Well, here we are in 2018! If you’re reading this post, you made it to another year; another chance at new opportunities; another opportunity to begin your life again. Whatever was in 2017 is now your past, my past, our past. And to begin my year, I’m expanding on a creative endeavor that I discovered at the end of 2017: zentangle art.

Zentangle huh?

That was my response when I first heard of zentangling on Instagram. I’d never heard

My zentangle heart. 🙂

of it. But have you ever looked at or experienced something and known right away that it definitely belongs in your life? That’s how I felt about crocheting, writing, running, yoga, and now zentangle art.

I spend a lot of time on myself figuring out what activities make me happy, stress me out, or like writing – make me happy AND stress me out. I love adventure! But I don’t want to waste these years of my life putting my energy into anything that doesn’t fulfill me in some way. So I pay careful attention to what I’m doing in my life and more importantly how I feel about it. Not even my hobbies have permission to tangle my life in such a way that I have to struggle to untangle it.

What I’ve learned about me is that I love to create. That’s the common denominator with most of my hobbies that I love: writing, crocheting, dot mandalas (another new fave!), and quilting. Well, I have yet to create a quilt but I’ve got a zillion books on it! But I realized that creating fires up my brain cells, clears any cobwebs hanging around, and organizes whatever stress I might be feeling into neat little folders (boxes if necessary) so that I can calmly deal with them. Realizing that creating is what soothes me when I’m sitting, I seek various ways to express myself, which is how I stumbled upon zentangling.

My dreamcatcher. 🙂

What is zentangling you say?

Honestly, (insert sheepish grin) I’ve been practicing this for a month and I had to go back to Google to sum up a definition for this post. Basically, Zentangle is a method – The Zentangle Method – created about 10 years ago. It is abstract art that uses repetitive strokes to create beautiful images. I’ll leave it at that for now. There’s a host of information about it on Google that I have yet to look up myself because that’s my way. Depending on what it is, I learn by doing. When you see pictures of zentangle art, you can see that it’s very easy to learn, and sooooo relaxing. I create at work, and if I didn’t need to get up and care for my patient, I’d stay glued to my chair creating.

And you know, there’s nothing better than having something that you can lose yourself in. The older (and more mature) I get, I realize just how important it is to do the things you love (work or hobby) and even if you’re on a leg of your journey that doesn’t allow you to do what you love (yet!) it’s still possible to find your passion and squeeze it in.

There’s always going to be a certain amount of stress in our lives, be it job, friends, family, co-workers, rain when you step outside the hairdresser’s with your new do – whatever. But there are ways to deal with it. Exercise definitely helps me: yoga, running, walking, step aerobics. When I sweat, I release, whether I’m losing weight or not. But when I’m sitting, I keep my hands busy creating.

Try it! You’re just sitting anyway.

Peace and blessings!