Calm Down & Get Your Zentangle On
Day 125 of Photo Inspirations — Calm Down & Get Your Zentangle On
DW — my first Zentangle masterpiece. LOL! One of the perks of travelling several days at sea, was the free time we had to relax, play games, read, talk, go to culinary and health classes, eat and eat and eat, and learn Zentangle from our talented friend, Nancy Crow. She’s a Certified Zentangle Instructor. Zentangle is like doodling, but with purpose. It’s a specific way to draw images, designs and patterns using a pen and paper. And, beyond the enjoyment of just doing it, I understand it’s become a phenomenon that is used for stress reduction, education, therapy and even motivational training. Nancy has been called upon to go to crisis women’s groups to teach Zentangle, and because of the positive difference it’s made in the women’s lives, she is brought back to train others to teach the classes.
Zentangle is based on a human behavior where you refrain from planning and you just allow the lines and shapes to unintentionally emerge. Marilynn and I had issues with that part — we wanted to correct and erase what we viewed as mistakes, but the point is to go-with-the-flow. If you go to Pinterest or search the internet, you’ll see some really great inspirations for designs.
There’s several reasons why people Zentangle:
It’s Simple — it only requires a black pen and paper. Nancy told us that Don, her husband, likes her company while watching TV. If she’s not so interested in the program, she Zentangles.
It’s Self-Soothing — it’s calming and provides relaxation benefits — especially if you’re not a perfectionist and you just enjoy putting the pen to paper and staying open to whatever emerges.
It Teaches How to Own Your Mistakes — using a pen on paper requires that you risk making mistakes. Zentangling teaches you how to incorporate what seems like “mistakes” into the overall pattern of the design.
I told you about Zentangle in this post because it just might be something you’d like to try. And, the benefits remind me of how we should live our lives. It’s okay to make mistakes. Nothing is ever perfect — but how we adjust to imperfections (mistakes or the unexpected) in life is what really matters. My husband was a Type A personality — he was a perfectionist. His perfectionism was seen in the labeled baskets in my pantry, in the way he dressed and every building project he pursued. His example made me strive for being more like him I’m quite sure one of the reasons why our marriage worked is because I was his complete opposite. I was okay with “so so”, or “it’s good enough”! I didn’t have to win the game. I didn’t have to be number one. He did. I rounded him out — he became more relaxed in his perfectionism over the years, and I became more organized.
The point is, if we stay so focused on perfection, we’ll lose the joy of the here and now and taking life in stride. If we simply enjoy the creative process and realize that “all things (even the mistakes) work together for good”, we can enjoy every single moment of it. So let’s calm down and get our Zentangle on!
Romans 8:28 “ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purposes.”