A few days ago I went to Bali with a group of talented artists from Norway and Sweden. The mission was to paint, eat and enjoy. We did all that and beyond with Nyoman Sani. We experienced so much that it is hard to describe, but I will try. When it came to painting we wanted to learn more about Taksu, the Balinese philosophy of finding the heart and the soul in the painting. A few of the students wanted to become more free and expressive in their own artistic language. We started off with two questions regarding art that has left a mayor impact on you, and which ones of your own work that you are most pleased with yourself. After this we went on to working with a self portrait. Not everyone was happy about this task but I can only say it once again it is a good learning experience and if you have not tried yet I urge you to try. The next task was working with only colors and no motifs. In both assignments interesting things started to happen, and as one of the participants said there is a meaning to what you put on to your canvas but sometimes it takes you a bit longer to see it. We ended the day with sketching by the sea, and eating fresh seafood while listening to music and enjoying the traditional dance. The light just before sunset was warm and rich, perfect for photographs and painting. The second day was filled with activity. After looking at a traditional batik painting we headed for painting and lunch in the rice fields. Where we used oil pastels and watercolors, and a lot of interesting art was created. In the afternoon we went to Seniwati Artspace and meet Ni Nyoman Sani, her husband I Ketut Sutawan an the artists behind the exhibition Finding the me in me. We were welcomed with open arms and after a round of presentation we started working together. It is hard to describe in a blog post how moved we all were that we could all share our art and how brave Balinese female artists were in their expression. The workshop was followed by sharing. When we went to look at the art of Ni Nyoamn Sani and I Ketut Sutawan the artists hung all the creations from the workshop alongside the exhibition. The studio visits were very interesting when we heard Sani express her soul behind her painting everyone felt close to knowing what Taksu means. Sanis art revolves around the Balinese women and their heart and soul. As she says it is sometimes necessary to be both smart and soft, and she herself is both very clever and beautiful. Her art has soul, passion and interesting themes. Her husband I Ketut Sutawan is also a very interesting contemporary artist that comes from an artist family. Ketut works a lot with different animals in his paintings. His father creates magnificent wood sculptures. After the studio visit we all meet up for the art opening of the exhibition, and watched a heartbreaking and heartwarming art performance. The exhibition shows that the female contemporary artists in Bali have a strong and interesting voice. I will be trying to keep an eye on how they develop and look for opportunities for them to show their work on more arenas. I am grateful for the experience and we all came back full of inspiration but also very thoughtful and reflective. This was a journey of Taksu, of heart and soul in the painting. The last day was spent walking in the village, sketching and having a cold drink by the sea while listening to music. Sharing in Seniwati artspace So the next time you go to Bali visit the ladies in Seniwati, you will not regret it. #NiNyomanSani #Balineseart #Paint #eatandenjoy #talentedartstudents #Arttrip #heartandsoul #Artjourney #Bali

Earlier this summer I had the question: Can you meditate in Prada? Of course you can meditate basically in anything or anywhere. I had a student in creative meditation that had been meditating in the hospital cafeteria during 20 minutes of her lunch break every day at work for 20 plus years. This was her moment to get balance and energy for work as an emergency nurse. She meditated in a place filled with people and sound. We can all find our own way to meditate if it with creativity or a guided video the important thing is getting started. The picture is of Pradas rainbow sweater, and of course it is not what you wear it is like with exercise more important to do it. However if you are anything like me it can be so easy to fill your life with other things, I can honestly now say that if I don't meditate for a couple of weeks I notice a big shift in how I think and how well I can create or produce great work. Just like with exercise meditation or mindfulness is about finding a habit and a style that suits you. For me it improved my wellbeing even if I did a short meditation in 5 min in the morning. For me one of the best advices I had to start meditating was to start with putting on one song and stay present in that song. To sit down and color, or do a Mandala is also an active form of meditation that reduces stress. Now I would love to hear from you on what you find is difficult with a habit of meditation so that I can support you. Thank you for being part of the Zenart community. All the best Ingela Johansson #Prada_mindfulness #Meditation #Creative_wellness

