Anxiety & Meditative Art

Friends, as of late, I have been anxious. 

A quick glance into the current cultural zeitgeist informs me I am not alone in this feeling. Election stress and anxiety are out and about in the world and incessant political text and phone calls do not help. I cannot chalk my feeling that a sandbag is sitting on my heart up to politics alone, but it has been, perhaps, nice (?) to have some widespread camaraderie in this feeling. 

In an attempt to curb the anxiety, I have followed a meditation practice sent to me by my boss, listened to a podcast on sitting still, and gone for a loooooooong walk. These were all helpful in some way but when I would, in the evening time, return to sitting on my couch (I have a couch now!! thank you Ella) the dreadful, uneasy, difficult-to-breathe feeling would creep back in. 

I'm not unfamiliar with this feeling. Sometimes I just get this way. And I know that what I need is to find a way to hard reset my brain. The thing that works best for me is making involved, intricate, and abstract line drawings. 

The focus required to connect one thin line back to another thin line is like jumping into the creek on a hot, sticky day and emerging rinsed, renewed, and refreshed. 

But now I have a bunch of line drawings. While I do not have to do anything with them, I do sort of think I should. So, of course, they are going here, on the blog. 

Also of note, god it is good to see the blogosphere busy again!! What a delight to share this space with you all! What a gift to know some of your thoughts! Here is hoping you all are not feeling too anxious about the state of things. And if you are, here is hoping you have some ways to cope. 

Anyway, here are some drawings I did this weekend to get my breathing back to normal.