Simple Ideas for a Brighter Day

Fashion Magazine Collage

Materials
glue stick
paper or index cards
scissor
fashion magazine

My favorite sources for collage materials are fashion magazines. They are convenient and every color can be found inside their pages. 

Tip - Glue sticks are easy and doesn't cause the paper to wrinkle. Index cards are thicker than paper and hold up better to glue than printer paper.

Doodle Your Morning

Tools

Mirror

A white board marker

While you’re brushing your teeth, take a few moments to give yourself a mustache or a pirate hat. 

Tip - Test the marker to ensure it erases easily before going Picasso on your bathroom mirror. A new marker is cheaper than a new mirror.

Mashed Potato Man

Materials
A plate of mashed potatoes
A spoon

A big plate of mashed potatoes and a spoon can give you all the joy of making snowman with none of the frostbite.

Tip - Peas make good eyes, smiles and buttons. Carrots are perfect for noses.

Technicolor Applesauce

Materials
Apples
Frozen Fruit
Kitchen

Homemade Applesauce is simple. It’s apples and a little water. 

Put the cut and peeled apples in a saucepan. 
Add some water. 
Bring to a boil on the stove. 
Turn down to low and add the cover. 
Let it cook till the apples are soft. Stir occasionally.
Mash the apples. 

That’s it. It takes a little time and effort but it’s 100 times better than anything in a jar. 

So how do you make colorful applesauce? 

Step 1. Put that food coloring away. 
Step 2. Add a handful of fruit prior to cooking.

Red? Strawberries or cherries.
Blue? Blueberries.
Yellow? Peaches.
Purple? Raspberries.


Tip - Frozen fruit is perfect for this. Don’t bother defrosting them. Just add the frozen fruit to the apples before cooking. 

What Do You Want to See?

Exploring Visualization 

Determine Your Intent 

Decide what you want to know. It can be good practice to write it out. Sitting down and writing out your intent forces you to really consider what you are trying to accomplish or learn.
 

The White Room Visualization

The white room gives you a place to start. It's a place where you can be perfectly comfortable before pushing your way through the looking glass into a new and strange place.

Prepare

This will take as long as it takes. Find a quiet and private space. Relax. Sit up straight. Close your eyes.

Visualization

You are standing in a room with white walls and a hardwood floor. Above you is a glass dome light. It radiates a soft even light. In one wall, there is a window that looks out onto a bright blue sky and green fields. In the opposite wall there is a door. When you leave this room, you will find yourself somewhere different and beyond any place you can reach in the physical world. When you're ready, open the door.

Tips and Points

There's no instant gratification in this but there is great satisfaction. If you want an instant answer, buy an eight ball. 

Your answer lays beyond the door. But it's not looking for you, you're looking for it.

You can revisit the white room as many times as you need. Always start in the white room. The landscape around the room may change in your absence. 

Choose a landscape to explore. Jungle, city, beach? Go where it feels right. Let the visualization evolve naturally as you move towards your answer. Elements may appear and new doors may open.

Focus on finding an answer. Push expectations out of your mind.

What do I see?

I am frequently surprised at the way the answers come. I find answers to my questions but not always the ones I think I’m asking. Sometimes it answers a question I need to ask (kind of like Jeopardy). Sometimes I find a symbol that fits into a larger message that I don’t understand yet. It has taken me time and experience to learn to understand what I find.

How to Improve Your Mental Visualization

You have to work on it. It will take hard work to see improvement. It may be frustrating, time consuming and trying. Do you want to give up yet? 

The simplest way to make it easier is by choosing exercises that are fun and engaging. 

These exercises are best completed in a place that encourages focus. Some people like quiet, some people like noise. Do what works for you.
 

Exercises to Improve your Ability to Mentally Visualize  

Draw Common Objects

Drawing from your memory is an active task that needs you to visualize to accomplish it. The better you get at visualizing, the easier it becomes.

Steps

1. Close eyes, open mind.
2. With eyes closed, choose one object ( ex. apple, tree, bird, a dog). Whatever comes to mind.
3. Take a pen and pad (with your eyes open). Draw as many variations of the object as you can. Think of the object (eating apples, buying them at the supermarket).
4. When you run out of ideas, stop drawing. Put the pad away.
5. Look up pictures of the object. Study them.
6. A day or two later, draw the object again. Try to remember the pictures you studied.

Accuracy and artistic skill do not count. The point is not what's going on the page but inside your mind.

Try to remember the images you study. Pick elements of the pictures. (Do you see a pictures of a really cool tree? What makes it so cool? Remember that element to put it in the drawing.)

Variation: Close your eyes while you draw (after all, this isn't about the drawing, this is about the remembering).

Play a Movie in Your Mind

You have watched a movies, it's time to watch it again.

1. Close your eyes. 
2. Think of a movie (preferably one you've seen many times). 
3. Pick a scene. 
4. Think about what the characters are doing in the scene.
5. Play the scene inside your mind.

For instance, I have seen the movie Evolution a few times. While hunting an alien bird of prey in a mall, one of the heroes gets the idea to stand at a microphone and make noises to attract the bird. That scene always sticks in my head because when my dad watches it, he always starts imitating Sean William Scott. So I can see the movie playing on the television and my dad.

The goal is to see the scene playing. It can be easier to visualize a memory in motion.

I have found success with both exercises. But these are just two ways and there are so many more.

Monster Doodle Magick

Draw a Few Monsters and Make a Little Magick

Monstrum

a divine omen, supernatural appearance, wonder, miracle, portent

definition taken from An Elementary Latin Dictionary by Charlton Thomas Lewis

A monster can be a sweet creation of Jim Henson or a horror movie villain. Either way, they’re unique and beyond what we define as typical.

Personally, I like the Latin definition of monster. Monsters should be strange, fun and powerful. They should evoke a reaction.

Your monsters can embody ideas, emotions or intent. They can represent the elements or ideas. When empowered, they can be a source of aid.

How to Get Help Finding a Lost Object

Tools: Paper, Pen

Draw a furry little guy. Empower him. Ask him for help. 

For instance, ask him to find that gold bear your mom lost. Tell him it’s okay if he can’t find it. Just ask him to look for the gold bear and if he can find it, ask him to bring it back to you. Thank him for helping (Remember, he is doing you a favor).

 

Tips and Points for Drawing Unique Little Monsters

 

Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Be positive. Get excited. Experiment.

Embrace diversity. Unintended marks can make your drawing unique. 

Don't try to be perfect. Be yourself. I was born with a curve in my spine. My spine's not symmetrical and neither are my drawings. That's life and that's nature.

Get to know your monster. Tell yourself a little of his story. Does he hang out with dust bunnies? Does he manage a dive bar on the dark side of the moon?

Pick a point and start. Draw the eyes or the mouth then develop the rest of the head and body from there. This is assuming he has a head and a body. Neither feature is strictly required.

Less can be more. You are conveying an idea. You can do that with a few of lines. A smiley face is two periods and a 'U'.