The colour assignment was to create a painting in 5 minutes from two words. After the two first paintings we limited the colours to three and tried to take away the symbols and only use colours. Amazing how many beautiful pictures came out of a few minutes. The choice of colour depending on the artist and the symbolism we chose to put in to colours is an interesting journey. #colourassignment #ArtclassinSingapore #artinSingapore #arts #Singaporeartclass #Colourmixing

Yesterday we had a workshop in Karlstad, Sweden using creative meditation and inspiration from two masters of creating art beyond what you can see to infinity. Hilma af Klint was born in 1862 and painted until she passed 1944. On some of her paintings, she made a mark that they should bot be shown until 20 years after her passing. She started out as a landscape and portrait painter but became interested in spiritualism as a teenager, and later formed the group called the "fem" (five) that held seances. Hilma got her largest commission through channeling, and it was a large body of work. Part of these where the ten largest that have been shown at Guggenheim. Kusama is today 87 years old and is one of the worlds most loved and successful contemporary artist that just celebrated 50 years as an artist. She sees art as her medicine, and her goal is to create joy and love. Both these amazing creators served as our inspiration during a workshop. We watched a short documentary on both, did color meditations and worked inspired by what we saw in meditation. The goal was to open our own inner eye and to be inspired by the stories, colors and challenges face by 2 wonderful artists. I could probably write a book on what you could learn from these two artists. But if I have to limit myself to the most important lessons this would be it: 1. Trust your intuition. 2. Dare to try things that no one has tried before. 3. Stay true to your artistic voice. 4. Keep creating. 5. Dare to try many new expressions to find yours. 6. Paint from the soul. What I learned from the group: 1. Color can shift your mood instantly 2. Our masterpieces are often connected to our personal stories 3. It takes courage to let go of control and create. To reach this space I find that there is an alchemy between meditation and creativity. I will release online courses with the color meditations later in March. If there is interest from you I would also be happy to do this as a virtual workshop live. Let me know if this is something that you would like. These two amazing artists will continue to inspire me throughout my creative life. Ingela #Kusama #intuitive_painting #creative_meditation #zenart #workshop #Hilma_af_Klint

Over and over I ask my students to stretch. To take 2 – 10 minutes and create without thinking. Use Chinese ink and a lot of cheap paper, or whatever medium makes you smile. It is good if you feel that you can ruin it so don’t use the handmade paper that you love. Don’t look upon it as something that is going to become an awesome artwork, try to look at it as stretching before and after you run, or practicing scales on your piano. It is an important part of developing. If you can’t think of what to paint, then start drawing straight and curved lines with a brush. I challenge you to put in 10 minutes a couple of times a week, you will see a difference. If you would like to try I would be glad if you shared it back with me, no I would be thrilled. If anyone has time tomorrow morning there is a workshop in composition at Studio Miu. Composition is one of arts 8 foundations. #ArtclassinSingapore #IngelaJohansson #TiptodevelopasanartistStudioMiu #handmadepaper #Creativetip #ArtworkshopinSingapore #AffordableArtFair #artexercise #Artstretching #Art #Asianart #cheappaper #arttip #brush #lines #SwedishArtanddesign

This is a page from the opening of my art journal created on the 20th of March in KL. Experiencing the fact that you can't go outside as you always have been used to. On the other hand, the sky is already starting to become bluer. It is a confusing feeling. There is a feeling of striving, working to understand and come to terms with the new life and restrictions. Naturally a longing for freedom and connection. The next day there is a lot of emerald green, the color of the heart, and yellow the color of joy. Overall it is a longing to nature and freedom. The orange of creativity is in the water, and purple of spirituality in the sail. Going deeper into meditation now when there is more time. It is hard to focus on work. The almost overwhelming anxiety from the first days is decreasing. When I open the windows in the morning the birds are loud, and it reminds me of a rainforest. The city is quiet. I am painting with green tones for life and harmony. I am settling into a new right now. I am settling into myself. This painting reflects the feeling of sadness of everything that is breaking and gratitude for how nature is breathing again. It is also a decision to go deeper into personal transformation for me. Transformation again from a different perspective, the tree is still present. During this time I am still experiencing a lot of pain in my shoulder blades. The painting represents the need to let go of trying to hold on and embrace what is right now. This painting is from the 19th of April. A dress in the color of the heart emerald green and trust within myself. The outside circumstances haven't changed still inside safe and sound. This is a practice that I have been doing for almost 4,5 years now. Each week I learn something new about myself, I see how I am feeling and what I don\t want to see usually comes up in all color. My art meditation works are very personal and it feels like opening up my diary to show them like this, but these are times of transformation. For me meditating, creating and reflecting connects me to a journey of self-discovery. It helps me sort, focus, and dream. It doesn't make reality different, but it has completely changed the way I react to it. It has helped me in so many ways, that is why I decided to post it online and why I have devoted years on developing this process to courses and books. If you would like to learn the process I have put a discount on the course 21 days of art meditation. That is an introduction to this process.

