When Making Art is Too Much…

Mindful drawing can help strengthen your creative muscles.

Sometimes making art can be too much.

Too much energy.

Too much preparation.

Too much executive functioning required.

Too expensive.

Too complicated to make it happen.

This can happen to any of us, even the self-proclaimed artists. We take on so much everyday and for those of us with neurodivergent brains, we are usually taking in way more information because we perceive more details in many different aspects.

So it makes sense that after all of the things we need to do - coordinate schedules, help our clients/patients, keep up with paperwork, take care of our own medical appointments, do ALL of the things for our children, keeping ourselves and our people alive and ok - we can’t manage doing one. more. thing.

AND! We know that if we don’t take care of ourselves we are on a straight-shot path to burnout. How can we make regular self-care a realistic part of our daily lives? Well, that could be a whole graduate level course on it’s own. But I have a simple step that has been helping me recently.

Mindful drawing.

Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Come on Jennifer, drawing isn’t going to help me with my burnout!” I hear you but let me make my case.

Drawing is a very accessible activity. You don’t need much, just a surface (like a piece of paper), a writing tool (pencil, pen, marker, etc.), and a couple of minutes of your attention.

Now, what can this practice actually DO for you? Over time creative expression can contribute to many positive benefits including: improved expression overall, self-compassion, feelings of calm and relaxation, empowerment, achievement, confidence, and more.

These benefits don’t require planets aligning or anything monumental. You just need to engage in the practice consistently or semi-consistently.

Your creativity is like a muscle, it needs to be strengthened over time with ongoing effort. And here’s some more good news, you don’t have to be “GOOD” at it! I mean, what does that actually mean anyway?

You just have to do it, you just have to try. There’s no right or wrong way to do it and you never even need to show it to anybody, it’s just for you to release and connect with yourself.

For me this has turned into a nighttime ritual where I sit with my drawing pad and my markers to engage with whatever shows up on the paper while I nibble on a snack. I’ve come to look forward to these rituals, sometimes it even helps me get through the day thinking about being able to draw at night after all of the mayhem of the day. Sometimes I need to do it in the middle of the day to help myself reach some calm and release some of the pent up stress of the day.

Overtime it’s become a tool that my body and spirit crave and expect. Some days I can’t settle to go to sleep until I have had my drawing decompression time. It’s as if my soul is telling me, “hey love, you didn’t take care of yourself that way today, perhaps you can do that now, just for a few minutes; you’ll feel better once you do.” See that self-compassion organically showing up there? It hasn’t always been there like that for me.

Now you might be thinking, “how am I supposed to do this, I’m not an artist?” To which I say, that is irrelevant! We are not creating some masterpiece here, we are allowing the gunk in our system to be processed and let free from our vessels.

If you’re really stuck just put your pen (or pencil, crayon, marker, whatever) on the paper and breathe, let the pen do what it wants, let your hand and arm do what they want, and just allow for it to happen; let go.

If you are STILL really stuck here maybe you should come to our upcoming virtual Burnout Care & Creativity Workshop where we will be exploring mindful drawing together while gathering in neurodivergent & LGBTQ+ affirming safe space with other helpers and healers who get what it’s like doing this work day in and day out.

We would love to have you join us!

Sign up now to reserve your spot and get your materials care package in time for the event on Monday, October 20, 2025 from 6:30-8pm ET.

In the meantime, give the mindful drawing a try and let me know how it went!

Thank you for your support and I hope I’m able to connect & create with you soon!

💜 Jen