I am most interested in "flow." When I led groups of school children at a local museum, we would do Endless Possibilities
original painting art exercises together. What I found was, as the kids got older, negative self-talk would appear and the all-too-common self-critic appeared and grew. It took enormous effort on my part to contradict these forces. Interestingly, I noticed that this showed up at an earlier age in girls than boys. I believe that eventually these critical voices smash innate creativity. "I can't" becomes the acceptable phrase and it spreads like wild fire!

Fast forward several years to the past year when I had trouble with my own inner critical step sister who wanted so very hard to interrupt my flow. I had a deep personal loss and I was determined that it wouldn't interrupt the making of my art, but it did. Then one day I was looking at art on the internet trying to get the juices flowing and found this tiny little art form called Zentangle. Completed on 3.5 inch square cards, it looked manageable to me, so I began by creating this art on my front porch looking over the garden at the end of a teaching day. Well, this really helped me to get back in the flow, and now I use it sometimes to warm up or to help me get unstuck, or if I am too wound up. It helped me so much that I learned how to teach it, as not only an art form but as a meditation and life tool. I feel honored to have found a way to teach people how to create flow in their lives, which in turn also helps them to relax and grow.

We all struggle with our Inner Critic-

this may be a way to "override it."