Doodling is a recreational activity that can help you visualize what's hidden in your subconscious mind and learn to understand yourself better.
Your doodles can reveal things about your life and your attitude towards your goals. You can also get in touch with your feelings.
Doodling can be very enlightening. You can perceive anything you want to imagine from what you've drawn.
Your feelings and emotions are always portrayed in doodles when you let your subconscious mind communicate through your artwork.
You can also discover a way to let your inner child speak to you by visualizing what's hidden deep within your lost memories.
Have you ever doodled while talking on the phone or when you had nothing else to do? Did you ever notice something about your feelings you were unaware of when you examined your creation afterward?
I discovered it works without paying attention to the creative process. The trick is to be open-minded about it and let your subconscious communicate with you through your doodles.
Even if you think you can't draw a picture, you'd be amazed at your subconscious mind's ability to communicate visually.
When you doodle, your subconscious mind will be free to speak to you in its own way if you let it. So, whatever you feel like doing when doodling, go for it.
Take a blank piece of paper. Any size will do. Sometimes, I use index cards, but a 9x12 sketchpad gives more room for your artwork.
Use a pen or a pencil. If you want color in your doodles, get a set of felt markers.
Start anywhere on the paper, drawing a line, a circle, or some other pattern.
Let your mind go free, and your hand move anywhere it wants to go. The idea is to let your subconscious mind communicate without filtering or censoring.
I drew the doodle at the top of this article without giving it conscious thought. It's an excellent example of what can come from your subconscious mind when you don't pay attention while doodling.
I didn't plan anything, but it turned out there was an egg and a man's shadow. When I examined it afterward, I realized that the man might represent "me," and the egg might represent the birth of my ultimate future.
That was very revealing, and it gave me something to think about.
Modifying your doodle after your subconscious has completed its creativity is okay. There are no rules as long as you don't censor yourself. Let your conscious mind connect with your subconscious feelings.
You'll want to let those hidden feelings emerge. After that, you can go wild and do anything you want with your creations.
As another experiment, I made several doodles without removing the pencil from the paper. Then, I examined it and added a few things, such as the eyes in my doodle below.
When you think you're done, look it over from every angle. Now it gets interesting. Let your conscious mind get involved.
While you look at your doodle with awareness, meaningful ideas develop from your conscious thoughts. Continue drawing what your subconscious mind started.
Rotate your doodle and view it from every angle. When you view it from a different angle, you might see more in it that you didn't notice, something you can develop further from what you started.
Draw whatever additional artwork you feel like including to complete your doodle. Now you're working on a conscious level. The subconscious part of the work is done.
Example of Conscious Completion
Those circular strokes in the doodle below were my way of letting my mind go free with mindless twirls of the pen. Later, I completed it by adding eyes and filling in some color.
You may discover fascinating changes that occur with your drawing style when you doodle over many years of your life. As you go through various stages of your life, different patterns may emerge through your doodles.
For example, I discovered that my doodles had changed over time. There was a time in my life when they all seemed to be faces. Then, there was another period when all I drew were meaningless squiggles.
They seemed meaningless, but I knew my subconscious mind was trying to communicate something to me.
Looking back on my doodles years later, I realized I was going through a difficult time with confusion and uncertainty. That was portrayed in my doodles of that period, with seemingly insignificant shapes and designs emerging.
Even when your doodle has meaningless shapes, there could be an indication of order and structure that means something crucial to your understanding of yourself.
For example, when I analyzed the following doodle years after I made it, I saw I was trying to maintain sanity in my mind. I recall that I was attempting to put puzzling pieces of my life together.
Your doodles are precious. When you look at them later in life, they may bring thoughts to the surface that would have been lost forever. They provide a visual interpretation of your past.
Maybe you've made doodles many years ago. What did you do with them? Did you throw away all that incredible art whenever you doodled while talking on the phone or listening to a lecture in school?
An excellent way to save your doodles is to draw in a sketchbook. And you’ll be pleased when you find it years later. That’s what I did. I saved what I made early in my life, and I’m glad I did.
When you look at your old doodles when you're older, you may see something about yourself that you'll realize with a different understanding. Doodles are enormously revealing when you look at them later in life.
I actually shocked myself when I found the doodle shown below that looks very much like a desktop computer with a keyboard and mouse.
The thing is that I drew that in 1969, long before home computers were a thing!
See what I mean about saving your creations? You never know how ahead of the time your subconscious mind might be.
Doodling is enjoyable and can be a great stress reliever. It lets your inner child speak to you. You should try it, especially if you want to unlock communication with your subconscious mind.
Check out your local art or crafts store for art supplies, such as drawing pads, art journals, and color pen sets. You might even be inclined to get a large canvas and create something big from your subconscious mind.
There are many ways to do it. You can use color if you wish. Or, to keep things simple, use a pen or pencil to make black-and-white sketches. Many of my doodles were just pen strokes.
So, get started, and have fun with your creative doodling while letting your subconscious emerge.
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