Category: drawing

art, art appreciation, Creativity, drawing, instinctive meditation, journaling, meditation, Memories, mindfulness, poetry, writing

Drawing Memory

Adele Satori
Image shows a pastel drawing of an ocean beach. There are waves coming to shore. On the right is a large boulder, with a yellow sun just to the left of the boulder.

Consider all the pain and all the pleasure
You have ever experienced
As waves on a very deep ocean which you are.

From the depths, witness those waves,
Rolling along so bravely, always changing,
Beautiful in their self-sustaining power.

Marvel that once, you identified with
Only the surface of this ocean.
Now embrace waves, depths, undersea mountains,
Out to the farthest shore.
~Insight verse 136, “The Radiance Sutras”, Lorin Roche, PhD.
************************************************************
The image I drew in a recent Playing With Creativity and Meditation class that my friend Andrea Abrahamson and I co-teach at the online Radiance Sutras School of Meditation. It was her turn to facilitate, and the theme was travel.  

Going into the meditation, we were invited to attune to our senses. I live on a really busy street, and the ebb and flow of traffic began to sound like ocean waves to me.  I could see the image I drew so clearly, so out it came.  As I worked with the pastels, my fingers blending the colours together also sounded like the ocean to me, so I played with that… moving my hand and much of my body, creating the sound of the ocean. The movement of waves. The tingling of my fingers reminded me a little of the sharp tingling of sand under my bare feet.

It’s my favourite little beach in Pacific Palisades, and is still closed after the January fires. I looked at the satellite map recently, tracing the route down the twists and turns down Sunset Blvd. that I’ve enjoyed driving.  So much is gone; I’m not sure when I’ll have the heart to make the drive again. It’s so wonderful to have the memory of it, and now this image, as one of my doorways into meditation.

art, art appreciation, creative practice, Creativity, drawing, health and wellness, inspiration, instinctive meditation, meditation, mindfulness, Personal Development

Health Benefits of Engaging With Art

Adele Satori
Image shows drawing of a lotus pod in white chalk on black paper. This is a doodle of mine from a recent creativity and meditation session.

“Research shows that art experiences, whether as a maker or a beholder, transform our biology by rewiring our brains and triggering the release of neurochemicals, hormones and endorphins.”

https://lnkd.in/gVNrMRuR

There is so much in this article that I find parallels our experiences in instinctive meditation, especially the invitation to engage with awe and wonder on a regular basis. This is part of what excites me so much- the discoveries I continually make that deepen both my creative and meditation practices.

I especially like the thought of slowing down in a museum- to truly experience the art in front of you.

Whether you go to a museum, gallery, walk and look at architecture, listen to music, go to a concert, doodle in a notebook… it all counts!

Creativity, drawing, inspiration, journaling

Layering Source Dreams on Reality

Adele Satori
Dream doodling Baba Yaga’s hut

When I was a kid, I was happiest floating on simply being. Laying on my belly, looking at the world up close. Or making cabins for faeries out of twigs on the ground. Wandering through the woods looking for mayflowers and magic. Making up stories and walking around in them until they felt real.

In part, that’s what childhood is for. For some of us, it’s a calling. As an older child and into adulthood, I hid in music, playing oboe and sending out stories written in notes and magic made with my breath.

The question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” made me supremely uncomfortable.

How do you explain to your friends who were planning on being teachers or nurses or mommies that you wanted to live in a hut like Baba Yaga’s so you could take home with you wherever you wandered…to live in a cabin in the woods and write stories. To have people come visit for tea and send them away with packets of magic folded in paper to be tucked away in a pocket and found later when needed?

I’ve had flashes of this as an adult… making things people found beautiful, writing stories, creating magic with sound, having tea with friends and when they left we both felt healed. In the primary world this is why we have hobbies, and friends, and tea.

Times when my ordinary work served a greater purpose.

Sometimes late at night I see myself as a much older woman, standing in the shade looking out at a beach of white sand and a sea of impossible blue. A gentle wind is teasing my dress, inviting me to dance. In this moment I know that whatever I do in life, I will have lived a good one when it’s done, hopefully long from now.

And still. I long to live in a cabin, creating magic that people can see and feel and hear. And maybe take home a packet of paper tucked in a pocket to be found later when needed.

Creativity, drawing, focus, Personal Development, Personal growth

Creative Block

Adele Satori

Creative Block.

OK! Let’s start off with the biggie that affects us all, eventually. Creative block. The ideas just won’t come. We suddenly have to clean our living space/binge watch/party. Anything but deal with the empty page/canvas/uncut fabric/musical instrument/dance floor staring back at us.

The key for me is to simply start.

“But Adele!” you say with exasperation “I can’t think of anything!!”
You want to know a secret? You don’t have to!

Take the 15 minute challenge! Set a timer if you like. Are you pacing, mind racing? Get outside for 15 minutes. Go for a walk, mindfully. Turn off your phone. Walk and observe. How would you describe what you are seeing? How are the trees moving? If you were a bird, what would your song sound like?

Another approach I use: when writing I might just start listing words that come to mind, in no particular order. Look at something nearby and describe it in minute detail. I will pick up a pen and start doodling with no objective. Play scales. Move around. Just. do. Something.

Close your eyes and breathe. Yes.. meditate! Get out of that “I can’t” head of yours!

Ready? Take the 15 minute challenge and let’s talk about it.

Creativity, drawing, focus, Personal growth, sensation, spirituality

Visualizing Sensation

Adele Satori

visualizing-sensationb

Today while walking, two men passed me.  They smelled of old books.

Not long afterwards, I saw them admiring a tree.  One patted it with affection and said “I’m sure this tree has stories to tell.”  The other nodded.

Later I saw them again, looking at the plants in the garden.  First one would say something about it, then the other.  Sharing their knowledge, not in competition, but in conversation.  They looked at each other often in the way of loving understanding that only people who’ve been companions a long time do.  In my head I named the men Verso and Recto… facing pages in a book.

I sat on a bench and began to doodle, as I sometimes do there.  Doodling for me is a way to turn off my Inner Narrator- that constant voice in my head. I don’t think about what comes next; I just let the pen go where it will on the paper.  This time, I realized.. I was drawing the way the garden sounded and felt.  I was drawing sensation.. not what I saw.  I tuned in and continued with this focus. I will leave it to you to interpret what I was hearing, seeing, and feeling.

I’ve done this with creating music, or dancing before, but not drawing, and it felt amazing.

Will you take a moment to let your Inner Narrator settle and silence?  What do you hear?  What do you feel?  What does that look like?

I’d love to see what you come up with!