5 Creative Ways to Nourish Self-Kindness
Before our life-journey epiphanies and pivots, we need to nourish our wellbeing with self-kindness.
Creativity and mindfulness can help you nourish self-kindness in everyday life.
I have gathered a few of my go-to Art Well 4 Life resources, exercises, and life hacks to support your self-kindness journey.
These small touches of intentional self-kindness can really make a big difference. I invite you to give them a whirl!
I like to blend creativity, mindfulness, and neuroscience in all of my Art Well 4 Life offerings.
#1 - Repeat a catchy self-kindness phrase or mantra
When you practice creativity mixed with mindfulness, you are more likely to live in the present moment and steer clear of those pesky monkey-mind habits like rumination and self-judgement.
So how can you remind yourself to actually do this self-kindness stuff? Get yourself a catchy self-kindness phrase or mantra. Mine is,
“You can’t drink from an empty cup, creativity and mindfulness fills her up!”
I find the empty cup to be a powerful image for women, metaphorically dying of thirst, while helping others to water. While we wouldn't allow ourselves to go without water because we know we'd expire, we will allow ourselves to be dehydrated of self-kindness and self-compassion.
Creativity and mindfulness exercises can be our self-kindness water — powerful hydration for our well-being!
#2 – Keep it Front and Center
How can we keep creativity and mindfulness top of mind?
What’s the one thing we look at a million times a day?
You guessed it, our phones!
We check our phones an average of 144 times per day, yikes!*
Click to download wallpaper.
Click to download wallpaper.
What better way to keep self-kindness top of mind that with digital wallpapers! I designed these little graphics to playfully remind ourselves to refill your cup of self-kindness regularly.
So upload them to your digital devices so you’ll remember that empty cup as you glance at your phone (on average every 4 minutes, hubba!).
*And YES, this is an alarming stat about our phone addiction! According to Reviews.org.
#3 – Practice an Easy, Enjoyable Self-Kindness Habit
When a habit is easy and enjoyable, we’re more likely to keep going. I know this is a no-brainer. That said, we often think habits have to be onerous and hard.
Doodle Your Heart of Loving Kindness
I like to “Doodletate©,” which is my word for a doodle-meditation combo.
I created this Heart of Loving-Kindness Doodletate© based on Buddhist meditations of loving-kindness. You harmonize the playful act of drawing hearts with some gentle breaths while saying these supportive, meditative words of loving kindness towards yourself –
May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I be at peace
May I be protected
May I be free from pain and suffering
May my heart be filled with love.
Combining these simple, caring actions deepens your somatic (body-based) self-kindness. As you sketch expanding heart doodles with every inhale-exhale, you can both visualize and embody loving kindness emanating from yourself to others while saying –
May they* be happy
May they be healthy
May they be at peace
May they be protected
May they be free from pain and suffering
May their hearts be filled with love.
*Replace "they" with the appropriate personal pronoun.
#4 – Give Yourself Permission
Many of us seek permission to stray from our unwritten cultural rules. I know I’ve spent a lot of time letting go of that cultural badge of honor to be over-busy and burdened with mountains of work, family, and community obligations. Self-kindness was not an option.
Not to mention permission to veer from our internal “should” factory of rules and regulations from parents and other childhood authority figures. Here’s my question to you –
How can you give yourself permission to be kind to yourself?
What concrete actions can you take?
The Self-Kindness Permission Slip
Here’s one playful way to make self-kindness concrete and actionable: Write yourself a permission slip with a specific self-kindness action to be performed at a specific time, with all the official lingo of a school field trip document. It works. You are literally telling your brain to prioritize this intention.
Circle & Protect
Want to rev up more power and protection for your self-kindness action? Circle it! You can add patterns of dots, dashes, shapes, whatever you like, around it.
You can start with a simple post-it note or download this PDF sheet of Art + Well Permission Slip Circles that I designed for a bit more field-trip formality.
As you doodle around the self-kindness action you seek permission for, you protect and nurture it, #neuroscience. By taking this tiny 1-minute creative action your self-kindness intention goes from possible to probable!
#5 Make a Self-Kindness Vivarta!©
Schedule an online workshop to make a Pocket-Guide to Positivity and Self-Kindness Vivarta©.
Vivarta© are handmade life-journey gizmos that help you. I lead women in supportive Vivarta© Life-Journey Workshops like the Pocket Guide, to tap into their creativity and explore a life-journey morsel they are working on, like self-kindness!
A little bit about the workshop
I guide you through accessible, creativity-mindfulness steps to create folios of inspiring, compassionate new narratives to combat your old script of toxic self-talk and release her critical, judgmental whisperings like this chestnut, “I’m not ______________ enough.”
With your heartfelt pocket-guide at your fingertips, you’re armed and ready with affirming dabs of positivity and self-kindness when those negative gremlins pop up.
Click here to learn more!
I’d love to hear about your self-kindness journey
Did these self-kindness suggestions resonated with you? Perhaps one rocked your socks and you're ready for more. Or perhaps you are a little muddled about what to do next.
Here’s your open invitation to schedule a chat or shoot me an email to explore creative ways to nurture self-kindness.
I look forward to hearing from you. You can do it!
Thank you for exploring Art Well 4 Life. Whether you’re —
• looking to move towards joy and fulfillment, just a smidge… or
• itching to recalibrate your identity and move into a new phase of life… or
• grappling with executive functioning issues/ ADHD…
I’m here to support you! When you’re ready, schedule a 15 minute complementary chat. It’s free with no strings or hard sell. Here’s my calendar link.
In creativity and service,
Suzanne Wright, MA
Artist • Certified Life Coach
ADHD and Creativity Coach
Educator for Visual Arts and Wellbeing
Founder, Art Well 4 Life, LLC
Schedule a complementary conversation