I began the workshop with inspire, prepared for the difficulty that might arise in participants, (as so often does in myself), from the process of ‘freeing up.’ However as I often find my fears are in fact that- my own! The creativity and openness of the group squashed all these concerns. I wanted to allow the participants to lead on what they found most enjoyable, yet add challenge, which often means not following,…. but the reasoning around this is so participants are able to try out different ways to express themselves, and perhaps find or rediscover more natural ways…a paradox that makes my head spin! and a difficult balance that I won`t always get right.
Participants reflected that they became more at ‘ease’ with allowing themselves to doodle freely, even the exercise where they used their wrong hand to do the same doodle, was met with openness. With one group member actually preferring it. One group member commented that being, ‘asked to doodle almost made it feel harder to relax.’ I can relate to that…as soon as you`re asked to do something it makes it more conscious and the whole point of doodling is to not think about it! We also noticed, and I include myself in this, that once we looked at zentangle drawings for inspiration and tried to create our own, levels of frustration heightened and two participants wanted to begin again. There is something about letting go of the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and how you nurture that in a group.
I am hoping as we relax into the sessions we`ll get freer and become more at ease with experimenting, which will hopefully lead to some discovery. I feel really excited to meet the group again and more relaxed about what will occur.