For more information about my work as an Art Therapist please visit www.whiterosearttherapy.uk
I am excited to be bringing Art workshops to life. This is something I have been keen to do for some time and I am grateful for the opportunity to deliver these. If you are interesting in hosting a workshop or would like me to create something for your specific needs, I would be very happy to discuss this with you. I am also able to host private parties and facilitate workshops for you and your friends/ group.
I have studied Ascension Meditation and Mindfulness with Sandy Newbigging, Buddhist Mediation with Kusumavarsa, as well as from personal study through reading and online courses with Tara Brach. I attend workshops and practice yoga. I am keen to promote art as something anyone can do and enjoy, enabling adults to heal from memories of being told they could not draw as young children if this is what they need, and letting go of limitations they have accumulated through the years. Combining Art with Mindfulness is a wonderful way to enable this. Dance can also be a used as a Moving Meditation, creating Art after such movement is another beautiful approach to it.
Magical Circles
The circle – one of the simplest of shapes and a magical one.
The Mandala – sacred circle, container of the essence, it can be created through dance, music and art.
We will use these elements to connect to the current season, Spring, a time of New Beginnings and Birth. We will dance in a moving meditation, circling through the seasons and the elements connected to them. We will finish in Spring, engaged with our Heart Chakra to consider our Heart’s Desire and what we would like to bring into our life. We will then use this connection to settle into art making and create a Manifestation Mandala and let the magic happen…
No dance or art experience necessary.
Drawing for Mindfulness
Drawing: the representation of something through mark making, on paper.
Mindfulness: being consciously aware in the present moment, acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
The combination of drawing and mindfulness is one where each can help the other be realised. One aspect of mindfulness is non judgement, this is very different to most of our history with art. From our early school years teachers and parents make judgements about our drawings, and so we learn to do the same. And we forget the enjoyment and pleasure we experienced from making marks, becoming preoccupied by what the end product will look like, whether it will be good enough to please our audience. We stop doing for ourselves. We’re looking ahead, perhaps also thinking back to how our last piece was received. As we bring our focus into the present moment, allowing ourselves to feel now, accepting our thoughts now, being aware of our body now, we become present with the act of drawing now. As our mind wanders we can keep acknowledging this and return our attention to our mark making. The more we fully experience drawing in each moment the more mindful we become.
The aim of Drawing for Mindfulness workshops is to support and encourage participants in becoming self-aware and comfortable in focusing their attention on themselves without judgement, in letting go of expectations, and in finding peace simply in doing and being present. In this context there will be a need to let go of the notion of creating something resembling a “masterpiece” and an invitation to find peace by noticing the beautiful in simplicity.
Magical Vision 