What's one to do? Tangle!

Julie writes...

I find myself in a particularly busy season of life at the moment. All that is happening is good and exciting, but busy none the less. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day lately and the to do list keeps getting longer and longer.
 
Last night, I was working on my computer when my eyes started to get heavy. I was closing my computer and getting ready call it a night when I glanced at my to-do list and noticed that I never got around to writing the blog post I meant to for today. I sighed... opened my laptop and started typing. Although I knew what I wanted to write about, the words just were not coming to me. The story felt forced and found I myself pressing the delete button over and over again. The irony was not lost on me that the blog I was trying to write about mental health was doing nothing productive for my own mental health at that moment. I closed my laptop and called it a night.
 
My mind would not slow down and I laid wide awake trying to plan my next day, trying to figure out how to do all that I needed to do, including the blog I needed to write. I told myself if I was having trouble writing about how tangling can help ease stress and found myself only more stressed, then perhaps I should tangle to ease my stress.  Oh no, I don’t have the time for that. Or, do I?
 
This morning, I pulled out a Bijou tile. A 2.5” square piece of paper.. surely, I had enough time to tangle that. So, I grabbed a tile and a pen, I was not picky about color, and I tangled my mac and cheese tangle, marasu.

 
As always, I started with gratitude and appreciation. Gratitude and appreciation for this lovely little tile and my favorite blue Micron PN, for this small moment I was taking for myself to clear my mind and relieve some of the stress I was feeling.
 
As I began tangling though, my gratitude and appreciation went beyond the tile. I decided that instead of feeling stressed or overwhelmed by that rapidly growing to do list, I would be grateful for all of those tasks. How blessed am I to have all of these opportunities that require my attention. How wonderful is it that I have a job that I love. Each and every item on that list became a privilege.
 
As I tangled each stroke, one at a time, I was reminded to stop focusing on trying to do everything at once. To stop looking at that list and thinking “how am I going to finish all of this?” and instead focus on one task at a time a time. One task does not feel as overwhelming as a whole list of tasks. By the time I finished my little Bijou Tile, I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. I felt excited to take on the day, thankful for all of the blessings in my life that give me all of these responsibilities.
 
We hear tanglers all the time tell us how tangling has helped them ease their anxiety and relieve their stress. I think one of the reasons why the Zentangle Method has such an impact on managing our mental health is because there is the method, the act of creating art and the benefits of being creative, but, there is also the philosophy behind the method that permeates into other areas of life. Ideas that help us both on and off the paper.
 
This morning I was able to find a moment of calm and relaxation through tangling (a dose of Vitamin Z, if you will…). Not only was I able to relieve the stress I was feeling, but I was also able to change my entire perspective on this season I am in.
 

1. Cheryle Parrish
2. Jenny Rea
3. Dianne Riva Cambrin