Zen for the Soul

So, I started a new hobby (as if I needed one other thing in my life). This one has lots of benefits . . . or so I'm told. It's called "Zentangle®", and my friends . . . I'm diggin' it! ;)

I was introduced to tangling (or Zentangle®) a couple of years ago at The Creative Connection event I attended in Minneapolis. There I met Kass Hall, a fellow Hello Soul, Hello Business friend, and soon discovered she was in the process of publishing a book about the art of tangling. You can find her book, Zentangle Untangled: Inspiration and Prompts for Meditative Drawing, by clicking on the link. Kass has awesome energy about her . . . I could have listened to her for hours.

My initial thought was this was sort of like a higher level of doodling . . . and what's NOT to love about doodling? (I am a doodler from way back.) And while I realize there is so much more to the actual method than what I am aware of, I will say that it is a relaxing form of creativity, and one that I am beginning to rely on at the end of my day to help me unwind.

I think I may look into taking a class or two, to learn about the method and determine how far I would like to explore it. In the meantime, I thought I would share with you a few of the tangles I did this weekend. (Yes . . . I did all of these this past weekend. Lucky for me this was an open weekend for us - one I intended on spending vegging in the backyard - so I had lots of free time to become obsessed with my new hobby!) If you are a Facebook friend of mine, I apologize . . . these are going to be repeats for you. I found myself snapping pictures and posting Instagram updates on these throughout the weekend. I also apologize for the quality of the photos themselves . . . I took them off my phone and not with my regular digital camera. But, I wanted to share them anyway . . .

This last one took me HOURS . . . HOURS, I tell ya. But the end result . . . really cool. I think I am a Swirler Tangler. Yes. Swirler Tangler am I. Perhaps I need to get a t-shirt made up that says just that. ;)

Whatever it is, I will tell you that it does relax my soul. It allows me to free my mind from worries and concerns, and lets me just . . . create. And as many (if not all) of you already know . . . creating is what I love most to do. So for me, it was a wonderful weekend of doing just that.

You can find out more about Zentangle and The Zentangle® Method, which was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, at www.zentangle.com.  Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc.

Thanks for letting me share my new hobby with you. I'll be back in a day or two with a few more stories to share.

Peace, dear friend.