Hello beautiful soul,
Welcome into this space.
It's again time to take a pause,
To calm your mind,
And come with me on a guided art exercise.
You don't have to be an artist to take this journey.
All you need is something to draw on,
And something to draw with.
This is not about creating a breathtaking artwork,
But using the process of drawing or doodling to distract your mind from the craziness around you for a while.
We'll start with a few deep breaths,
Just grounding ourselves in this space and in this moment,
And I'll tell you a little story,
Something you can use as inspiration as you draw.
Draw shapes,
Images of colour,
Swirling lines,
You can add some words,
Whatever comes naturally to you in the moment.
Let's begin.
If it is safe to do so,
And if you are comfortable doing so,
Close your eyes.
If you prefer,
You can softly focus your eyes on a neutral point,
A spot on the floor or the wall across from you.
We'll start with three deep breaths.
In through your nose,
Fill up your lungs,
Expand your chest and belly,
Slowly out,
And relax into this moment.
Again,
In through your nose,
Feeling that expansion,
Out,
Relaxing deeper,
Feeling how gently you're held within your body.
One more breath in,
Fill your body,
And out.
Secure,
Relaxed,
And aware of yourself in this moment and in this place.
How often do you really think about your hands?
How often do you really look at your hands?
Take a moment now,
And place one or both of your hands in front of you,
On your lap,
On the table,
Wherever you may be.
See their shape,
The rounded rectangle,
Of your palm,
The tapering lengths of your fingers.
Look at the beautiful colour of your skin,
Warmed by the blood moving through the millions of tiny capillaries.
Does the colour change when you flex your palms and fingers?
What does the skin feel like?
Is it different from the inside of your hand or the top of your hand?
Stretch your fingers out,
And look at all the hundreds of criss-crossing lines on your palms and fingers and wrists.
Some are deep and defined,
Some might be braided and wandering,
And some are so fine and shallow,
You can only see them when you adjust your hands in the light.
Take a moment to look at your fingerprints.
Are they all similar in shape,
Or do the patterns of world lines change from finger to finger?
Perhaps somewhere you have a small scar that has changed their pattern over time.
Are there ridges or calluses on your hands or fingers?
Are there ridges or calluses on your hands or fingers?
Do your hands feel heavy,
Or light,
Or stiff,
Or supple?
Let's place a hand on your drawing surface and trace the outline of it,
Around the curve of the palm and down into the valleys between each finger.
Now let's fill that shape with patterns,
Pictures,
Or words that describe the journey that your hands have taken you on in this life.
What would that look like?
Have your hands helped create gardens full of life,
With a soft fall of petals,
Swaying leaves and the hum of bees?
Perhaps you have crafted metal,
Or stone,
Or ceramic into unctuous,
Curving forms where swaying lines intersect with sharp angles.
Have you built machines,
Snaking wires and silvery circuits,
Interlocking gear wheels and the sharpening of hammers?
Are you a baker,
Using your hands to knead bread,
Fashion delicate decorations,
Or smooth swirls of frosting?
Are you a carer?
Have your hands reached out to comfort,
To lift,
To feed,
To caress?
Perhaps your hands have changed over time.
Have they become strangers to you?
Do you see the beauty in them?
These are your hands,
The first part of you that reached out to experience the physical world.
The first to learn what was hot,
What was cold,
What was warm,
What was cold,
What is rough,
What is smooth.
Cold water,
Warm earth,
The feeling of the wind on a summer afternoon as you drive along the road towards home.
The soft fur on your pet's head,
The feel of holding your grandmother's hand as you walk in her garden,
Reaching out to touch the hand of the person you love,
The silk and softness of your child's hair.
These are your hands,
They are unique and there will never be any other hands that look exactly like them.
They tell the story of our lives,
The work we do,
The art we create,
The adornments we put on them,
The pain we go through,
The things we put our passion into.
And every little movement of these hands,
Brushing your hair behind your ears,
Holding the pen that you draw with,
Waving goodbye to your friends,
Every little movement is governed by an almost mechanical interplay between tendons and veins and bones and muscles.
All the little bones and muscles in your wrists and your hands and your fingers,
They all move together for every little gesture and most of the time we don't even notice until something goes wrong.
Perhaps you hurt your hands,
Perhaps you have pain in them nowadays as you grow older.
So often we don't notice what we have until it's gone and we take it for granted when things just work.
This is true not of our hands alone but of our whole body.
So often we seem to be seeking to escape the physical body that we're in.
We seek to escape this physical form and return to our more spiritual state,
To what feels like our true form,
Our true home,
Beyond this physical world.
But every now and then we need to remember that we have chosen to take on this physical journey in this physical form and even though it's hard,
There's a miraculousness to that.
Even if we don't always like our physical form,
It is remarkable in its complexity,
In its working,
In what it can do.
And our hands are the extension of that physical body that are usually the first to interact with the outside world and with others.
Your hands are beautiful because they're yours,
Because of what they have done,
What they could do,
What they will do.
While you continue to fill in the outline of your hand,
Take a moment and look at the movements that your hand is making.
The way the color changes on your fingertip with each movement,
The way your fingers move,
The way you move your hand.
Take a moment and look at the movements that your hand is making.
The way the color changes on your fingertip with a slight pressure as you draw or write.
How smoothly your wrist moves as you negotiate a corner,
The supple movement as you write a word.
There's a beauty in that,
A poetry almost.
And take a moment to be grateful for your hand,
What it can do,
The people it can reach out and connect with.
It's a little reminder to honor this physical form that we've been given to journey on through this life.
Thank you for joining me today for this guided art exercise.
I hope it brought you a moment of relaxation,
Of peace,
And has left you with a deeper appreciation and connectedness with yourself.
Until next time,
Beautiful soul,
Walk in peace.
