May 28, 2023

Hello Rick and Maria,

Welcome to Day 18 of Bijou's Be Well Bundle video series!

“The only thing that can grow is the thing you give energy to.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.

- Mark Twain

“Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.”

- Leo Babauta

We know that what we focus on is important. Many of us are often bombarded with the temptation to think we can and have to focus on many things at the same time. Even worse is that we think we can actually tackle multiple tasks at once. Unfortunately, we as humans are rarely able to do more than one thing at the same time. When we do, we often compromise the integrity of all the things we are trying to do. When we do focus on a single task our abilities and potential change exponentially.

From its birth, the Zentangle Method has used the tag line, "Anything is possible, one stroke at a time." We move our way through creating slowly and deliberately by focusing on the one stroke at hand, and then letting that stroke guide us to the next. We encourage artists to pour all their hearts into that one stroke, not worrying about where you were or what your next stroke is but allowing yourself to be in that moment. You can then let that moment and momentum lead you to the next stroke. By practicing this technique on the tile, you realize how you can apply this to your everyday life. You will see that even the biggest tasks or most daunting problems can be broken down into basic strokes. If you learn to focus on just one of those strokes at a time, each one can feel more attainable and your chances for success increase.

Be well, be you,

Bijou

Bijou's Be Well Bundle - Day 18

The videos in the Bijou's Be Well Bundle series will be released every day through May 31, 2023. You can view all of the videos in this series here (after their release).

Tangle Step-Out: paradox

Blog: One Stroke at a Time

During the series, we will focus on one of Bijou's wise Bijouisms each day. In the archives of the Zentangle blogs, we have many thoughts and stories about these philosophies. We will be sharing some of them during this series.