Finding Simplicity: A Guided Visualization And Mood Doodle

This guided meditation and optional art prompt invite you to explore simplicity through art-based mindfulness. You’ll begin by grounding the body and calming the breath, then create a small mood doodle that gives form to what feels complicated. Through gentle witnessing and reflective journaling, the practice helps you listen for the quieter wisdom beneath surface-level stress.

Transcript

Welcome to this guided meditation and optional art prompt which invite you to explore simplicity.

We will begin with a brief moment to ground and center followed by a guided meditation about complexity and an invitation into an art prompt.

At the end I will guide you through a journaling process to help you reflect on the symbolism in the art.

The journaling will bring this practice back full circle to the topic of simplicity.

You can complete this entire practice in about 15 minutes.

Let us begin.

First find a comfortable seat.

You may be in a chair with your feet flat on the floor or on a cushion with your legs crossed.

Take a moment to let your hands rest wherever they're comfortable.

This could be on your knees or on your lap and with your palms facing up or down.

As we begin you can close your eyes if that feels right or soften your gaze as you focus to a place in front of you.

Begin by noticing your breath.

Notice the natural rhythm of the inhale and exhale.

Notice if you're breathing lightly or deeply and without effort begin to extend the inhale into the heart and lungs.

Pause then exhale fully and completely.

Pause again.

Continue breathing into the heart and lungs.

Pausing then exhaling completely.

Pausing.

Continue for a few more rounds of breath.

From here you may return to a natural breath or continue with the deeper breathing if that feels comfortable to you.

Bring your awareness now to the where your body makes contact with what's beneath you.

Notice the floor beneath your feet.

Notice your sits bones on the chair or cushion beneath you.

On the next inhale breathe into these contact points and as you exhale allow yourself to soften or settle just a little more.

Continue with the breath and now bring your awareness to the feet then up through the legs noticing any sensations or gripping in the upper legs and allow the legs to soften.

Bring your awareness now to the low back and belly space.

Again allow the belly to soften.

Move your awareness now up the spine to the backside ribs heart center and front side ribs.

Pause to notice the movement of the heart and ribs in relation to the breath.

Notice the expansion on the inhale and the receding on the exhale.

Now move your awareness up and through the shoulders and down through the arms into the tops of the hands the palms of the hands and the fingertips.

Notice if you feel any sensation or electricity in the fingertips.

Whether or not you feel a sensation it does not matter just notice.

Now move your awareness back up the arms into the shoulders and up through the neck.

Notice the backside head the ears the jaw and cheekbones.

Notice the tip of your nose the bridge of your nose and the eyes.

Notice the eyes the eyebrows and forehead and soften soften the eyes eyebrows and forehead.

Now notice the crown of the head.

Notice any sensations in the crown of the head.

Notice the right side body the left side body and the whole body.

Notice the whole body.

Notice the whole body and here let's take one more deep breath in pause and one long breath out.

As you allow your breath to come back to natural we will move into the guided imagery.

First bring to mind something in your life that feels complicated right now.

Just notice what surfaces for you.

Maybe it's a situation at work or tension with a family member or friend.

It could be a project that has too many moving parts or the size of your to-do list.

Whatever it is allow this to surface into your awareness and just acknowledge that it's there.

Now notice how this feels in your body.

How is this complexity experienced?

Perhaps you notice a heaviness or gripping in the belly or chest.

Perhaps you experience this as a form of energy or something else.

Just notice.

Notice if this complexity feels heavy or scattered.

Is it tangled?

Perhaps tight.

This is not a time to change or resist any sensations.

Just witness what's there.

In a moment I'll ask you to open your eyes and create a small image.

Just a quick doodle that captures this feeling or a sensation of complexity.

This will be a simple image.

You will select one to three colors and create this image using line,

Shape,

And symbols.

You can also use stick figures or scribbles and even a caption for the image.

Caption the image with a word or two.

This image is about giving what feels complicated a visual material form.

So we'll keep it quick,

Simple,

And honest.

When you're ready you may flutter the eyes open.

Again begin by drawing a simple square or shape about the size of a post-it note.

This is the container for your image.

This is important especially if the complexity that you are experiencing feels overwhelming or large.

A small square or size will help this to feel like it has better boundaries.

It will help this complexity to feel more contained.

Now as mentioned choose one to three colors that represent this experience of complexity.

The overwhelm,

The tangle,

The too muchness.

Try not to overthink or over edit this.

Follow your creative muse here.

Just notice the colors you are drawn to and inside that square create your image.

It can be a very loose doodle.

Use lines,

Shapes,

Symbols,

Or scribbles.

Again follow whatever wants to emerge.

Let the complexity show itself.

Let the lines be tangled.

Let the image be messy if that's what it wants.

Follow however the image wants to appear.

There is no right way to do this or wrong way.

You are simply translating your felt experience into visible form.

So you'll take about three to five minutes to do this mood doodle.

When it feels complete and it does not need to be a finished work,

Just a feeling of completeness,

We will move on to journaling with the image.

This is where it will move from complexity into an exploration of simplicity.

It is highly recommended that you complete the journaling.

You may wish to pause this recording until you are ready to journal.

Having completed your quick mood doodle about complexity,

Take a breath and observe what you've created.

Don't judge it.

Try not to analyze it.

Just notice it.

We call this witnessing the artwork.

What do you notice?

What colors showed up?

What kind of marks did you make?

Notice that this is what complexity around your given situation looks like when you give it form.

This is what your body and mind are trying to show you.

Now I invite you to dialogue with this image.

Dialoguing is a form of journaling with your artwork.

Here we honor that your image came from a part of the mind that is more intuitive,

More symbolic,

And more emotional than the thinking mind.

And your image knows something about simplicity that your busy mind might not have noticed while it was focused on complexity.

First observe the image and then write in your journal,

Dear Complexity,

What wisdom do you have to share about simplicity?

Then using stream of consciousness write a response with your non-dominant hand.

I will explain that again.

First write the question with your regular hand.

This is you talking to your artwork.

What wisdom do you have to share about simplicity?

Then switch your pen or pencil to the other hand,

The hand you don't usually write with.

This response is formed from the perspective of the image.

In a sense it is the image talking.

So again the first question is what wisdom do you have to share about simplicity?

For ease in completing this journal section I will explain three questions that you will ask the image.

You will write each question with your regular hand and write each response with your non-dominant hand.

Again the first question is what wisdom do you have to share about simplicity?

The second question is what one to three specific actions can I take to experience more simplicity?

Again what one to three specific actions can I take to experience more simplicity?

And lastly does the image have anything else to share?

So to repeat these questions and I'll give you a moment to catch up.

What wisdom do you have to share about simplicity?

What one to three specific actions can I take to experience more simplicity?

And is there anything else the image would like to share?

You might wish to pause the track until you are done writing those questions and then press play for more direction.

As you proceed with the journaling let the image answer.

Write down the first things that come to mind.

Try not to edit or interpret the image.

Just let it speak simply by writing down any thoughts that emerge as they emerge.

Allow yourself to write freely.

Here you may wish to pause the recording again or not.

I just have a few more words before we bring this practice to an end.

And that is to say complexity is loud.

It sits on the surface.

It demands your attention.

But simplicity?

Simplicity is related more to your wisdom.

It can arrive like a whisper.

As you complete this practice be reminded that it is not really your image that is doing the talking.

The image is the expression of your combined body-mind.

The quiet wisdom in your image is something that's been there all along.

It's something that is always available when you give yourself the space to listen.

Thank you for taking this time to practice art-based mindfulness with me.

The goodness in me honors the goodness in you.