That’s why I use practices like the Breath, Body, and Art Practice with my clients, in the trainings I teach, and in my own life. It’s a mindful art therapy technique that combines intentional breathing with simple, repetitive drawing.
Why the Breath, Body and Art Practice?
In over 15 years of trauma work, I’ve seen how, for many people, especially those who’ve experienced trauma, the body isn’t always a safe place to reside. Feeling into your body can bring up a lot. Memories, sensations, emotions that have been stored there. And that’s exactly why practices that ask us to “just breathe” or “tune into your body” can sometimes feel impossible or even overwhelming.
Breath requires awareness. Awareness requires being present in your body. And if your body doesn’t feel safe, that’s a lot to ask. Fortunately, art helps create a buffer, something you can focus on so you don’t have to focus on the body alone.
Why Mindful Art Therapy Works for Trauma
Art gives you something to do with your hands. It helps you focus on something other than the intensity of your feelings. While you’re still breathing and still in your body, you have a companion for the journey.
Instead of being asked to just sit with sensation, you’re creating something, moving your hand, watching color appear on paper. The art holds you while your nervous system remembers it’s okay to be here.
How can the Breath, Body, and Art Practice help?
Here’s why this combination works:
Breath gives your nervous system a rhythm to follow. When we’re dysregulated, our breathing often becomes shallow or erratic. Intentional breathing, even gentle, simple breathing, signals safety to the nervous system.
Movement through drawing keeps you anchored in the present. Your hand moves, the paper responds, there’s texture and sensation. It’s a way back into your body that doesn’t require talking or thinking your way through.
Focus on art making creates an anchor point. Instead of trying to force yourself to “calm down” (which rarely works), you’re giving your attention something to do. The repetition of drawing shapes matched to breath becomes almost meditative.
The heart of this mindfulness-based art therapy practice is bringing gentle awareness to the present moment through creative expression, without judgment or pressure to produce anything.
The Breath, Body, and Art Practice in Action
This is a simple practice you can do whenever you need grounding, whether that’s daily, during moments of high stress, or as part of trauma recovery work.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Paper (any kind)
- Something to draw with: colored pencils, markers, crayons, a pen
- 5 to 15 minutes
- A comfortable place to sit
How to do it:
1. Get settled with your materials in front of you. Take a moment to notice how your body feels right now, without trying to change anything.
2. Pick up your drawing tool and place it on the paper. You’re going to draw a simple shape: a line, a circle, a wave, a spiral, whatever feels right.
3. As you inhale, draw the shape. Match the length of the shape to the length of your breath.
4. As you exhale, draw the shape again.
5. Keep going. Inhale, draw. Exhale, draw.
6. Let your hand find its rhythm. Notice the movement. Notice the breath. Notice where your body makes contact with the chair, the floor, the paper.
7. You might draw the same shape over and over. You might let it evolve. You might fill the whole page or just use one corner. There’s no right way to do this.
8. When you feel complete, maybe after 5 minutes, maybe after 15, put down your materials. Sit for a moment and notice what’s shifted. Maybe your shoulders dropped. Maybe your breathing deepened. Maybe nothing dramatic changed, but something feels a little different.
There’s no wrong choice. Trust what feels right for you.
What This Practice Offers
Mindful art therapy practices, like this one, aren’t about creating beautiful art. They’re about reconnecting to your body as a place that can hold you. When you do the breath, body and art practice, you’re telling your nervous system: I’m here, we’re safe enough right now, we can be in this body.
Some days the practice will feel immediately soothing. Other days it might just feel like something to do with your hands while your nervous system slowly remembers how to settle.
The point is to have another tool in your toolbox. Because things are hard right now, and we need all the support we can get.
Need More Support?
If this practice feels helpful and you’re ready for deeper trauma healing work, I offer individual therapy and coaching throughout the Bay Area. I specialize in helping adults find their way back to feeling safe in their bodies, using expressive arts therapy, EMDR, Brainspotting, and other somatic approaches. You can contact me here.
If you’d like to learn more about how expressive arts therapy can support your healing journey, explore my expressive arts therapy blog here. You might also find this blog on expressive arts therapy for trauma healing helpful as you consider different approaches to recovery.