If you’ve ever been asked to “set an intention” in a yoga class or “choose a mantra” in a meditation class, you may find yourself on repeat with your favorites: I am happy; I am healthy; I am worthy. Because in the moment, it can be difficult to create a more complex one.
But invoking a more meaningful mantra, intention, or affirmation opens you to more clarity, more relaxation, and more realisation of what you truly want or care about.
In today’s Drawing Meditation workshop with Satoyama Yoga, I introduced a framework to expand the options easily. Using the chakra energy centers that our yoga class is familiar with, we added appropriate verbs to each chakra:
And then we crafted an affirmation and drew it. Here’s the full exercise, so you can follow along.
How to Draw Your Affirmation
You’ll need 30-60 minutes with a sheet of paper, a pen, and some colored pencils, markers, etc.
- SELECT AN AFFIRMATION There’s probably a color or a word that tingled your brain a bit when you saw the chart above. Maybe you connect with it joyfully, or it feels uncomfortable. You might have filled in one of those blanks already. Or maybe you thought of a better verb phrase to state your own affirmation. Or you recoiled from the idea or the color. Go with that one – whatever it is.
- SOLIDIFY IT. Write your affirmation on the back of your paper. Don’t skip this step – it helps to lock in the intention and when you find your drawing months from now, you’ll know for sure what the drawing is all about.
- DRAW IT. Here are three suggestions for how to turn your affirmation into art, and you should do it your own way!
- Word Art. Write your affirmation in an attractive and fancy way on your paper reminiscent of “Live, Laugh, Love” home decor. Highlight the key words. Add flourishes. Maybe draw a frame around it.
- Realistic Vision. What will it look like when your affirmation comes true? Make it real in your mind, then put it on paper. Draw all the details. It doesn’t have to be “good art.” A stick figure tells your story as well as
- Abstract Emotion. What will it feel like when your affirmation manifests? Imagine your affirmation in the chakra where it sits. Translate that feeling into doodles, colors, shapes, and movement on your page.
- REVIEW IT. Tell yourself, again, the affirmation. Then look at the drawing and see if you notice anything new. The relationship between elements, the colors that you used, the number of items on the page. Is there deeper meaning or a message for you in the drawing? It can be helpful to do this with a friend who might see some things that you don’t notice yet.
- DISPLAY IT. Hang your drawing somewhere that you can see it. Watch how it influences you in the coming days. Whether it is a conscious reminder or a subconscious influence, you will notice more moments when that affirmation applies. Words and art have power.
In the session today, we saw all sorts of amazing artful affirmations.
One affirmation was “I accept change and see a bright future” and the drawing was chaotic shapes with lots of movement (change) hanging over a pair of upraised hands (acceptance). The entire drawing formed a tree for the bright future.
Another affirmation was about accepting the changes of aging. The drawing was a bar graph of abilities over time. It was a perfect representation of the student’s personality to depict clear order in an unsettled season of life.
I thought my own affirmation would be on a similar theme of accepting the aging process. I’ve been struggling lately; I run out of energy or give up when an injury presents itself, and then passively entertain myself instead of doing anything productive. My drawing, featured above, wasn’t at all what I expected – even “I choose to act with integrity today” was a surprise that formed itself while I was writing it. I had no idea what was happening, so I went with the flow, drew some shapes and tried to find ways to connect them. It wasn’t until I showed my drawing to the class that I started to understand the meaning. I am going to hang this on the fridge for a week and see if I can act with integrity towards myself.
Even the teacher gets value from her workshops.