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Comics & Illustration

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Sketchbook: Remembering to Breathe

I'm trying to find ways to ground myself more in uncertain and sometimes stressful times. These are just some personal sketch notes of a breathing exercise that I tried for the first time yesterday. 

What do you do to calm down and center yourself when frazzled?

Thanks for reading. 

[Sketch notes about feeling frazzled and remembering to breathe. First image is a girl with a braid, frantically running around and holding her own detached head in her hands, high above her body. Arrow text indicates, "My mental state lately." Caption reads, "I've been having trouble focusing and my thoughts are all over the place." Second image: girl kneels on a yoga mat, looking harried, but head is reattached. Thought bubble reads, "Maybe I should try breathing. That might calm me down." Third image shows the girl sitting cross-legged on the yoga mat, with a thought bubble that contains a cute cartoon drawing of a star. There's also a color diagram of a 5-point star, with arrows indicating instructions for breathing in and out. The girl is trying to meditate by visualizing a 5-point star. She is visibly calmer and, in parentheses, the text reads, "This is not awful." Autobio comic sketch notes, titled "Remembering to Breathe," by Connie Sun, cartoonconnie, 2022.]

Sketch notes about feeling frazzled and remembering to breathe. First image is a girl with a braid, frantically running around and holding her own detached head in her hands, high above her body. Arrow text indicates, "My mental state lately." Caption reads, "I've been having trouble focusing and my thoughts are all over the place." Second image: girl kneels on a yoga mat, looking harried, but head is reattached. Thought bubble reads, "Maybe I should try breathing. That might calm me down." Third image shows the girl sitting cross-legged on the yoga mat, with a thought bubble that contains a cute cartoon drawing of a star. There's also a color diagram of a 5-point star, with arrows indicating instructions for breathing in and out. The girl is trying to meditate by visualizing a 5-point star. She is visibly calmer and, in parentheses, the text reads, "This is not awful." Autobio comic sketch notes, titled "Remembering to Breathe," by Connie Sun, cartoonconnie, 2022.


3 comments:

Bookworm said...

Breathing is number 1 for me. (Love your art on it!)

Number 2 for me is visualization, such as:
Notice your feet planted firmly on the ground. Imagine a healing white light coming from above, shining into and through you, washing out whatever is in you that you don't want, washing it down through your feet into the ground, where it will become food for the flowers.

Number 3 is EFT tapping, which is very calming, tapping on the meridian points. Great to start meditation with.

Peace and love.

Eric F said...

What I do sometimes is to stop and look at my feet. It's a reminder of where I am at this moment. I'm not in the past, not in the future, I am here in the now. It almost always grounds me again.

anna in spain said...

If I'm outside, I look at shop signs and read them aloud in my mind. That somehow keeps me anchored in the time and place.
At home, I pray the rosary, or just say "Mary, mother of Jesus, be my mother right now." That really helps.
Prayer is not a trending activity, but it works for me.