How to Doodle An Emotion

There are so many benefits to doodling your emotions. The main ones include:

Connect to yourself in a deeper, more specific way
Great conversation starter to connect with others
A fun way to become aware of your emotions

You may be tempted to doodle an emotion by drawing a face...while that does have its benefits too, we challenge you to use more abstract lines, dots and swirls. Then have someone else guess what emotion you have doodled! Do you think you can guess which emotions we have doodled here? (These doodles were done by a 6-year-old and an adult).

Sometimes, especially those negative emotions, are hard for us to get to know. We tend to push those away like a fly that won't stop buzzing on a warm, sunny day. But all emotions are important and can teach us, protect us and serve us in so many ways if we can just get to know them. Doodling is one way we can befriend our emotions and become more comfortable with them. It is great for all ages and a very fun approach to something that can be difficult to talk about.

Doodling your emotions helps you get super specific about where and how you feel an emotion in your body. This mind/body connection is super important because the more specific you can get with recognizing your emotions, the more specific your response to that emotion can be. For example, if my child comes home from school feeling "sad," I may know how to respond to their need, but it may take a little digging. If, instead my child says they are feeling "disappointed," or "heartbroken," or "discouraged," I would know better what that child needs to suffer less in that moment. The same is with ourselves. The better we get to know our own emotions, the better we can respond with care and compassion. We can celebrate more fully and validate the hard times more fully too.

Steps to Doodling Your Emotion

Pick An Emotion (we provide a list of emotions on our free emotion doodle activity.
Ask yourself where that emotion shows up in your body? Your head, hands, heart, and stomach give us great clues.
Ask yourself how that emotion shows up in your body? Is it slow, fast, open, closed, loud, soft etc?
Pick a color or colors that represent that emotion to you.
Doodle with stripes, dots, swirls, zig zags, anything that represents that emotion to you.

These doodles were done by an 11-year-old. Can you guess which emotions he drew?

Tips for Doodling Your Emotion

There is no wrong way to doodle an emotion!
Have a wide variety of colors for the most fun (although black and white doodles can absolutely be done too!)
You can use the back of old business cards for the perfect size to trade and pass around
You can doodle lots of emotions on one page or consider having one
You can layer different colors and doodles to create a complicated emotion
You can also use a tablet or make images electronically--any way that seems engaging to you
Once you start to compare emotions, you may notice that some of the most positive emotions have the same "vibe" as the negative ones...like excited and nervous sometimes look the same doodled. Same with peaceful and bored. What others can you think of that might have similar doodles?

Our Free Emotion Doodle Activity is a great place to get started!

If you'd like to download or free Doodle Your Emotions Activity visit this link https://www.mindfulartco.com/product-page/emotion-doodle-activity

More stuff like this...

If you'd like to watch Becky teach about emotions on our local TV station, visit this link https://studio5.ksl.com/emotions-out-on-paper-art-therapy-projects/

If you like this activity, you may also enjoy our Dub It mindfulness game--all about doodling, connecting and becoming aware of our own and eachother's emotions. We have just a few games left to sell.

If you like our Emotion Doodle Activity, you may also like our digital kids curriculum and online course to help kids, teens and adults become more mindful. Both programs use fun ways to teach research-backed methods for getting rid of emotional overwhelm and creating more peace, kindness, and empowerment in your life, home, classroom or business.