pause. breathe. check in. finding our centre again
#veryhumanregulation #selfregulation #selfregulationskills
Here’s an interesting thing - we drew this yesterday as our daily self regulation art activity. We are holidaying at the coast and it was a particularly stormy and bleak and mostly cooped up indoors day. We snapped this shot on a morning drive and then set to draw it as the rain poured. We drew it with black ink pens. We have never ever tried drawing with simple ink pens before (well not since primary school where we confirmed for ourselves that we “sucked” at it). So this was a new thing. A personal experiment. And we loved it. We had so much fun and are itching to keep going and exploring where we can take this medium. And we kept thinking how easily accessible this is for everyone and anyone - just pen and paper and some fun squiggling, people. awesome! yay!
And then we didn’t post it. Notice it is already the next morning… yep! Why not, you ask? All the usual demons: self doubt, insecurity, fear, you name them.
So posting now is us saying phooey to you, pet demons! This is our drawing and not only did it keep us regulated (it’s job), we had so much fun doing it and discovered something new (it’s outcome).
Thank you pen and paper!
and thank you, universe, for the wonderful metaphor of pounding and caressing waves on the seemingly unforgiving rocks. we noticed 😉
ocean reminder in the rain ink pen on paper
drawing by Pseudo
writing by Saxon & Maddie
So here we are sharing our daily practice of PAUSE. BREATHE. CHECK IN. Clearing the clutter and finding me, myself and I in the present moment. And we invite you to follow along and let's keep each other on track? Or try to at least, some days are still pretty bumpy. Sigh
Join onto the main page of Ground Control to Major Whoa explore how to join this journey: LINK HERE
How We Go About It
We go outside (fresh air) and pay attention to nature and details in the world around us (focusing tool). Each day we select one item or snap a photo with our phone and bring it home. We select the medium that most matches our mood or that we feel will be the most regulating in that moment and we set to work drawing (calming our nervous system and bringing ourselves back on line through hyper focusing)
We set an alarm for 20 minutes (our containment) but you figure out what works best for you. Sometimes a quick 5 will do; other times it feels like we need half a day, doesn't it? We do often repeat this exercise several times through the day when it's a real doozy of a day. Smile