‘A safe space to draw’
By: Katie Mccurdy
Tags: Healthcare, Doodle, Design, Drawing, Visual Thinking

Why and when to draw

After a short meditation exercise, we talked through some research about how drawing benefits the mind. For example, drawing stimulates creativity, helps you focus, helps you solve problems, and can reduce stress. For more on this topic I recommend Cara Bean’s cute little illustrated booklet ‘Why Draw?’ We also discussed how drawing and visually communicating with other people can help us understand one another and collaborate better; for more on this, see the book Meeting Design.

We also discussed scenarios in which drawing is helpful, the first being when you’re feeling stuck and computer work isn’t solving it. Does that sound familiar?

Sometimes you just can’t wrap your mind around a topic unless you map it out and process it in physical space. Our brains only get the benefits of drawing when we are actually ‘drawing’ — not typing or creating visuals on the computer. Recently I’ve gotten stuck while planning a presentation, trying to figure out a trip itinerary, and planning this very workshop. In each case, once I realized I was at an impasse, I grabbed a big piece of paper (11x17 is a great size for this) and started mapping out my thoughts. It helped. No matter how big or small the problem is, drawing it always helps me distill my thinking, and I think it’s one of the most powerful tools we can use to get unstuck.

Beyond unraveling your thoughts, another impactful way to use drawing is to distill what you are hearing from other people:

“I think you’re saying…”

It’s like visual active listening, and it is one of the best things you can do to improve collaboration with others. I’ve done this often in meetings, jumping up to the whiteboard to take visual notes and draw out diagrams. It is an immensely helpful way to bring the group into agreement about what we are — and are not — talking about.

Of course it’s even better if you can draw with others. Collaborating visually, whether on paper, real or virtual whiteboards, or through other tools, is a more efficient and fun way to work with your team.

After discussing these and a few other scenarios, we jumped right into drawing.

Drawing to calm the mind

We began with a few easy pattern exercises to help people calm their minds and get used to putting pen to paper. I had them draw tight spirals — starting in the center, spiral out and keep the lines as close together as you can without touching. There is something special about creating spirals! As I draw them, I can feel a sensation in the front of my brain, like it’s being massaged. It is meditative. You should try it right now and see what I mean.

Here’s another pattern with circles:

We did few more similar pattern doodles, and after the workshop the attendees told me that these mind-calming drawing exercises were their favorite part of the day. There is a whole series of books out there to teach people how to create simple, brain-soothing patterns; at the recent Graphic Medicine Conference I met Sandy Steen Bartholomew, creator of some of the ZenTangle series of books and cards — I highly recommend her books if you’re interested in this topic. I bought the Tangles of Santa Fe, which has lots of very cool southwestern patterns.

On the topic of calming the mind, we also discussed the how nature can help us calm down and reduce our stress, be more creative, and increase our problem solving — actually a lot of the same benefits as doodling! So during the day I diffused essential oils and brought print-outs of nature scenes as inspiration.