The benefits of Doodling
by Sky Goodwin
In high school and college I doodled all over my books, my papers and anything else I could get my hands on. There’s still crosshatching, bubbles and faces all over most random pieces of paper in my house. I spend most of my doodling time while on the phone, probably having learned to doodle from watching my mom, an artist who doodled entire cities if she was on a longer call. Since I don’t spend as much time talking on my phone these days, with texting, chatting and social media readily available for communication, I don’t find myself doodling as much anymore. And you know, I miss it!
You may remember in school always getting in trouble for doodling during class. It was commonly thought that doodling meant that you weren’t paying attention. But did you know that science has proven that doodling actually promotes focus and clears the mind, creating pathways for better learning?
Here are some interesting facts:
Doodling Increases Creativity
Humans are generally, creative. Our minds are constantly taking in and putting out information. Doodling enhances creativity by keeping the cogs and machinery in there well oiled. Similar to Julia Cameron’s ‘morning pages’ in her book The Artist’s Way, where she asks participants to write stream-of-consciousness for three pages each morning as a way of disintegrating creative blocks, doodling gives the brain an outlet for discursive thought. The more outlets we have for all of the information we gather, the clearer our pathways to creativity will be.
Keep Calm and Doodle On
Adult colouring books are all the rage these days. With our daily modern life of working long hours, multitasking, running households and raising kids while under financial or time constraints, it makes sense that people are looking for novel and engaging ways to calm down and take a break. According to art therapist Cathy Malchiodi via Psychology Today, doodling is an excellent stress buster that has long been known by therapists to calm the mind and promote well being; “The wonderful thing about doodling is that it is a whole brain activity—spontaneous, at times unconscious, self-soothing, satisfying, exploratory, memory-enhancing, and mindful. In essence, doodling (and drawing and painting and making things in general) can be a self-regulating experience as well as a pleasurable road map of thoughts and ideas.”
Doodling Helps to Retain Information
According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, drawing, sketching, colouring and doodling increases your brain’s ability to retain information. The study asked participants to doodle while listening to a dull and rambling recorded phone message that included names and dates. They found that the group who doodled retained close to 30% more information than the control group who didn’t. The study discusses reasons why this may be so, mainly that, exactly opposite to what has long been thought of as an idle pastime, doodling actually engages the mind just enough to keep it from daydreaming, but not enough to interfere with external inputs. In other words, it helps us to learn.
Doodling is Active Learning
Sunni Brown, author, named “one of the 100 most creative people in business” by Fast Company, is heading up the doodle revolution. In her recent TED talk she says there are four ways the brain learns: reading/writing, auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Two of these must be engaged in order for the brain to process information into something useful to us. Doodling actually engages all four simultaneously. So, the next time you find yourself at a boring lecture or business meeting and you’re worried about being able to focus and remember everything, doodling could be your next best friend; “Under no circumstance should doodling be eradicated from the classroom, the boardroom or even the war room. On the contrary doodling should be leveraged in precisely those situations where information density is very high and the need for processing that information is very high.”
Looking for an edge in your next big bridge game?
Why not break out that old set of coloured pencils and get down to some serious colouring, or grab one of these Simon Lucas Bridge Supplies bridge pencils and exercise your brain. You may find you’ll be sharper, calmer and more focused, that you retain information more readily, think more strategically and solve problems more creatively.
Simon Lucas Bridge Supplies Pencils with Eraser are a set of 4 smart wooden pencils with a gold foil suit symbol pattern, a gold colour ferrule and white erasers. The pencils come in two colourways: navy and burgundy, so choose between a set of 4 navy pencils, a set of 4 burgundy pencils or a mixed packet of 2 navy and 2 burgundy. I’ve personally doodled a lot with these pencils. The lead in them makes quite a pleasing mark and they have a lovely weight in my hands. They come in a nice hand made box, perfect for gift giving.
This product is made in England and is exclusive to Simon Lucas Bridge Supplies. Click here to visit their stationary page and because we know these people are very reputable shopkeepers, you can feel safe shopping at their online store!
Simon Lucas Bridge Supplies
https://www.simonlucasbridgesupplies.co.uk