This morning I opened the windows the sky was pink, peach, light blue, and milky yellow. Clouds where almost like veils, light, and see-through. Birds were singing. I am in the middle of the city. I sat with coffee for a long time. Not with a book, my phone, or any other device and not meditating just being. Not trying to make a decision or think about tomorrow. Staying with the birds, the coffee, and the experience. Uninterrupted time. Afterward, I feel that I have more energy again, to take in the news, ideas, or whatever. Like a recharge without thinking about any kind of achievement, or benefit. Experiencing just being and that\s enough. Enough for me to want to do it again tomorrow and for as many days that I am alive. When I go back I paint, with a clean mental palette. That is the alchemy between slowing down and creating for me. All my courses and books in creative meditation and mindfulness are about these moments of recharging your batteries and then create. #just_being #Moment #doing_nothing #breathing #reflecting #slowing_down #bara_vara #slow_time

Painting and creativity can be a great tool to relax, unwind and have fun. When we add mindfulness it becomes a tool for increased well being. When we find calm and focus we make better decisions and creativity can help us see new possibilities. But many of us has stopped creating since childhood. We lost interest because we didn't like our drawing, someone said something about our painting, or art wasn't fun in school. Art wasn't considered to be important. There are so many reasons. Yet, in today's world art and creativity are important. It can be a tool for wellness and personal growth, as well as a tool for decision making and innovation. Creativity and innovation can change how you feel about yourself and it can also be how you can give back to your community or create a new product. You will not learn all of this in one mindful painting class but I hope to inspire you to play with your curiosity. In my new series the mindful painting classes, I am doing my best to give you exercises to boost your curiosity, and at the same time show you materials, techniques and design thinking. These are great classes for anyone that wants to explore there creativity, and paint to relax. Each one has it's own flavor and I hope you find one or two to inspire you. I will add new classes to the collection throughout summer! They come with a low base price, and on top of that you have 30% of until the 15th of June. Hope to bring more color to your summer. TO THE FULL COLLECTION Right now you will find two collage classes, one on texture, painting expressive feathers, acrylic butterflies and sunflowers. Enjoy creating throughout the summer. In the picture above you see textures made with sugar, salt and gauze. Explore painting to relax. "Ingela is so passionate about art in general and teaching it seems to be a joy to her. That shines thru in her art classes." Susanne Wallin #learn_expressive_painting #creative_mindfulness #wellness #Zenart

