Trouble Focusing Your Attention?
What A Little Pencil Can Do For You!
By: Heather C. Williams, author of Drawing As a Sacred Activity

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I can't focus! I can't pay attention right now! I can't sit still! If you hear yourself or your children saying things like this, you may want to explore what a little pencil (or crayon) can do for you. Drawing is a special kind of natural activity that helps you relax, sit still, focus your attention, and explore the world around you or within you.

As you probably know, most little children draw very happily. Give a child a piece of paper and some colors and he or she will sit quietly for 20 or 30 minutes drawing you a picture of their thoughts and feelings, their mommy and daddy, themselves, their friends, their pets. Children draw anything and everything. Knowing nothing about art, they approach drawing as play. It is serious play and they pour their hearts into it. When finished, instead of trying to sell their drawing to confirm their worthiness, they give it to you, knowing full well they and their drawing are worthy of conveying the love in their hearts.

When children reach a certain age (9-16) they begin to focus more and more of their powerful attention on the objects and goals that adults describe as vitally important. They begin to draw back their gifts, to second guess their hearts, to hide their uniqueness. They go to great lengths to fit in, to be like others instead of being themselves. We say that they are just teenagers exploring the power of peer pressure. We also say that it's a phase on the way to becoming an adult. We hope that these children will one day develop into healthy adults. What exactly is a healthy adult? What are the important attributes of a healthy adult? Here are a few attributes that come to mind. You are welcome to add your own. A healthy adult is generally happy. He/she has a conscious appreciation of his or her gifts, is aware of his/her uniqueness, what makes him/her different and special. He/she has an ability to focus their attention out into the world and make a contribution to make the world a better place. He/she also has an ability to focus their attention inward to resolve personal problems, work through emotional conflicts, and bring himself/herself back into a sense of balance when life throws a curve, as it does now and then.

If you are an adult and you have trouble focusing your attention outward or inward, you may be interested to know that drawing is a completely natural, safe, effective, drug-free way to get a grip on one of the most important, powerful attributes that you possess--your attention.

Here's a little exercise to explore what I mean by this. Right now you are reading these words and looking at this magazine. Look up for a minute and look at the room or area around you. Just notice if you are outside sitting on a bench in the park, or sitting at your desk at the office, or reclining on the sofa in your living room. Look around you and notice any and all vertical directions. Telephone poles, trees, edges of buildings, bookcases, bureaus, dressers, lamps, cabinets. Take one minute to do this calmly and quietly. Now contemplate the attributes of the vertical directions and edges of things. An attribute is a quality or characteristic. For example, the attributes of vertical include the characteristics of straight and up. Also, reaching for the sky, lift, support, alignment, strength. Think about how you feel when you stand up and are vertical? Are you in good health, independent, confident, positive, capable, secure in your individuality? Sure. What other attributes come to mind for you?

The next question is going to take you into a more broadened picture of your life in general. Think of your life right now. Where is the attribute of vertical evident in your life...or not evident? Where are you feeling strong, positive, secure, confident, independent? Where are you not feeling strong, positive, secure, confident, independent? Just notice. No therapy or analysis. No judgment. Just look and see. Look once again up from this book and see all the vertical directions. If you have a pen or pencil, get it out of your pocket or purse and gently place in on a piece of paper (the margin of this magazine is just fine). Relax your wrist, arm, elbow, shoulder. Move your pencil in the same direction as the vertical edge that you are looking at. As you draw this line, imagine and feel that you are drawing this attribute into your life, into yourself. And wherever you go from here today, every once in awhile look up and look for vertical directions and feel these attributes growing in you.

It is the same for horizontal directions. Horizontal attributes include such qualities as peacefulness, a sense of connection, reaching across, communication, integrating, and dialogue. To extend this exercise, ask yourself where are horizontal attributes evident in your life at this time? Where are they not evident? Then, use your pen or pencil to look up from this magazine and notice horizontal directions: Table tops, picture frames, windows, eyebrows. Draw those lines on your paper and feel the horizontal attributes growing strong inside you.

It is the same for diagonal directions. And these are different from vertical and horizontal. No matter where you choose to look, you will find diagonal directions. Tree trunks leaning to one side, tops and bottoms of doors that are open, windows seen from an angle, roofs, noses, shoulders, jaws, eyebrows, and of course telephone wires stretching far into the distance. Diagonal attributes give form to those things in life that are divergent or different from the norm. Diagonal is about going and coming, being drawn into, compelled forward, repelled backward, attraction, depth. What attracts you? Life is flat and dull if nothing attracts you. Where are diagonal attributes evident in your life? What diagonal attribute do you need in your life at this time—an acceptance of your uniqueness, a willingness to be drawn toward love, intimacy, creativity, a depth of feeling, a mission? Look up from this article. Look around for diagonal directions. Gently place your pencil on the paper. Relax and move in the same direction as the diagonals you see. Wherever you go today look at the diagonal directions and feel growing within you a sense of the strength of being a different, special, and unique human being.

Today there are apparently millions of kids and adults who have trouble reading and paying attention. Dyslexia, ADD (attention deficit disorder), and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) were unheard of when I was growing up. I am 55 years old and remember as a child having long stretches of quiet space to lay in the grass, ponder what I saw, to go over problems, to organize my thoughts and feelings, and eventually to integrate what I saw and heard.

Today things are different. A blizzard of information swirls around us. Problems from around the world cry out to be understood and solved. There is too little time to ponder life. We turn on the computer, television or radio first thing in the morning. We drive to work listening to the news or music. We have e-mail waiting to be read. Our cell phones are ringing.

"Evil begins when a person can't sit still in a room," writes Blaise Pascal, French philosopher and mathematician. My drawing students laugh and talk about what a different experience it is to sit quietly and draw. Kathy, a student in Vermont, told me that drawing helps her make sense out of the world. She says, "I feel safer in the world when I draw."

Drawing is a good thing. It helps you to connect with the world before you in a meaningful and heartfelt way. It helps you to open up to a whole new world that is right before your eyes but you don't see it because you are thinking of other things. It helps you calm down, relax, find peace and develop hand-eye coordination. You develop the skill of seeing. So, take a class, buy a sketchbook and take a minute out of your hectic day to sit quietly in a room and draw vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions. See for yourself how easy and beneficial it is to focus your precious and powerful attention. You may also create a drawing to give to someone you love!

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Heather C. Williams teaches art classes in the San Diego, CA area. Her new book, Drawing as a Sacred Activity, $19.95, Hardcover, is available from New World Library . Order toll- free: 1-800-972-6657 or at: www.newworldlibrary.com

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