Drawing: we love it. It’s relaxing, it’s fun, and you have cool things to show your friends, coworkers, and first dates. But a lot of people find a regular drawing practice to be hard to maintain. This was me. 100% me. Until I got a newsletter that convinced me to give Micro-Drawing a try, my drawing practice had dried up. I was so busy between school, freelance, being a full-time worker, and y’know. Eating.

But 1-minute drawings? Easy! I could at least try! What I thought was just going to be silly and fun ended up being one of the greatest tools for my creative, mental health, and life journeys. Not to mention, it’s been great practice for making creative rituals, something I struggle with just in general.

Until now, I’d been keeping most of my Micro-Drawings secret. They’re like journals for me. And I’m definitely not showing you everything!! But I picked out some of my favorites cuz I wanted to share with y’all why it’s had such a healthy impact on me.

Without further ado: some Micro-Drawings!

The following drawings show a fair bit of the more mental health side of Micro Drawings. Sometimes you just have a really shit day and don’t want to write or talk about it, but tracking your mental health (especially when you realize triggers or symptoms have patterns.)

Micro-Drawing can be good for mental health, for journaling travels or adventures, but sometimes its best use is to document the small moments. I like to think any drawing practice is good practice. Each doodle might teach you something new. And honestly, it keeps your creative juices flowing consistently, and that’s sometimes all you need.

Micro-Drawing has a plethora of benefits: maintaining creativity; having an easy ritual to stick to; mental health; keeping a log of important memories to quickly look back on; appreciating the little things in life; and just practicing drawing. That’s by no means an exhaustive list; there are plenty of benefits you can find in Micro-Drawing, and I encourage it even if you do it daily. Even if you’re not “an artist” — it’s your intention that counts. Taking 1 min to focus on a drawing can make a huge difference in a world of chaos.

Feel like it’s fitting to end with Murphy. I forgot what happened that day, thanks dissociative disorder, so I just drew Murphy. He’s great, isn’t he?

Until next time, fellow creatives! If you do any Micro-Drawings you’d like to share, I’d love to see!