Learn a three step system to help you fall asleep, or sleep without interruption using meditation, creativity and reflection. There are nights when I have fallen asleep in front of the TV, I dragged myself to bed and all of a sudden it is as if my brain is spinning. The same thoughts are on repeat, and in between I am starting to get worried because I know that I have to get up to work the next morning. Other nights you fall asleep, but you wake up between two and four in the morning and it feels impossible to get back to sleep. Instead you feel like you are in a worry overdrive. Without uninterrupted sleep I become like a shadow of myself. If you have ever experienced loosing sleep I am sure that you have also tried a few tools to get back to sleep. Again, every tool works different for everyone. The reason for loosing sleep is naturally also very individual. For some it is something that occurs if we are grieving or going through big change, for others it is a constant battle. I am no sleep expert but I have noticed that many of my students have improved their sleep with creative meditation myself included. Let's look at how it works: Meditation even when we do it for 5 - 10 minutes a day will have a positive impact on our sleep. We worry less and if we can learn to focus on our breath for a couple of minutes, we day by day build resistance to the mind-loop that seems to occur when we put our head on the pillow. Image: I titled this one watching ego playing it was made on the 8th of June 2020. If we wake up during the night and get up and do something creative it can help us to slowly heal what is keeping us awake. Color can also have a calming effect on us. When we close this session with reflection it is like writing a diary and we can write down what has been on our mind, to make it easier to let go of or tackle in the morning. Okay so what do you actually do? I suggest very simple materials. A pen, a notebook and a box of crayons. If you prefer flowing colors have a small set of watercolor. Everything you need should take 2 min to set up. Get your materials ready. (with crayons and a notebook you can stay in bed if you like to) Do a 5 to 10 min guided audio meditation. Draw for 10 min or for as long as you feel like, just scribble and play with color. Reflect for 10 min, write done anything that comes to mind like you would in a diary These drawings or paintings often tell you a story about what is REALLY on your mind. Don't worry about what they look like, but look for how they make you feel. Image: These are scribbles, many of them might not mean a thing to you. Then I notices on the right hand corner that I had a figure flying. I reflect on what this means in my life. When you feel done you can go back to bed. If you are having trouble falling a sleep you can try this before going to sleep. Keep the notebook next to your bed, if you feel the need to add something. It can also help if you do this in the morning or during the day. Because it creates a space to listen inwards to ourselves. We have so many tools and systems to listen to others, but we don't always have a daily moment that is just for us where we listen to ourselves. If you would like to learn step by step you can start an online course today or get the book Create To Flow. I wish you many good nights sleeping. Ingela Ps. When you wake up you can reach for your notebook and write about your dreams, I will write another article on how this can help you in your journey of self-discovery. If you have any other subject that you are curious about when it comes to mindfulness and painting send me an email. ingela@zenart.info #sleep #a_tool_for_better_sleep #fall_asleep_with_meditation #sleep_well #creative_meditation #mindfulness #better_sleep

My book is titled Create to Flow because I believe that having the practice to start your day by setting up the foundations for flow can completely change your productivity while maintaining your health. Flow is about being more efficient than you thought was possible and feeling great while doing it. I used to be a project manager of a large project developing a new pedagogical method for individual learning in a classroom. It was my idea and I was very passionate about it, especially as I started to see that it worked in practice. I had a team of dedicated teachers and students. But for a while, it was all spinning too fast, and I got caught in solving problems and answering questions without taking a breath. I was always present for everyone else, and I started to go home without any energy to pick up my children. When they went to sleep it was time to do my work, the work I never had time for during the day. I started to realize that it would not be sustainable for 3 years. Prior to this, I had done another project and the man that had done the research on this project kept telling me that we can get burned out even by doing things we love. At this time I got lucky that our office ran out of space and I managed to get an office in the building next door, sharing an office with the researcher. He was working every day from eight to five. You could set your watch after when he would take his coffee, or go to lunch. I was mostly in the other building but when I sat down in my new office there was no stress in the room. There was the same amount of work but without stress. Just sitting next to him working made me alter my stress level. In the other building, I had shared with so many wonderful people that were like me running, believing that this was the only and more efficient way. Don't get me wrong you still have to do the same work, but stress does not in any way make us do it faster or better. The only way to work is really doing one thing well and repeat with the next. This was something that took many years to learn for me. I have learned a lot from authors like Robin Sharma, Tal Ben-Shahar, Marita Lekmo, and Steven Kotler about how to get into flow and work from it. Flow doesn't play well with stress, it plays with problem-solving at our optimal time of the day. I believe that we all have one time during 24 hours that our mind is more clear. Robin Sharma teaches that a lot of our success comes from what we do during this time. If we can do our most important tasks at our prime time for 90 minutes we can get a lot done. I set up a system of creative meditation to set up a practice to allow more flow and focus into my days. It is what I do before my prime 90 minutes. It takes me 15 - 30 minutes and it makes me feel great. If you are curious about how you need a pen, a notebook, and a couple of color markers. Put out the material in front of you, sit down with feet on the ground and hands in your lap. You start by focusing on your breath to clear your mind for 5 - 10 minutes. Draw for 5 - 10 minutes. Journal about the experience for 5 - 10 minutes. I do this to check-in with myself, calm my mind to be able to work from the flow, and feel great while doing. it. The book that I have written is all about teaching you this practice. Books to read on flow: The Joy of Leadership, Tal Ben-Shahar, and Angus Ridgway Flow the psychology of optimal experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, Steven Kotler The leader who had no title, Robin Sharma Create to Flow, a journey in creative self-discovery, Ingela Johansson The first four books are life-changing in knowledge, my book is filled with exercises and you do the work. It is a journey in creative self-discovery, that you can take with color markers and a notebook. In the book, you will also find more tips on flow, like the value of small decisions and a green calendar. #creativity_flow #flow_defined #flow #books_on_flow #definition_of_flow #becoming_more_productive #books_on_creativity_and_flow I could not help adding The Surrender Experiment by Michael. A. Singer is a book about living your whole life inflow. When you look at all the covers it seems to me that blue is the color of flow, for me this would be a representation of water and how you feel sitting by the sea looking at the horizon.

