Relaxing Into Spring
Arting and Stress Reduction +
Free Coloring Sheets!
April is National Stress Awareness Month, which is an opportunity to raise awareness about the impact of stress on our lives and to promote healthy coping strategies. One such strategy is art-making, which has been shown to reduce stress and improve overall well-being from dopamine to heart rate to even potentially lengthening one’s life! Art really does the body good, and I encourage all of you to give it some time during your days and weeks. It’s about the process and getting lost a bit outside of time on the intuitive side.
I’m kicking it off with a series of free coloring sheets you can download and print on you printer! If you want to use watercolor, I found that the presentation, matte paper worked well (though not as good as watercolor paper). You could do these with your family and honestly frame them easily, perhaps a bathroom art!
Mindful coloring is a popular way to reduce stress and anxiety. Choose a coloring book with intricate designs, and set aside some time each day to color mindfully. Focus on the present moment, and allow yourself to relax and unwind. I like to have a candle on too and sometimes some groovey new age music vibes like Anugama’s Shamanic Dream.
A note about the coloring sheets in this series: I make these in Midjourney where I use words to describe what I am imaging, and the AI program returns a series of images. Ones I like, I keep. It is a bit random and good results are a bit of luck and really good use of words. 🙂
Inkjet Paper for Watercolor
Example presentation I used for watercolors. This matte paper doesn’t buckle too much. Regular inkjet paper is fine for markers and dry media such as colored pencils and crayons
If you use these, I would love to see photos of your work and how you experienced it! Use #FloralPolarBearColoringSheet on your posts or tag me @jillyhop333. 🙂
I also am selling a pack of 13 images including this polar bear on my Etsy. Foxes, unicorns, ducks are among the animals featured: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1465403489/13-spring-coloring-sheets-mothers-day
Doodle Noodle – Red Thread Evening
We had a relaxing evening opening with a Red Thread Circle. Finding Your Song -- themese emerged immediately around the need to claim one's place at the table proactively, to claim one's voice without concern what others may think. We also did a few doodles around...
Suffering as Compost
Our Suffering should be composted in the earth, not kept in the kitchen to be stinky. My partner said to me the other day: "learning the art of letting go, you are free to find your blessings." Here is more of the context after a day when new memories came in. **...
Spring & Trees & Flowers & Forests! Oh my!
Some doodles from the past week. 🙂
First Soulful Card Class!
Yesterday I taught my first Soulful Affirmation Card Deck class based on Shiloh Sophia's teachings. I created the container to do the work, and we did Red Thread circle opening, as well as several meditations to connect to our stories -- both the ones of the critic...
Noodle Doodle April 11th!
Come relax for an evening of doodling and connection with others! April 11th from 6 to 9 PM. Sign up on Facebook!
Soulful Affirmation Card Workshop
Are you looking to create a stronger connection to yourself and others? Are you looking to tap into a wellspring of energy that comes from you? Are you looking to consciously engage in the stories you tell yourself, and leave behind the ones that prevent you from...
Happy Spring!
May Spring be beautiful.
Painting in the Woods
I created this for someone special, and it also uses the theme of the red thread -- how we are all connected, and yet each of us carries our own gifts to bring to the world. Nature is a place of renewal and uses a syncopation that is our natural rhythm, a song that if...
Noodling on Doodling Class!
Friday had my first doodling class, where we did Red Thread circle as taught by Shiloh Sophia, with the theme of showing up, being present with what is. And then we opened the circle with painting and snacks and wine! It was a relaxing night iof renewal! Hope you can...
