I Spy, I Draw: How Art Makes You More Mindful
ADHD hack against racing thoughts: Draw anything you observe
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ADHD hack against racing thoughts: Draw anything you observe
If you have read any of my posts about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), you know how hard it can be for our brains to slow down. Constantly racing, looking for excitement…until you look out your window and see a sunset…and decide to draw it. Even if you have no artistic skill, you can observe the sunset, its shapes, and shadows, and think about why it looks the way it does. What colors and textures do I see? Can I reproduce them?
I spy, I draw
When I noticed the beautiful sunset through my window, I took my iPad and did an initial color exploration:
The sunset was changing fast, so I added some additional notes on texture:
Then I took a few photos with my phone so I have some references for later. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to come back to this idea, knowing my ADHD self, but fortunately enough I was sitting in a boring online meeting and decided to sketch on the side. I opened my iPad and there it was: my sunset study in the shape of a glorious blob. I took my phone and looked for the picture (this took an enormous amount of willpower and executive control)…
…and I found it. I got lost in the drawing, I think I even got mindful for a minute. But it’s not just the act of drawing and choosing the colors that made me feel closer to stopping my racing thoughts. I felt a connection to what I have observed in my environment. This wasn’t just any sunset I googled and tried to copy. This was my sunset — exactly as it looked through my window. Why does that matter, you might ask?
Being mindful is not about silencing your thoughts or doing some cognitive tricks, it’s about being present…in the moment…in your surroundings…feeling like a part of the world. The first step is noticing the sunset, the second step is observing it, and the third one is replicating it in art. And in this final step something magical happens.
The magic of art
I don’t know what exactly the source of this magic is, but your own reproduction of the sunset brings your own individual artistic value (regardless of your skill) to this natural phenomenon. From my short-lived reading of Hegel’s Esthetics, I remember his point quite clearly: The esthetic value of a painting of a tree is different than that tree seen in nature. The first one is art, the second one is not. (Don’t hold me accountable for this interpretation, I read it a long time ago.)
Sometimes observing things in nature can be enough to relax and become more mindful, but creating art out of what we observed is so much more powerful. It tells us: You noticed the sunset and this is what it spoke to you. You saw it with your own eyes, and you have the power of giving your own meaning to the world around you.
I hope I didn’t lose any of you with this poetic rambling, I got inspired I guess. The point is, today my number one ADHD hack against racing minds is:
Look around you, observe things, draw them. Find the beauty, find the ugly, and let them speak to you.
I spy, I find uniqueness
On my walks through the park, I also found many types of falling leaves. If you stop to notice, they are all quite different from each other and have interesting shapes. Some of them are completely unique in their shapes and colors.
Ever since I listened to John Green talking about Ginkgo biloba on his podcast Anthropocene Reviewed, I started paying attention to the unusual beauty of Ginkgo’s leaves:
Their color in fall is uniquely a very shy yellow, not as vibrant and mixed as other trees, which makes them seem so elegant and mysterious. I tried to capture exactly that color in the drawing above.
Their veins are fan-shaped, they never form a network like in other trees. This is unique among seed plants (I checked this on Wikipedia).
Ginkgo’s extract is used for supplements helping with concentration and focus, which sounds amazing for us ADHDers. I don’t know of any other trees around me that can do that! (But Wikipedia says the efficacy of Ginkgo in this field has not yet been scientifically proven…)
A Story About a Worried Leaf
“It took me so long to see it, but I see it now. And it’s beautiful.”medium.com
Whether it’s Ginkgos or sunsets, take time to observe them and reproduce them through the lens of your experience.
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And if you are interested in ADHD, check out my other articles about it:
Living With Adult ADHD: Explained In Comics
Chasing a life where everything is exciting and nothing is boringmedium.com
Owning ADHD and Coping With It: In Comics
I rarely read books, but when I do, it’s because I want to write one.medium.com
Living With Adult ADHD Is Spooky: Explained in Comics
Muahahaha — 4 spooky things that might happen to ADHDers and other innocent souls this Halloweenmedium.com