I woke up at 6 am and realized that today's painting workshop on color and landscape would be indoors, so we started off with coffee and discussing what we wanted with the day. We came up with an overall theme: The need to let go of perfection and allow yourself to play with creativity and color. We got some inspiration from a master in landscape and color, David Hockney. The day went by so quickly and each one of us tried something that we had never done before, including me. These are a few things of what we tried: A leftover wallpaper piece works well to paint on or use as a mixing palette. 2. You can sketch with a twig from a chestnut tree. Theresa calls it "literal landscape_painting". I enjoyed how it felt in my hand. 3. When you sketch on time 2 - 4 minutes you sometimes create masterpieces, because you let go of to much detail. 4. Sketching simple with a brush with color can help you see the composition, and try out different solutions for your artwork. 5. David Hockney likes to use bold contour colors on trees, and roads. This was something a few of us tried. 6. We tried starting reworking a painting in several layers. Changing and evolving. 7. We tried adding colors that we normally don't use or love. 8. We allowed ourselves to follow the flow of a wonderful "accident" and turn it into the focal point of our painting. 9. The mindful moment was taking the time to explore an object from nature with our senses. 10. We learned and co-created from discussing and working together. When you have a creative day with a group you get so many new perspectives and insights. You see so many ways to put paint on canvas solutions. It brings laughter and a mindset that a creative task can be solved in thousands of ways. It was like taking a walk-in color, in different landscapes. These days feed creativity and innovation in other areas. Trying out new things makes us less scared as we can feel like beginners and be allowed to play. We need it to find joy in seeing something new, in daring to go out of our comfort zone. When we do this it makes it easier to solve other tasks as well. If creativity and mindfulness inspires you I would also like you to check out the blog of one of the participants in the workshop "Zen and then some" #Creativity #selfcare #colors #landscape #Zenart #workshop #Zenart_kurs

Right now I am literally bathing in the colors of autumn. Colors and nature can have a profound impact on our wellbeing. If you have the chance I would suggest taking a color bath this upcoming weekend. To get the full effect don't put in earphones. Try instead to notice with all your senses. If it is not too cold sit down for a while and just be. We often run so quickly that we tend to forget how much these small things is about wellbeing. If you are in the city head for the parc, and if you can go to the forest. Things to do on the walk: Notice scents. Notice sounds. Notice colors. Discover things you have not seen before. Touch and notice textures. Breath Take your time to stop for magic. Notice the sky. Have some tea or coffee if possible. Just be Take a few minutes to notice and if you want to write about it or make a quick sketch. If you want to learn more about how art, nature, meditation, and reflection can be a great way to feel good try one of our courses or get the book Create to Flow. For me taking a walk in color is an essential part of wellness and it is a space for new energy and ideas. #forest_bathing #mindfulness #zenart #wellness