when my mom life is making me FEEL oh, so FRAZZLED and a moment opens up when the kids are content for a few minutes or seconds, I grab my sharpie and notepad and the FRAZZLE starts to melt away.

And, yes, I don't usually do these in my, what I like to call, creative spa room, but for this post, I did, so I could get a nice, bright picture to show my process to feeling creatively CALM and HAPPY in instant! Usually, I'm on my rocker in my bedroom or on the couch in the living room while the kids watch TV.

And, yes, my little guy is still in the stage of wanting to take over for me when he see's me doodling away with my marker. Camille...she's pretty much over that stage and now she goes to her art area and creates her own with her own markers and notepad. :)

So with that, let me show you exactly what I do when I don't have time to sit down in my quiet "creative spa" room and paint or create uplifting word doodles.

It's super easy and super fun!

And, remember, I didn't do this when I first started creating.

When I first started, I would grab my moleskin art journal and Crayola crayons and just color. But, the more I calmed my mind through coloring, the more fun and creative ideas came to me.

I eventually started coloring the word calm in cursive like this and it made me FEEL SO CALM and the word stuck with me all day long.

Then, eventually, I found the super sharpie and fell in love even more with how calm I was feeling.

And if it's been awhile, and my mind is in a very deep, left-brain funk, because of being a mom and living an adult life, I tend to just pick the word "love" over and over again, until maybe, another word pops up that I might want to do.

There's nothing wrong with doing the same thing over and over again...especially if it's making you FEEL the way you want to FEEL!

But, for me, LOVE is always the winner when I need instant calm!

Because, yeah, to me, love IS oh, so calming! Right! :)

Ok...here we go!!

I like to keep my notepad and sharpies in a bag next to my rocker in my bedroom so I have easy access to the materials for when I get a moment to sit and creatively chillax my mind.

I use the canson mixed media notepad all the time (I show the exact one at the end of the post). This one is the smaller one. It's perfect for cursive writing like this!

Then I think of my word that I want to do that will FEEL GOOD, or, I just know I'm going to do love and I write it in cursive.

Why cursive? Because cursive writing IS the ultimate way to slow down. I don't know about you, but when I write in print, I write super fast and it's super duper messy!! But when I write in cursive, I just automatically slow down. That's why I love cursive writing so much. It is the ultimate mind calmer!

Then, here comes the best part of all. Tracing!!

Tracing the word over and over and over and over and over again not only makes me FEEL oh, so CALM...but the more I trace it the more I say the word in my head and the more positive and happy I feel.

It truly is the best way that I've found for me to get those affirmations to stick in my head and to change my negative thoughts to POSITIVE ones, too! LOVE IT!!

I trace it until I FEEL ready to move on.

Then I bubble the word.

And I trace over and over and over again!! Because yep...you guessed it! That tracing is my ultimate mind calmer!! And, it really is SO fun for me and it FEELS so GOOD!

Do you see a FEEL GOOD pattern happening yet? ;)

All done and feeling oh, so calm and oh, so GOOD!! Mama frazzle, what's that?!? Ha!

Then I absolutely LOVE adding big dots and small dots. Because, yep!! It FEELS GOOD!!

I fill them in all over and until I'm ready to move on.

And then I add tiny dots around the bubble.

Again, SO fun!! And something I connected with doing the more I creatively calmed my mind with mindless fun like this. It's so neat to see what creative ideas come through when I finally give my left-brain a much needed break and give my right brain it's time to shine!!

All done!

Then I add curly-cues around the bubbled word.

Again, the more I creatively calmed my mind in this way, the more creative ideas came through me. And curly-cues FELT SO GOOD when I connected with them.

I love curvy lines. But I hate straight lines. I love circles but not squares. And that's why curly-cues really speak to me (plus they remind of streamers...party time!! oh yeah!!).

They make me FEEL calm and relaxed where corners and points and straight lines make me feel tight and constricted. Pretty amazing stuff, right! Try it yourself...draw curvy lines and then straight lines, like triangles and squares...see how the different shapes FEEL for YOU!

And, again, I trace them over and over again.

And, again, I add more fun dots to them...on both sides!

And that's it!!

And then I get up and BE a mother again. But this time, with a little bit more calm, more energy, more patience and more happiness to my step.

And...a lot of the time, when the kids are around, I never finish the entire thing. So I go back and forth to it all the time. It's no big deal though because just those few minutes of writing and tracing and adding dots bring me a little bit closer to that calm feeling I'm oh, so yearning for!

Baby steps at it's finest! :)

Seriously, it's that easy!! OH YEAH!!

So if you're like me and you've tried everything to feel more calm, but your mind just keeps getting in the way, try grabbing a marker or a crayon and writing a calm or fun word that FEELS GOOD to YOU in this way.

It doesn't have to be the word I used, but hey, if you want to use love, go for it!! I have no problem with you doing exactly what I did because I know when your mind has been deep in left-brain-land, it can be SO hard to think of things to do in a creative way.

But, once you start doing this and letting your right brain shine, you, too, will start to have amazing, creative ideas come through that FEEL GOOD for YOU!!

Just like with the dots and the curly-cues for me...something different might pop up for you.

That's the beauty of CREATIVITY...it brings out your UNIQUE skills and talents that only FEEL GOOD to YOU!!

And that's all the matters...that you FEEL GOOD!!!

Not the end product...
not if it's perfect...
not if it's going to make you money...
not if nobody is going to like it...
not that it didn't get an A from the teacher.

Nope!!

The ONLY thing that matters when it comes to CREATIVITY is that it makes YOU FEEL GOOD and that it helps YOU connect back to who you want to BE in this world!!

And for me, that's calm, happy, passionate, fun, creative and JOYous...no matter what the day may bring...even when I'm having those rough moments that make me want to cry and run away.

CREATIVITY balances and ROCKS SO much in this way!!

And doing these doodles truly bring me the utmost JOY...and that's all that matters, too!

Following my JOY!

Thanks, CREATIVITY for connecting me to that!! :)

Until next time,

Why do I doodle uplifting words? Because it easily calms my mind and soothes my soul so I can FEEL JOLLY no matter how overwhelming and stressful my day may be (something that's hard to do when my mind is running five miles ahead or behind the present moment).

Here's the materials I used... canson mixed media sketchbook | black super sharpie